Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe apologised on Sunday to survivors of the US 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima for remarks by his former defence minister that had appeared to condone the attack.
The comments by Fumio Kyuma were part of a series of gaffes and scandals involving cabinet ministers that outraged Japanese voters and contributed to a defeat for Abe's ruling camp in a July 29 upper house election.
"I apologise for Mr Kyuma's remarks that resulted in hurting the feelings of atomic bomb victims very much," Kyodo news agency quoted Abe as telling representatives of survivors of the bombing in Hiroshima, one day before the anniversary of the attack.
Kyuma, who had said the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki "couldn't be helped" because they brought World War Two to an end, stepped down over the remarks, becoming the third minister to exit Abe's cabinet by resignation or suicide after he took office in September. A fourth minister resigned last week.
Abe also promised to review the government's tough standards for determining whether atomic bomb victims suffer from radiation disease, the subject of a series of law suits by victims.
"It has been 62 years since the atomic bombs were dropped and we must perfect an appropriate policy from the overall perspective of insurance, medical care and welfare," Abe told the victims' groups as cameras rolled at the start of the meeting.
The 52-year-old Abe, Japan's first premier born after World War Two, has vowed to stay on in his post despite the drubbing at the polls. The ruling camp has a huge majority in the lower house, which picks the prime minister.
But Abe's public support rate has slipped to just over 20 percent according to one media survey after the election, which gave control of the less powerful of parliament's two chambers to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and its allies.
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