Taro Aso, vice-president of ruling LDP, said Yoko Kamikawa ‘not that good looking’, got her name wrong, used ageist jibe and mixed up her place in history

A Japanese former prime minister and vice-president of the ruling Liberal Democratic party has been accused of sexism after making insulting comments about the foreign minister’s appearance and age.

“She’s not that good looking,” Taro Aso, who has a long history of inappropriate remarks, said of Yoko Kamikawa during a recent speech, before awkwardly praising her abilities as a politician. “But she speaks with dignity, speaks properly in English and makes appointments with people she needs to see on her own, without help from diplomats.”

Aso, who is 83, also referred to Kamikawa, 70, as obasan – a commonly used word for middle-aged women that some regard as derogatory.

Aso also twice got her surname wrong – calling her Kamimura – and incorrectly suggested she was Japan’s first female foreign minister. In fact, she is the third, after Makiko Tanaka and Yoriko Kawaguchi, who were appointed during the administration of Junichiro Koizumi in the early 2000s.