Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Saturday faced increasing pressure to sack his industry minister over gaffes about radiation contamination in crisis-hit Fukushima.

Yoshio Hachiro, the economy, trade and industry minister appointed only a week ago, provoked anger when he called the area around the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant a "shi no machi" or a "town of death".

He quickly apologised for the remark and retracted it.

Witnesses have also said that after his visit to the plant, Hachiro made as if he was rubbing his jacket against a journalist, while making a remark to the effect that "I will infect you with radiation."

Hachiro's remark and apparent joking about radiation were widely seen as insensitive and immediately prompted opposition parties to criticise the new minister and demand Noda dismiss him.

"When you were thinking about the feelings of Fukushima local residents, you wouldn't possibly act like that," said Shigeru Ishiba, a senior member of the leading opposition Liberal Democratic Party.

"I have to question his personality," he said. "He should resign, or the prime minister has to dismiss him."

Hachiro's reported behavior also shocked fellow members of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).

"If that was really what he said, it would be a very concerning problem," DPJ policy chief Seiji Maehara told reporters.

The "town of death" comment was seen as particularly outrageous because the government cannot provide evacuated residents with a firm timetable for their return.

"I really am sorry if I caused a feeling of mistrust," Hachiro told reporters Saturday, again offering an apology to people from Fukushima, but the minister also stressed that he would stay in his post.

Noda, who was visiting the March 11 disaster area in Miyagi and Iwate prefectures, said: "I would like him to explain this as early as possible."

Hachiro's missteps are not the first to affect Noda's barely-week-old administration.

The country's new defence minister described himself as an "amateur concerning security" while the health minister, an avowed anti-smoker, called for further increases in the tobacco tax. She was criticised because that is seen as a fiscal, rather than a health issue.

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