Masahiro Imamura, who holds rather radical positions about nuclear issues, was until April 26, 2017 the minister in charge of coping with the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. He was forced to step down over a remark that he had made the previous day suggesting that it had been better that the 2011 earthquake and tsunami had hit the Tohoku region than the Tokyo region. He has been replaced by Masayoshi Yoshino who had been chairman of the special House of Representatives committee on Tohoku reconstruction.