Language sometimes masks what one really thinks or feels. It also sometimes exposes what is really on one¡¯s mind, consciously or unconsciously. The second case appears to apply to the two statements health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa has made in relation to the nation¡¯s falling birth rate. In a Lower House Budget Committee session on Wednesday, he apologized for his Jan. 17 speech in which he likened women to ¡°child-bearing machines and devices.¡± But on Tuesday, he made another controversial statement.

When a reporter asked whether women alone should bear the responsibility of raising the birth rate, Mr. Yanagisawa replied in part, ¡°Young people are in an extremely sound state in which they want to marry and have two or more children. Therefore it will be important for us to work out policy measures that really fit, well what should I say, Japanese young people¡¯s sound wishes.¡± His statement reflects a 2005 finding by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research that 90 percent of unmarried people want to marry and have an average 2.1 children.

But the question is why he went to the trouble of using the word ¡°sound.¡± Social Democratic Party leader Ms. Mizuho Fukushima, who has a daughter with her unmarried partner, reacted by saying, ¡°Does he mean that people who do not have two or more children are not sound?¡± Other possible and logical questions would be: Are people who have not married or do not want to marry not sound? Are people who are married but do not have children not sound?

When a reporter said that his latest statement may have hurt some people, Mr. Yanagisawa said that since the present society is based on a premise that individuals have freedom in deciding whether to marry and whether to have children, his statement would not hurt people. But it would not be far-fetched to say that by using the word ¡°sound,¡± he is imposing a certain value on people and tacitly criticizing certain people concerning their thinking and life style. Language has its own weight. Even if he works out concrete policy measures, many people will still harbor deep doubts about his basic thinking.