A ruling party lawmaker apologized Thursday for heckling a lung cancer patient last week during the man's parliamentary testimony on an anti-smoking bill.
Yoichi Anami, a Lower House member from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, said the remark because of his feelings "that smokers should not be overly discriminated against."
Anami said, "Enough already," when Kazuo Hasegawa, who heads a group of lung cancer patients, was speaking to the Lower House Committee on Health, Labor and Welfare last Friday, the group said.