Taro Aso: the Japanese politician who wants older people to 'hurry up and die'

Age: 72.

Appearance: Look at the picture, peasant!

Excuse me? Deaf as well as stupid, are you? Try getting your ears syringed. My taxes will be paying, after all.

I won't talk to you if you're going to be so rude. Oh relax. People often find me abrasive to begin with, but you'll soon be won over by my rogueishly forthright manner. Think of Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, Boris Johnson in London, or Taro Aso, finance minister – and former prime minister – of Japan.

I get it. Aso is a straight talker, is he? A real tells-it-like-it-is merchant? You could say that. He comes from a rich family, holds strong conservative views, and rather enjoys airing them.

What fun. His latest caper was on Monday, when he told a meeting of the national council on social security reforms that the problem of expensive geriatric care "won't be solved unless you let them hurry up and die".

The wag! But perhaps he was quoted out of context? Nope. The context is him calling anyone too ill to feed themselves "tube people", and saying: "Heaven forbid if you are forced to live on when you want to die. I would wake up feeling increasingly bad knowing that [treatment] was all being paid for by the government."

I expect most people who want to die have bigger worries than the state's medical bills. So do I.

And this is just Aso's latest wheeze, is it? That's right. A sprinkling of highlights would include: his aspiration, as economics minister in 2001, to make Japan a place where "the richest Jews would want to live"; his comment that Japanese colonial rule of Taiwan was the explanation for its "significant improvement in educational standards and literacy"; his decision to emphasise a point on comparative rice prices by saying: "Even someone with Alzheimer's can see which of 16,000 and 78,000 is the more expensive."

And that's just a sprinkling? I'm afraid so. "It's part of his character and there may be more to come," a party spokesman explained sadly, after another Aso outburst in 2008. "It is my job to try and make everyone understand what he really meant."

Do say: "How many Japanese voters are over 60?"

Don't say: "Only about 30 million."