Aso gaffe slights Alzheimer's patients

Even people with Alzheimer's disease can tell that Japanese rice is more expensive in China than in Japan, according to Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

Although Aso later offered an apology to those offended by his remark, it was taken as another gaffe by a Cabinet minister, which came only weeks after former Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma's comments on the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki cost his neck.

"Regular-quality (Japanese) rice is sold at about 16,000 yen per (60-kg) bag here. But it can sell for 78,000 yen in China," Aso told a speech in Takaoka, Toyama Prefecture, Thursday. "Which, 16,000 yen (or) 78,000 yen, is more expensive? Even people with Alzheimer's disease could understand."

Aso apparently made the comment while trying to encourage Japanese rice exports to China by taking advantage of the price gaps between the two markets.

"I have now realized that I used an inappropriate allusion, and so am retracting my remarks and apologizing to all those who were offended," Aso told reporters Friday.

Aso has made headlines in the past with contentious remarks, including one that said, "blue-eyed, blond" Westerners probably wouldn't be as successful as Japanese in Middle East diplomacy.

On Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, apparently trying to contain the latest embarrassment for the Cabinet, called Aso's remarks inappropriate but stressed that Aso has already apologized.

On July 3, Kyuma resigned over his controversial remarks that were taken as justifying the atomic bombing of Japan by the United States in World War II, dealing another blow to already embattled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the runup to the July 29 House of Councilors election.

The Aso gaffe became an easy target of the opposition camp.