Civil Rights Activists Meet Japanese Envoy

Representatives of the Los Angeles NAACP and civil rights groups met Monday with an official from the Japanese Consulate to protest remarks by a Japanese government minister who compared black Americans to prostitutes.

Protesters demanded the resignation of Justice Minister Seiroku Kajiyama, whose remarks last week, after the arrests of foreign women allegedly working as prostitutes in Tokyo, created a stir.

Kajiyama said prostitutes settling in a neighborhood spoil its atmosphere, “like in America when neighborhoods become mixed because blacks move in, and whites are forced out.”

The Japanese Embassy said Kajiyama has apologized, calling the remarks inappropriate. Joseph H. Duff, head of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, said the apology is an inadequate diplomatic response.