Japan defence minister quits over A-bomb remark

FE Team | Published: July 04, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Japan's Defence Minister Fumio Kyuma

TOKYO, July 3 (Reuters): Japan's defence minister resigned Tuesday over remarks that appeared to accept the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quickly tapped a woman for the post to try to quell the furor ahead of an election this month.
Abe's support rates have already been slashed by outrage over government mishandling of pension records, and Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma's perceived gaffe has been adding to his headaches before the July 29 upper house poll.
"I regret that my comments have caused trouble. I am very sorry," Kyuma -- whose election district includes Nagasaki -- told reporters, adding that Abe had accepted his offer to resign.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Abe had tapped national security adviser Yuriko Koike, 54, a former environment minister who speaks fluent English and Arabic, to succeed Kyuma and become Japan's first female defense minister.
She will be sworn in Wednesday.
Kyuma had apologized several times and Abe had tried to dampen criticism by reprimanding the 66-year-old minister, who said on Saturday the atomic bombings just days before Japan's surrender in World War Two "could not be helped."
But opposition parties, keen to press their advantage ahead of the election, had kept up pressure for him to resign. The scale was tipped when a prominent lawmaker in the ruling coalition's junior partner obliquely called for Kyuma to go.
"It is natural he should resign. The heavy responsibility of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has many problem cabinet ministers, remains for appointing him," Yukio Hatoyama, a senior leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, told reporters.
Kyuma is the second minister to resign since Abe took office in September, after a funding scandal felled a cabinet member of December. A scandal-tainted farm minister killed himself in May.