Tokyo minister apologises to Israel for remark

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/

TOKYO - Japan's Vice-Minister for Health yesterday said he had apologised to the Israeli ambassador and retracted a comment he made during a speech this week that was criticised as anti-Semitic.

In a speech to a hospital association in Tokyo on Wednesday, Mr Yoshio Kimura said 'money-mad' businesses were trying to enter the health-care industry, and compared them to Jews.

'There are many money-grubbers like Jews who are keeping a vigilant eye on the 30-trillion-yen (S$437 billion) medical market,' he was quoted as telling the national convention of the Japanese Association of Psychiatric Hospitals.

'At one point, there was a bit of an inappropriate expression, but I said I retract it,' Mr Kimura told reporters yesterday, according to a ministry transcript.

The ministry also said Mr Kimura telephoned Mr Yitzhak Lior, the Israeli ambassador in Tokyo, yesterday to apologise and retract his remark. The Israeli Embassy confirmed it had received the apology.

In a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi dated on Thursday, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a leading Jewish human rights organisation based in Los Angeles, California, demanded 'significant action' against the vice-minister, it said in a press release.