Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said Thursday clusters of COVID-19 cases at U.S. military facilities in Japan have possibly caused a resurgence of infections in some areas of the country.

"We cannot deny the possibility that the infection situation in the facilities of U.S. forces is one of the factors behind the spread of the virus in their surrounding areas," Hayashi told a news conference at the Japan National Press Club, adding, "I take it very seriously."

Hayashi's remarks came as Japan has seen its sixth wave of the pandemic spurred by the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Some governors argue that increasing cases in their prefectures are attributable to the spread of infections at U.S. bases in Okinawa and Yamaguchi prefectures.