Virile or vile

On June 19th, five students from three of Japan’s prestigious universities were arrested for gang raping a woman after getting her drunk at a bar.
Apparently these five and others had a party promotion business/student society with 20 members. Gang rape was one of their sidelines. There’s a story in the Mainichi with details.
Last Thursday during a public debate on youth crime and the declining birth rate in Japan, a 57 year old Diet member, Seiichi Ota, said that the declining child population is due to Japanese men being afraid to commit to marriage. When asked by the moderator if that meant the university gang rapists did it because they lacked the courage to propose, Ota replied,
“Gang rape shows the people who do it are still virile, and that is okay. I think that might make them close to normal. I know I’ll get in trouble for saying that, though.”
Naturally, he did get into trouble. There was outrage from his party, the Prime Minister, and a lot of women legislators. He apologised publicly, so all will be forgiven soon and I’ll bet he gets reelected.