Tokyo Official Expresses Regret Over Remarks

The governor of Tokyo said Friday that he regretted offending foreigners and promised to stop using an insulting term for non-Japanese Asians living in the country.

Gov. Shintaro Ishihara refused to apologize outright. But after a week of protests, he said he was sorry that his comments hurt feelings.

“If I have carelessly hurt foreigners in general, that was not my intention, and I regret it,” he said.

Ishihara, known for brash nationalistic statements, was criticized for saying Sunday that Japan’s military should be on the alert since foreigners could riot after an earthquake. Many people also objected to his use of the word sankokujin, a derogatory wartime term for Koreans and Taiwanese living in Japan.

The governor previously had stood by his statements, saying he had been referring only to illegal immigrants and had no need to apologize.

Despite Friday’s statement of regret and promise to no longer use the word sankokujin, criticism of Ishihara continued.

A rights group sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urging the world organization to warn Ishihara, said Kim Gin Yon, a spokesman for the Assn. of Korean Human Rights in Japan. About 700,000 Koreans live in Japan, many of them descendants of laborers forced to work here during Japan’s colonization of the Korean peninsula.

Kim said his group would monitor Ishihara’s future statements.

Another group, the Violence Against Women in War Network, called for Ishihara to step down.

“We are enraged by his complete lack of historical knowledge and consciousness of human rights,” the group said. “He is unfit for the job.”