Kozo Yamamoto, the regional revitalization minister, apologized Monday for making a remark the previous day in which he called museum curators "the biggest cancer," saying they were not doing enough to make foreign tourists understand the nation's cultural assets.

"It was not appropriate. I am reflecting on my remarks and I will retract them and offer my apologies," Yamamoto told reporters in Tokyo. He denied he would resign over the gaffe.

In a question-and-answer sessions after a lecture at an Otsu hotel on Sunday, Yamamoto, a Liberal Democratic Party member from Fukuoka Prefecture serving his seventh term in the Lower House, stressed the importance of tourism to the nation's economy.