"I feel like the only solution is pretty clear," Narita said in late 2021. "In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?"
However, Times' reporters Motoko Rich and Hikari Hida wrote that Narita has argued that his comments were "taken out of context" as he was "addressing a growing effort to push the most senior people out of leadership positions in business and politics — to make room for younger generations."
Yale economist Yusuke Nakita supported the idea of promoting euthanasia in Japan. (Aranga87 via Getty Images)
Both Narita and the New York Times were blasted on Twitter for suggesting euthanasia as a solution to societal issues.
The Spectator contributing editor Stephen Miller commented, "American press is rapidly on their way to endorsing Canada's euthanasia health care policy. ‘What if we tried X’ is how this always starts."
"I’d like a second opinion," comedian Ricky Gervais joked.
Heritage Foundation economist Peter St. Onge tweeted, "I'm starting to think professors are the absolute worst people who should be shaping young peoples' minds."
"Sorry, what? What???" MSNBC host Mehdi Hassan wrote.
Townhall.com columnist Philip Holloway remarked, "Yale Economics professors go first."
"Having read the piece, the headline should be: Lad looking for attention to advance his career uses deliberately inflammatory language and walks that language back immediately once he gets a bit of notice. End of," University of Limerick professor Stephen Kinsella tweeted.
The New York Times previously promoted an article suggesting that cannibalism has "a time and a place." (REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo)
As Kinsella remarked, the New York Times article noted that Narita has since told the publication that he no longer uses the phrases "mass suicide" or "seppuku" to describe his ideas, calling them "an abstract metaphor."
"I should have been more careful about their potential negative connotations," Narita said. "After some self-reflection, I stopped using the words last year."
"Seppuku" referred to the Japanese ritualistic act of suicide by disembowelment often done as punishment for bringing shame to oneself or committing a serious offense.
In July, the New York Times also came under fire for putting out an article that suggested there was a "time and a place" for cannibalism.
Nakita told the The New York Times that he no longer uses the term "mass suicide." (iStock)
"Turns out, cannibalism has a time and a place. In the pages of some recent stomach-churning books, and on television and film screens, Ms. [novelist Chelsea] Summers and others suggest that that time is now.," Alex Beggs wrote.