Kiichi Inoue

"I want them to be cautious in making comments so as not to be misunderstood," Koizumi said.

Koizumi made the remark after Kiichi Inoue, disaster management minister, refused to retract comments he made linking the killing of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by an 11-year-old girl to the changing status of women in society.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said he expects Inoue to clear up the matter.

"I have asked him twice to make a clarification, as the comments are of a kind apt to be misunderstood," Hosoda said June 4.

Referring to the June 1 incident in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, Inoue, 72, said June 4, "It seems to show that assertive women are increasing."

On June 5, Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki joined the fray, saying what Inoue meant must be that society has changed. "Arson was the sort of crime women engaged in when I was young. Men did things such as cutting with knives," Tanigaki, 59, said. In the school killing, a box cutter cutter was used.

The Japan Times Weekly: June 12, 2004
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