Photo/Illutration Finance Minister Taro Aso, left, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a Diet session in May 2018 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Finance Minister Taro Aso has won an internet vote for the second year in a row, beating out Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but it's no popularity contest.

Instead, the gaffe-prone Aso was selected as the politician who made the most sexist remark of 2019, following the same designation in 2018.

Aso's remark in 2019 came in a speech he gave in Fukuoka Prefecture in February as he spoke about the graying of Japan's population and its declining birthrate.

“There are many strange ones who say to the effect that the aged are to blame, but they are mistaken," Aso said. "I think a bigger problem lies with those who decide not to give birth to children.”

The remark, one of eight nominees from politicians’ comments, attracted 2,588 votes.

The vote was solicited from the public by a group of college professors and activists who set up the website NOASEPS "NO to all sexist public speeches.”

The voting was held between Dec. 30 and Jan. 9. The number of voters was 3,820 and they were allowed to cast two ballots. The results were announced on Jan. 11.

Aso was followed by Abe, with 1,765 votes. In urging the audience to cast their ballots early in his campaign speech in Niigata Prefecture in July ahead of the Upper House election, Abe said, “I hope fathers will invite their girlfriend to go with them while mothers look up an old boyfriend and go to early voting.”

Katsuei Hirasawa, a member of the Lower House from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, finished third with 866 votes.

“Criticizing LGBT and same sex marriage should be avoided because doing so will turn into a geeky thing, but I am afraid that this country will go extinct if we have more and more such people,” Hirasawa said in January.