Japanese minister publicly apologizes after three minutes after a parliamentary meeting

Japanese Minister Yoshitaka Sakurada issued a public apology when he arrived three minutes late at a parliamentary meeting.

Sakurada is responsible for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Opposition deputies said that Sakurada's delay reflected a lack of respect for his post and that he had boycotted a five-hour budget committee meeting in protest.

These members sharply criticized Sakurada after a series of shortcomings in which the minister signed.

Sakurada said last week that he had been dropped by the promising hero of the race, Ricako Ecke, suffering from leukemia.

"She is a gold medal candidate (at the 2020 Games in Tokyo) and she is a sportswoman of the kind we are hoping for," he said.

His statement drew criticism that forced him to apologize.

In 2016, Sakurada was criticized for calling "comfort women" – Koreans forced to work in the brothels of the Japanese army during the Second World War – "professional whores".

Over the past year, Sakurada, who is also the Minister of Electronic Security, said that he had never used a computer, adding that he had always been assigned to his subordinates.

The calls for opposition to Sakurada's resignation were repeated.

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Although the late arrival is not a fatal mistake in Japanese culture, the opposition has invested this latest incident to highlight what Sakuraada considers to be a failure.

In an opinion poll conducted by the Japanese newspaper Asahi earlier this week, 65% of respondents said that Sakurada was well placed for his post, which was not appropriate, and 13%, that it was appropriate.

Sakurada was named last October.

In particular, he is responsible for overseeing preparations for the defense of cyberspace at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.