Ishiba apologizes over LDP member's remark on World War II exhibits
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, apologized on Tuesday to Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki over an LDP member's inappropriate remark about war-related exhibits in the prefecture.
Shoji Nishida, an LDP member of the House of Councilors, the upper chamber of parliament, said that descriptions on a monument commemorating the Himeyuri corps of female students who died in the Battle of Okinawa during World War II constituted "a revision of history." He has withdrawn the remark.
At the prime minister's office Tuesday, Ishiba told Tamaki that there was a "highly regrettable remark." "As (LDP) president, I'd like to express my deepest apologies," he said.
"The prime minister expressed his intention to take care that no such mistakes are made again," Tamaki told reporters after the meeting. "I take what he said seriously."
The Okinawa governor visited Ishiba to present him with a "kariyushi" summer shirt from the prefecture.
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