The head of Komeito on Tuesday called remarks made by former education minister Hakubun Shimomura "utterly incomprehensible," after the Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker criticized a journalist that made sexual harassment allegations against a top bureaucrat.

Shimomura said during a weekend closed-door meeting that the reporter's decision to record sexually suggestive remarks made by Junichi Fukuda and give the audio to a magazine was almost a criminal act, an opposition party said Monday.

"It's natural that he retracted (his remarks)," Natsuo Yamaguchi, who heads Komeito, the junior coalition ally of the LDP, told reporters Tuesday after holding a meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.