(Kyodo) The new chief of the Niigata Prefectural Police took office Tuesday, replacing a disgraced Koji Kobayashi who failed to interrupt a drinking and mah-jongg session upon reports a girl missing for nine years had been found.

New chief Fumitaka Horiuchi told officers at the prefectural police headquarters: "It is quite regrettable that we damaged trust in police among not only the prefecture's residents but all Japanese people. I hope you will do your duties truly on behalf of the people of the prefecture."

Horiuchi said he feels tense about taking up his new post following the resignation earlier Tuesday of Kobayashi amid public criticism of the way Niigata police handled the discovery of the girl.

Afterward, Horiuchi told reporters he wants to apologize to the 19-year-old and her family as soon as possible for the failure by police to rescue her.

The prefectural police will tighten discipline, taking stricter measures against officers who neglect their duties and increasing supervision, Horiuchi said.

Kobayashi and Yoshiaki Nakada, head of the National Police Agency's Kanto Regional Police Bureau, continued to drink and play mah-jongg together at a hot-spring resort Jan. 28 after being informed of the woman's rescue.

The woman was abducted as a girl and held captive for nine years and two months at the home of Nobuyuki Sato, a 37-year-old jobless man, in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture.

While staying at the spa, Kobayashi also approved a press release falsely claiming the police had rescued the woman, when in fact it was health officials who had found and rescued her.