TOKYO - The US Embassy in Tokyo announced Thursday that the US government has sacked Kevin Maher as head of the Japan affairs office of the State Department following derogatory remarks he made about the people of Okinawa.

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A former deputy chief of mission at the embassy, Rust Deming, will replace the abashed Maher, immediately in a bid to rebuild strained ties between the two countries, officials said.

Following the uproar caused by Maher, leading to prefectural and city assemblies in Okinawa calling for Maher to step down, apologize and officially retract his comments, US assistant secretary of state Kurt Campbell was dispatched to Tokyo.

Campbell on Thursday offered a personal apology to the people of Okinawa and Japan and conveyed deep regret on Maher's behalf, stating that Maher's views in no way represent those of the US government.

In a meeting held with Japan's new Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto on Thursday, Campbell said that US Ambassador to Japan John Roos plans to visit Okinawa to offer an official apology to the people there in person.

Local media reported that the people of Okinawa, Japan's southernmost prefecture, felt shocked, horrified and utterly ridiculed by Maher's remarks.

The issue arose during a State Department lecture in the US aimed at college students, during which Maher referred to the people of Okinawa as being "masters of manipulation and extortion. "

He also referred to the people of Okinawa as "lazy and deceptive," drawing the ire of Japan's senior ministers and the Japanese population at large.

The Okinawa prefectural assembly said that Maher's comments trampled on the feelings of the Okinawan people, ridiculing and insulting them and that the disparaging remarks were absolutely unforgivable.

The assembly also said that Maher repeatedly made discriminatory remarks and acted discriminatorily during his time as consul general.

Added to this, one of the students attending Maher's State Department lecture felt there were definitely racist undertones to the former US consul general's remarks.

During the lecture, Maher was quoted as saying: "Consensus building is important in Japanese culture. While the Japanese would call this 'consensus,' they mean 'extortion' and use this culture of consensus as a means of extortion."

"By pretending to seek consensus, people try to get as much money as possible," he said.

He was also quoted as saying that Okinawan people are, "too lazy to grow goya" a traditional summer vegetable in the southern prefecture, according to official accounts.

Maher, 56, served as the consul general in Okinawa from 2006 to 2009 after joining the State Department in 1981. His comments have riled the people of Okinawa who have suffered under the heavy burden of hosting US military bases for 65-years after the war.