Masahiro Morioka broke a taboo for government officials in May when, as parliamentary secretary for the health ministry, he disputed the legitimacy of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, in which Japan's wartime leaders were tried.
Morioka, a House of Representatives member with the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, openly defended Japan's Class-A war criminals and questioned the legitimacy of the tribunal, which convicted 25 wartime Japanese leaders and, in a way, set the course of postwar Japan.
Morioka was rebuked by the government for the remark and drew harsh protests from China, where memories of Japan's wartime aggression are still fresh.