Japan minister quits over bomb remark

“I regret that my comments have caused trouble. I am very sorry,” Kyuma told reporters, adding that Abe had accepted his offer to resign.

Abe had attempted to quell the furore by reprimanding Kyuma, who said on Saturday the atomic bombings “could not be helped”. But opposition parties, keen to press their advantage ahead of the election, had kept up pressure for him to resign.

The scale was tipped when a prominent lawmaker in the ruling coalition’s junior partner obliquely called for Kyuma to go. “It is natural he should resign. The heavy responsibility of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has many problem cabinet ministers, remains for appointing him,” Yukio Hatoyama, a senior leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, told reporters.

Kyuma is the second minister to resign since Abe took office in September, after a funding scandal felled a cabinet member of December. A scandal-tainted farm minister killed himself in May. Some analysts said Kyuma’s resignation—intended to end the furore—was unlikely to help Abe and his ruling camp much.