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| Imamura At Diet Thursday |
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe dismissed opposition calls Thursday for the
resignation of the disaster reconstruction minister, Masahiro Imamura, over remarks
implying Fukushima evacuees yet to return to parts of the prefecture
deemed safe to live in should fend for themselves.
Masahiro Imamura had been defending at a Tuesday press conference the
central government’s decision to delegate help for the “voluntary
evacuees” from the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster
when he said it is such people’s “own responsibility, their own choice”
not to return.
“I want him to continue to be alongside those affected by the
disaster and devote every effort to his duties with the aim of realizing
reconstruction as soon as possible,” Abe said during a plenary session
of the House of Representatives.
Earlier Thursday, Imamura, 70, apologized for “causing a nuisance to
everyone” at a session of the lower house committee on reconstruction
from the 2011 disaster.
Housing subsidies ran out last month for people who left areas other
than government-designated zones around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant.
At the Japanese Lower House of the Diet
on Thursday Imamura said “Prime Minister Abe said I should apologize
that I used a disparaging word and gave the impression that (the
evacuees) are
responsible for their own (return) despite the fact that they are
displaced because of the nuclear disaster, and I deeply apologize,”
Imamura said.
Kazuko Kori, a lawmaker from the main opposition Democratic Party the recovering
area of northeastern Japan, had called for Imamura to resign because “we cannot
discuss reconstruction under this minister.”
Many
in the Diet have dismissed Imamura's aplogy as being nothing more than
"Abe told me to, so that is the sole reason I am apologizing".
But Imamura vowed to “keep performing my duties in good faith.”
Imamura had aggressively lashed out at the reporter who had asked
him the question on Tuesday, yelling “shut up” at the reporter during
the press conference. He offered a brief apology the same day for having
“become emotional.”
He said Thursday he is willing to apologize to the reporter, “if Prime Minister Abe said it is necessary.”
The lower house reconstruction committee is currently debating a
proposal to reform a special law relating to the 2011 disaster that
would see the state pay for cleanup efforts in the areas of Fukushima
still too contaminated with radioactivity to live in.
Imamura has been in his post since a Cabinet reshuffle in August last year.
KYODO
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