Japan's disaster minister resigns after quake gaffe

Japan's disaster reconstruction minister Masahiro Imamura resigned Wednesday after remarking that it was a "good thing" that the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March 2011 struck Japan's northeast rather that the Tokyo metropolitan area.

"I severely troubled and hurt people in northeastern Japan," Imamura told a press briefing at the prime minister's office following submitting his letter of resignation.

"I apologize from my heart for my lack of virtue," Imamura said.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe accepted Imamura's letter of resignation immediately Wednesday and appointed Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker Masayoshi Yoshino as his replacement.

Yoshino is a lower house member from Fukushima Prefecture and has previously served as senior vice environment minister.

Imamura's latest gaffe was made at a gathering in Tokyo on Tuesday of lawmakers belonging to a ruling party faction led by LDP Secretary General Toshihiro Nikai.

He came under fire earlier this month for comments he made suggesting some evacuees were responsible for their own decision and the consequences thereafter to evacuate Fukushima Prefecture in the wake of the nuclear disaster there in 2011.

He said during a press conference regarding the government's decision to delegate help for those who chose to evacuate from the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster that "it is such people's own responsibility, their own choice not to return."

Imamura also argued with a reporter when he was asked if he thought the government is not fulfilling its responsibility to support voluntary evacuees after the disaster.

The main opposition Democratic Party's Diet affairs chief, Kazuya Shimba at the time blasted Imamura's comments as being tactless and showing a flagrant lack of sympathy to those affected by the disasters.

The leader of the main opposition Democratic Party on Wednesday insisted that Imamura's resignation was not enough to account for his gaffes, saying that Abe also bore responsibility.

"This brings into question Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's responsibility for having appointed Imamura," Renho was quoted as saying at a party meeting.

Abe conceded that the public's faith in his administration was now lacking following a series of inappropriate remarks made by a number of Cabinet ministers and parliamentary vice ministers that he had appointed.

"The administration must take seriously the suggestions that we are becoming slack. We must bring back the public's trust," the prime minister said.

Opposition parties, following the latest incident, are calling for Imamura to not just resign as a Cabinet minister but also from the Diet as well. Enditem