Education minister Nariaki Nakayama apologized Tuesday for applauding the decrease in references to victims of Japan's wartime aggression in history textbooks.

Nakayama, who formerly headed a league of lawmakers on history education, said his comments reflected his personal views.

``Since I am the education minister, I should have refrained from voicing my personal views,'' he said.

Nakayama said in a public meeting Saturday in Beppu, Oita Prefecture, ``It is good that expressions such as `comfort women' and `people forcibly taken from their hometowns to work for Japan' have decreased in history textbooks.''

The comment referred to the Imperial Japanese Army exploiting Koreans and other people for sex and labor.

The minister of education, culture, sports, science and technology said during a Tuesday news conference: ``I am aware that such people existed. I would like to deeply apologize and express my feelings of regret to all the people who suffered mental and physical wounds that cannot be healed.''

He also stressed he has no intention of interfering with the ministry's textbook screenings.

Nakayama said in the meeting Saturday that past textbooks for junior and senior high schools were full of self-torturing passages that implied ``Japan only did bad things.''

The remarks drew immediate fire from Korean residents.

The Korean Youth Association in Japan issued a statement Monday that said, ``We ask what he truly meant by his remarks, which do not face the facts of Japan's wartime aggression.''

A civic group that has pressed Tokyo to take responsibility for Japan's wartime actions faxed a message to Nakayama and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, demanding the education minister's resignation. Opposition parties also criticized Nakayama's comments.(IHT/Asahi: December 1,2004)