Yaichi Tanigawa, 77, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party representing Nagasaki Prefecture's No. 3 constituency, apologized Sunday for saying that working with Saga Prefecture over the delayed construction of a part of the Kyushu Shinkansen line "is like dealing with South or North Korea."
Tanigawa, a member of the ruling bloc's committee dealing with the plan to create the Nagasaki spur, which will connect Fukuoka and Nagasaki prefectures by branching out from Shintosu Station in Saga Prefecture, made the remark Saturday while inspecting a tunnel construction site in Nagasaki Prefecture.
The route in Nagasaki is already under construction and is expected to open temporarily in fiscal 2022, but Saga Prefecture has been opposed to the plan to build a bullet train line in the prefecture because of high construction and maintenance costs.