Japan's Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka was rebuked Tuesday by opposition party members for remarks he made that trivialized the risks of helicopters flying over a controversial U.S. Marine base in Okinawa Prefecture.

According to local media reports, Tanaka asked Ro Manabe, chief of the Defense Ministry's Okinawa bureau, how often helicopters from the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station fly over an adjacent elementary school, both located in the crowed city of Ginowan.

"There are not so many helicopters, are there?" Tanaka was quoted by local media as saying on Monday, suggesting the problem of noise pollution -- a common complaint from local residents as well as from the elementary school's teachers and parents as lessons have to stop every time a helicopter flies over -- had been overstated by locals and officials in the base hosting city.

Following the defense minister's latest gaffe, he said at a news conference Tuesday that he is in fact aware of the dangers and noise pollution caused in the residential area by the U.S. bases's helicopters and pledged to "improve the environment of schools." An embattled Tanaka also called for Okinawans to understand what he described as his "true intentions".