The seventh episode of the drama series "Is It Wrong for a Woman Not to Give Birth? DINKs' Ten Months and Ten Days" (TV Tokyo, Mondays at 11:06 PM), starring actress Emma Miyazawa, aired on May 11th. A statement made by Tetsuya, played by Koudai Asaka, drew a storm of criticism on social media.
◇The following contains spoilers.
The drama is based on the manga "DINKs' Ten Months and Ten Days: Is It Wrong to Be a Woman Who Doesn't Have Children?" by Kitamitsu Atsuki. The story follows a couple who are both working and have intentionally chosen not to have children, a "DINKs" (Double Income No Kids) couple, who live a peaceful and free life until the protagonist becomes unexpectedly pregnant due to her husband's planned betrayal. The drama depicts their struggles as they search for the right form of family and continue to face choices with no easy answers.
Tetsuya got his high school junior, Sayaka (Manatsu Akimoto), pregnant. He offers her money to have an abortion, but Sayaka refuses, saying, "There's no way I can abort the child of the person I love."
On another day, Tetsuya was summoned to a restaurant by Asa (Miyazawa), who had left home, and he calmly said, "I would never leave you, even if it killed me. I have no reason to live without Asa. Sigh. If only we hadn't had a child, none of this would have happened."
He then suggested, "We never needed a child in the first place. Let's have an abortion and start over, just the two of us, okay?" Stunned, Asa had no choice but to bring up divorce.
On social media, comments such as "Tetsuya is such an irredeemable scumbag," "Tetsuya is really the worst kind of man!", "How selfish can Tetsuya be?", "He's such a scumbag! There's no way they can start over," and "Asa is being tossed around so much, I feel sorry for her" poured in.
