Opposition parties on July 4 blasted Ryu Matsumoto, the state minister in charge of the rebuilding process following the Great East Japan Earthquake, for insensitive comments made the previous day during a visit to disaster-stricken areas.
Opposition parties on July 4 blasted Ryu Matsumoto, the state minister in charge of the rebuilding process following the Great East Japan Earthquake, for insensitive comments made the previous day during a visit to disaster-stricken areas.
In a meeting on July 3 with Iwate Governor Takuya Tasso, Matsumoto said, "While we will help those areas that come up with ideas, we will not help those who have no ideas."
On July 4, Ichiro Aisawa, chairman of the Diet Affairs Committee of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, said, "It is nothing less than verbal abuse. This might develop into a situation in which we have to call on the prime minister to dismiss him from his post."
Another LDP executive said, "He will have to resign. We will not be able to hold Budget Committee sessions if he does not resign."
The secretaries-general of the LDP and New Komeito also criticized Matsumoto in a meeting with Katsuya Okada, the secretary-general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan.
"Matsumoto has to think about the feelings of those in the disaster-stricken areas," LDP Secretary-General Nobuteru Ishihara said.
New Komeito Secretary-General Yoshihisa Inoue said Matsumoto's comments were insensitive.
Okada agreed that Matsumoto's comments seemed out of place and said he would pass on that opinion to the state minister.
Yoshihiro Murai, the Miyagi governor who also met with Matsumoto on July 3, expressed displeasure as well.
"There is not a relationship of 'master and servant' between the central and local governments," Murai said. "Rather than giving out orders, I believe a manner of discussion that respects the positions of the other party is preferable."
When Murai entered the meeting room after Matsumoto on July 3, Matsumoto said, "When you are receiving guests, you should invite them in after you have first entered."
In referring to a Miyagi Prefecture plan to concentrate functions of the fishing ports that have been damaged by the March 11 quake and tsunami, Matsumoto said, "The prefecture should gain a consensus. If it does not, the central government will do nothing."
On July 4, Matsumoto told reporters at the Prime Minister's Official Residence, "I hope you will consider my statement from the very beginning until the very end. I do not believe I said (anything inappropriate)."
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano also backed Matsumoto.
"Matsumoto holds a strong sense of responsibility and duty to accelerate the rebuilding process," Edano said on July 4.
Matsumoto showed some impatience in his meeting with Tasso. While the Iwate governor was requesting the construction of temporary housing, Matsumoto cut him off and said, "In truth, temporary housing is work that you have to do."
Matsumoto also said the central government had taken measures to prevent senior citizens from dying in isolation in temporary housing.
An attempt at humor also did not go very far when Matsumoto told Tasso, "Because I am from Kyushu, I don't know what prefecture a city in the Tohoku region is located in."