Japan’s Justice Minister Yasuhiro Hanashi announced his resignation from the country’s cabinet on Friday, in the wake of making apparently flippant remarks about approving executions.
Earlier in the week, he had remarked at a party meeting that he was only in the news when he used his ‘hanko’ stamp (personal seal) to approve executions.
The remarks drew criticism from within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as well as from the opposition. The party has been hit by other allegations of impropriety recently, including over its ties to the South Korean Unification Church.
The popularity of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government has been in decline, sitting at around 30% in recent polls.
Hanashi said that he had spoken ‘carelessly’ about the death penalty, and had made people and officials ‘feel uncomfortable’.
‘I decided to resign to express my apology to the people and my determination to restart my political career,’ he said.
Japan is an outlier among affluent democracies in retaining capital punishment; this continues to retain sizeable public support in the country.