Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on Tuesday criticized former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori for saying on a television program that Japan and Russia had agreed to set up two frameworks to discuss four islands at the center of a sovereignty dispute.
According to Tanaka, a Cabinet member said during a ministerial conference Tuesday morning that Mori should not discuss delicate policy issues only weeks after stepping down as prime minister. "I agree with that," Tanaka told reporters.
The minister was later identified as Defense Agency chief Gen Nakatani.