Japanese Again Apologizes for Ethnic Remark

Justice Minister Seiroku Kajiyama called on U.S. Ambassador to Japan Michael H. Armacost on Thursday and again apologized to the American people for a racial slur he made during a news conference a week ago, in which he compared U.S. blacks to prostitutes.

Armacost responded with unusually harsh language, saying Kajiyama’s remarks “struck a sensitive cord with all Americans, not just black Americans.”

A group of black American residents in Japan, meanwhile, expressed outrage over Kajiyama’s remarks and called for his resignation. “Apologies are no longer accepted,” J. R. Dash, president of the Japan Afro-American Friendship Assn., said in an afternoon news conference. The group said it plans to stage a protest rally outside the Justice Ministry next Tuesday.

Kajiyama, appointed as justice minister Sept. 13 after his predecessor resigned for health reasons, observed police raids on foreign prostitutes in the Shinjuku red-light district last Friday and later told reporters he thought the prostitutes, like American blacks, “ruin the atmosphere” of neighborhoods.

“It’s like in America when neighborhoods become mixed because blacks move in, and whites are forced out,” Kajiyama said.

The minister on Monday explained that his comments contained “expressions that may cause misunderstanding” and that he “did not mean to talk about racial issues.” The State Department later issued a statement deploring the remarks as “offensive to the American people,” and Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu rebuked Kajiyama in a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. Only then did Kajiyama issue a formal apology.

Kajiyama, 64, said his comments were “completely inappropriate. . . . I retract the remarks and apologize to those concerned.” He reiterated this apology to Armacost on Thursday.

Armacost assured Kajiyama during their 10-minute meeting that he would convey the renewed apology to President Bush and to Congress.