Kozo Yamamoto, the regional revitalization minister, apologized Monday for making a remark the previous day in which he called museum curators “the biggest cancer,” saying they were not doing enough to make foreign tourists understand the nation’s cultural assets.

“It was not appropriate. I am reflecting on my remarks and I will retract them and offer my apologies,” Yamamoto told reporters in Tokyo. He denied he would resign over the gaffe.

In a question-and-answer sessions after a lecture at an Otsu hotel on Sunday, Yamamoto, a Liberal Democratic Party member from Fukuoka Prefecture serving his seventh term in the Lower House, stressed the importance of tourism to the nation’s economy.

“Of all forms of tourism, the one that lets visitors understand the culture and history has the longest-lasting effects,” he said. “What’s most important is whether we can explain our cultural assets properly.”

Then he went on to attack museum curators, who he said are not doing a good enough job to present the country’s assets to tourists.

He added that curators need to be “eradicated” because they “are the biggest cancer” and “lack the normal tourism mindset.”

He also cited the British Museum in London, saying it had succeeded in drawing in tourists by “dismissing” its curators.

On Monday, Yamamoto said he wanted to stress the need for curators to have a tourism mindset.

The remark immediately drew fire from the opposition camp.

“It’s outrageous. It means people with opposite opinions should be eradicated,” said senior Democratic Party lawmaker Toshio Ogawa. “We’ll seek to eradicate problematic ministers.”

Social Democratic Party Secretary-General Seiji Mataichi agreed, saying it was unacceptable to target curators with such remarks.

Curators, called gakugei-in in Japanese, are specialists certified by the government under the Museum Law. They collect, preserve and exhibit materials related to history, art, folk culture, industry and natural sciences to educate the public. As of 2011, Japan had about 7,300 curators, according to the education ministry.