Prime Minister Fumio Kishida fired his close aide on Saturday over discriminatory remarks about sexual minorities, as the Japanese leader hoped to put another scandal in his inner circle behind him.
Masayoshi Arai, an elite bureaucrat who served as executive secretary to the prime minister, said that he would not want to live next door to an LGBT couple and that he would hate even seeing them. Arai retracted the comments Friday after they were made public by the media.
Kishida told reporters on Saturday that he took the issue very seriously. Sadanori Ito, director of the personnel division of the economy ministry, will take over the post of Arai.
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