WIESENTHAL CENTER URGES JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST SENIOR OFFICIAL WHO UTTERED ANTI-JEWISH SLUR, Simon Wiesenthal Center, November 7, 2002 "The Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to take significant action against Vice Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare, Yoshio Kimura, who referred to 'money-grubbing ghoulish Jews' while discussing important social and economic issues earlier this week. In his letter to the Japanese Prime Minister, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Wiesenthal Center's associate dean stated that, 'this official (Mr. Kimura) has succeeded in insulting and endangering Jews the world over.' 'Even more devastating,' Cooper continued, 'is that the vice minister's false arguments and horrific imagery parallels the very hate that motivates terrorists and suicide bombers who murder Jews and attacked Jewish institutions on three continents. Unless appropriate action is taken these terrorists and bomb makers will believe they have found new friends and allies in Japan,' he added."