The Liberal Democratic Party decided Monday to tell Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka to submit a written explanation today about her feisty remarks toward an LDP candidate during a campaign speech for the House of Councilors election last month, party officials said Monday.
The party's disciplinary committee will hold a meeting Wednesday morning to decide whether to reprimand Tanaka, they said.
"Her speech had a negative impact on the candidate, who had a 50 percent chance of winning," Nobuyuki Hanashi, the disciplinary committee chairman, quoted one participant as saying.
Stumping for Mayumi Yoshikawa on the last day of the campaign, Tanaka said she "did not know whether the candidate was a male or female" until she came to Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, to make her speech. She asked the audience, "What is the name of the candidate?"
When Yoshikawa lightly touched Tanaka, she said: "Don't touch me. I don't know you."
Yoshikawa failed to win a seat in the election.