Gaffe-prone Taro Aso puts his foot in it again

After telling Japan's growing ranks of elderly people they should "hurry up and die", Finance Minister Taro Aso has turned his attention to "people who don't give birth".

The former prime minister, whose mouth has a habit of running away with him, said pensioners are not to blame for the increasing social welfare costs of a rapidly aging society.

"There are many people who are creating the image that (the increasing number of) elderly people is bad, but more problematic is people who don't give birth," Aso said in a speech in Sapporo, local media reported on Monday.