Calls for Japanese UN human rights envoy Hideaki Ueda to step down after outburst

Japan's human rights envoy to the United Nations was yesterday facing calls to quit over a video which showed him shouting at fellow diplomats to "shut up".

YouTube footage of the incident at the UN torture committee in Geneva has provoked a storm of criticism on the Internet, with demands that ambassador Hideaki Ueda be recalled to Japan.

Blogging Japanese lawyer Shinichiro Koike, who said he was at the session, explained that a representative from Mauritius had criticised Japan's justice system that does not allow lawyers to be present at interrogations.

Ueda, who appears to be not entirely at ease in English, jumps to his country's defence.

"Certainly Japan is not in the middle age," he says on the video. "We are one of the most advanced country in this field."

Koike wrote that the comment provoked giggling, which cannot be heard on the video.