Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Osamu Fujimura, called the statue "extremely regrettable", the Associated Press reports.
Obuchi had been hospitalized due to "fatigue from overwork, " announced the chief cabinet secretary, Aoki Mikio.
Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, has confirmed the deaths of the two Japanese tourists.
Chief Cabinet secretary Yukio Edano told an urgent press conference that the operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co.
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Instead, said the chief cabinet secretary, Hiromu Nonaka, the autumn budget would concentrate on creating new jobs.
Japan's top government spokesman, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura, said Mr Tanaka had stepped down due to ill health.
There are also 14 Japanese unaccounted for, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
No one is rushing to "challenge the leader, " says Kajiyama Seiroku, a former chief cabinet secretary from the ruling party.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the possibility of a significant radiation leak after the second blast is small.
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Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said his nation's officials had urged Algeria's government to avoid exposing hostages to danger.
"There is so much conflicting information on safety of the hostages, " Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo.
Earlier, new Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura announced the line-up of the new Cabinet, with Kocher Gemba named as foreign minister.
"These negotiations are about the protection of maritime resources in the East China Sea, " Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Wednesday.
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Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said that representatives from the defence ministry had told US officials that "the incident is completely unacceptable".
When the ruling party lost heavily in last year's elections to the House of Councilors, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nonaka Hiromu naturally turned to Takeshita.
Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshihide Suga, expressed "deep regret" at the actions of the Algerian security forces and its foreign ministry summoned the Algerian ambassador.
When a harassed Yasuo Fukuda, the chief cabinet secretary, then reportedly let slip that Japan might rescind its non-nuclear policy, it caused yet another uproar.
The new chief cabinet secretary, Yoshito Sengoku, the prime minister's gatekeeper on government policy, will want to deal seriously with both Japan's national debt and its deflation.
Speaking at a press conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano explained that the action was not being taken because of any new increase in radiation coming from FDI.
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The prime minister then held talks with the minister of economy, the minister in charge of the nuclear accident and the chief cabinet secretary, before making the announcement.
Countless attributes mark Mr Fukuda by temperament, dry, cautious and cynical from Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's dashing and reformist prime minister in 2001-06, whom Mr Fukuda served as chief cabinet secretary.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano stated that the government would send Self-Defense Force (SDF) helicopters to the Fukushima plant to put out the fire that was causing the smoke.
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Nobutaka Machimura, the leader of the biggest faction, who had served for a month as Mr Abe's foreign minister, becomes Mr Fukuda's chief cabinet secretary and in effect government gatekeeper.
Insiders expect the present chief cabinet secretary, Mikio Aoki, aged 65, an upper-house member from Mr Takeshita's district in western Japan, to take over the faction for the time being.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano agreed with Kan.
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The country's chief cabinet secretary, Osamu Fujimura, told a news conference on Friday that Japan had set up a crisis management taskforce to monitor the situation and was co-operating with the US and South Korea.
Nuclear plant operators are battling to prevent meltdowns at three reactors, and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano warned Sunday that a hydrogen explosion could occur at Unit 3 of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power station.
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Yesterday, April 3, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide made a high profile visit during which he trumpeted a commitment from the U.S. given only last month to return to Japan five bases located south of Kadena by about 2020.
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