Japan Press Weekly

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2010 November 17 - 23 [POLITICS]

Kokuta criticizes justice minister for making insincere remarks

Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji on November 17 criticized Justice Minister Yanagida Minoru for downplaying his duty and mocking the Diet and the people.

Yanagida during a meeting held on November 14 in his constituency of Hiroshima City said, “I only have to remember two phrases, ‘I refrain from making comments over a specific case,’ and ‘I am dealing with the matter based on laws and evidence.’ These phrases are very useful. Whenever I am confused, I use one of them.”

He later apologized for these remarks, saying, “I am sorry for causing any troubles or misunderstanding.” However, he added, “Maybe I was being overly frivolous, but I didn’t make the statement by mistake.”

Kokuta argued, “No one misunderstood his remarks. He is not reflecting at all on what he said. This is a question that concerns his qualification as justice minister.”

Since Yanagida became justice minister in September, there have been a series of issues to which he as justice minister is required to answer in the Diet: destruction of evidence by the Osaka prosecutors office over the postage fraud case; judgment by the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution to indict former DPJ secretary general Ozawa Ichiro; and mishandling of prosecutors’ investigation into the Chinese boat and Japanese patrol boat collision off the coast of the Senkaku Islands.
- Akahata, November 18, 2010