From the article:

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda apologized Sunday after one of his ministers was forced to quit for describing the no-go zone around the disaster-hit Fukushima nuclear power plant as a “town of death.”

After touring the nuclear plant and its vicinity with Noda on Thursday, Hachiro said: “Unfortunately, there was not a soul in sight in the streets of the surrounding towns and villages. It literally resembled a town of death.”

[link to www.japantoday.com]