The clamor for the resignation of health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa continued to grow Wednesday as members of the Liberal Democratic Party's House of Councilors caucus weighed in against him for referring to women as "child-bearing machines."
Although Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he wants Yanagisawa to stay on at his post, Tetsuro Yano, chief LDP negotiator on parliamentary proceedings in the Upper House, told LDP Diet Affairs Committee Chairman Toshihiro Nikai on Wednesday of the need for quick measures to deal with Yanagisawa's comments, lawmakers said.
According to lawmakers, Yano told Nikai: "We may be able to keep the current situation until the fiscal 2006 supplementary budget is enacted. But considering parliamentary proceedings afterward, things could develop into a worst-case scenario."
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