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 were “deeply felt by all Americans, not just blacks.”

Kajiyama, newly 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 night 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 issued a statement later in the day 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 Thursday to Armacost.

Armacost was quoted by Japanese Foreign Ministry officials as saying he will convey Kajiyama’s apology to President Bush and to Congress.

“We have been making efforts in America to realize a fair and egalitarian society without regard to race or religion,” Armacost told Kajiyama during their 10-minute meeting. “It is not completely realized yet, but it is something all Americans are attempting to do, and because of that your remarks aroused deep feelings not just among blacks, but among all Americans.”

As justice minister, Kajiyama is in charge of Japan’s immigration policy and faces the growing dilemma of how to cope with swelling numbers of foreign immigrants, many of them illegal, seeking high yen-based wages. Japan considers itself a homogenous, racially pure society, and some Japanese are intolerant of blacks or other Asians. America’s ethnic diversity is frequently seen here as synonymous with high crime and social unrest.