Japan Justice Min. Apologizes for Calling Job Unspectacular

Tokyo, Nov. 10 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi apologized Thursday for saying that he is in an "unspectacular" position where one makes headlines only when greenlighting executions.

"I sincerely apologize if I gave the impression that I was disrespecting my duties," Hanashi told reporters at the prime minister's office.

He retracted the remark in question at the Diet, Japan's parliament, though he earlier refused to do so.

At a meeting of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers in Tokyo on Wednesday, Hanashi said, "The justice minister is an unspectacular position in which one puts his seal to approve executions in the morning and makes the top news on noontime news only in such times."

The comment drew fire from opposition parties, resulting in a delay in the start of a meeting of the Judicial Affairs Committee of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Diet, Japan's parliament, on Thursday morning.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]