OSAKA – Democratic Party of Japan policy chief Seiji Maehara prodded Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa to resign on TV Saturday as opposition cries rose over an ill-chosen comment he made while discussing a gaffe, with sexual assault innuendo, committed by his Okinawa affairs chief earlier in the week.
Ichikawa told a Thursday Diet session he did “not know in detail” about the horrendous rape of a 12-year-old girl in Okinawa committed by three U.S. servicemen in 1995, an incident not related to the recent gaffe.
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