JAPAN: Italy's foreign minister on Friday defended his country's new cultural institute in the heart of Tokyo which has some residents seeing red.

Italy's biggest overseas culture institute, a stone's throw away from the imperial palace, is 12 storeys high and bright red.

Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, an outspoken nationalist, last year joined a group of local residents in complaining that the loud building jarred sombre Japanese sensibilities.

But Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema backed the building, which was designed by prominent Italian architect Gae Aulenti.

"I personally find it beautiful," D'Alema told reporters on a visit to Tokyo.

He said he was aware of the flurry of debate surrounding the building but called it a matter of "personal taste" as it did not violate any laws.

"The Italian government has no right to tell the architect to make changes because that would be infringing on her copyright, just as a museum cannot order a painter to change his painting in an exhibit," he said.

Aulenti has said the building was inspired by the Japanese tradition of lacquer.