Health minister is reprimanded

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rebuked Japan's health minister for calling women "birth machines," but dismissed calls for the minister to resign.

"I reprimanded him severely," Abe said.

Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa triggered outrage over the weekend in a speech on the country's falling birthrate.

He later retracted his remarks.

"The number of women between the ages of 15 and 50 is fixed. The number of birth machines [and] devices is fixed, so all we can ask is that they do their best per head," Yanagisawa was reported as saying.