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 Topic: PoliticsThe new items published under this topic are as follows.
Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Sunday, May 08, 2005 - 07:46 AM
Politics
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(Kyodo) _ Japan is planning to propose at the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Scotland measures to fight illegal logging, including a ban on government purchases of goods made from illegally obtained wood, government sources said Saturday. The proposals call for Japan and other major industrialized nations to limit government procurement of paper and timber to those produced legally, and envisage the establishment of an international fund to help lumber-producing countries build a tracking system to check the history of wood products. Japan will also propose an initiative to lay out regulations within the framework of the World Trade Organization to curb the trade of wood from illegal logging, which is rampant in developing economies and is considered a major cause of deforestation, according to the sources.
Britain, which is hosting the Gleneagles Summit on July 6-8, is considering including illegal logging, along with global warming, on the agenda of the annual meeting of government leaders from the major economic powers. "As a major importer of timber, Japan will demonstrate its pledge to contribute to measures against illegal logging worldwide," an official at Japan's Forestry Agency said. Issuances of export permits or logging certificates are envisaged under the proposals in order to prove that goods are legally procured or manufactured.
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Read full article: 'Japan to propose measures to fight illegal logging at G-8 summit' (731 bytes more)  
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Sunday, May 08, 2005 - 07:45 AM
Politics
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(Kyodo) _ Japan's Social Democratic Party leader Mizuho Fukushima said Friday she has submitted a request to U.S. President George W. Bush urging him to quickly vacate and return the land used by the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station in Okinawa and other bases in urban areas. Fukushima told reporters that the request, made through Michael Green, senior director for Asia on the White House National Security Council, also includes scrapping the planned relocation of the Futemma base's helicopter functions to an offshore airport to be constructed in the central Okinawa city of Nago.
Fukushima also asked for reducing the burden on Okinawa by withdrawing Marines, quickly vacating the Navy's Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture, and giving up a plan to move the headquarters of the Army's 1st Corps to Camp Zama in Kanagawa. The SDP leader said Green told her in a meeting Friday that the United States maintains the 1996 agreement that commits Washington to vacate the Futemma base on the condition of relocating its helicopter functions within Okinawa. But Green noted that other possible options for the Futemma relocation are under consideration and that no decision has been made yet, Fukushima said.
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Read full article: 'SDP leader urges U.S. to promptly return Futemma base' (100 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Sunday, May 08, 2005 - 07:44 AM
Politics
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(Kyodo) _ Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Saturday expressed strong concern over Japan's recent actions and comments over Taiwan, and warned Tokyo not to use the island as a "political card" against Beijing, a Japanese lawmaker said. Taku Yamasaki, a legislator and special adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, told a press conference Tang made the comments in a meeting with him in the Chinese capital. Tang in particular expressed displeasure over Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura's remarks last week in New York describing Taiwan as being within the scope of the Japan-U.S. joint security treaty, Yamasaki said.
He also repeated China's complaint about a joint statement issued by Japan and the United States after a meeting of their foreign and defense ministers in February, which listed a peaceful solution to the Taiwan issue as one of their common security objectives, according to Yamasaki. The two incidents have triggered doubts in China that Japan has altered its policy toward Taiwan, Tang said, describing the situation as a "worrisome development," according to Yamasaki.
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Read full article: 'China's Tang warns Japan against using Taiwan as political card' (2318 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Sunday, May 08, 2005 - 07:43 AM
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(Kyodo) _ Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will leave for Moscow on Sunday afternoon to seek an early visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan as well as to attend a series of World War II commemorative events. Koizumi is expected to ask Putin in a meeting Monday evening to realize his planned trip to Japan at an early date in order to make headway in the two countries' long-standing territorial row, Japanese officials said. Arrangements are also under way for Koizumi to hold brief bilateral talks with one or a few more world leaders who will gather for the Moscow events, possibly with U.S. President George W. Bush, the officials said.
Koizumi's trip is expected to be an opportunity for Tokyo and Moscow to "further develop bilateral relations," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda, Tokyo's top spokesman, has said. Moscow invited Koizumi to the events last summer, but Tokyo had been noncommittal until last month amid a renewed gap on resolving the territorial dispute, which has apparently delayed Putin's visit, initially planned for early this year. Koizumi and Putin last met on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit last November in Chile.
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Read full article: 'Koizumi to leave for Russia for WWII anniversary, talks with Putin' (1695 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 08:27 AM
Politics
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(Kyodo) _ Japan is considering lodging a protest with France against remarks by French President Jacques Chirac and a senior French official on the construction site of the world's first nuclear fusion reactor as they have indicated Japan would give up its bid to host the reactor, a senior Japanese official said Friday. Toichi Sakata, director general of the Research and Development Bureau of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, also said there has been no decision on where the planned International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor will be sited. "No decision has been reached on the construction site," Sakata told reporters. "We are considering filing a protest with the French side through diplomatic channels."
Japan has expressed its bid to host the ITER in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, competing with the other candidate site in Cadarache, southern France, proposed by the European Union. While stressing that Japan remains committed to its bid to seek to host the reactor in the northeastern Japanese village of Rokkasho, Sakata said, "It is outrageous. We have never brought up proposals that suggested our intent to concede." Earlier this week, Chirac told French television, "France is on the verge of getting ITER sited at Cadarache," according to local reports.
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Read full article: 'Japan mulls protest with France over remarks on ITER site' (1713 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 08:26 AM
Politics
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(Kyodo) _ Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba visited the U.S. State Department on Thursday and presented a letter requesting President George W. Bush travel to his city this year. After handing over the letter during a meeting with Japanese Affairs Office Director David Straub, Akiba told reporters that he called for U.S. efforts toward eliminating nuclear weapons. "Nuclear abolishment, which is the wish of Hiroshima, is also (the wish) of the majority of voices in the world," Akiba said in repeating what he told Straub. "The United States is the champion of democracy so we hope that it would respect the majority of voices and work toward nuclear abolishment."
Akiba said Straub promised to swiftly convey his letter and words to the president as he explained his wish for Bush to visit Hiroshima in this "significant" year of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. The United States dropped its first atomic bomb on Hiroshima shortly before the end of the war. Akiba paid a quick one-day visit to Washington from New York, where he has been staying to attend the ongoing international conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The monthlong review meeting began Monday.
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Read full article: 'Hiroshima mayor asks Bush to visit his city' (100 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 08:26 AM
Politics
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(Kyodo) _ South Korea voiced hope Thursday that a future joint history study by Japanese and South Korean experts helps resolve issues surrounding Japanese history textbooks as the current round of a joint study has not taken up the textbook issues, Japanese officials said. "It is important that (the future joint study) leads to resolving issues related to Japanese history textbooks," a participant in a meeting of a bilateral governmental committee supporting the activities of the current joint history study group was quoted as saying. The joint history study group, consisting of history experts of the two countries, handed its final study report to the committee in the meeting. The report will be made public as soon as possible after editing work is complete, the officials said.
Taichiro Mitani, a Seikei University professor heading the Japanese side in the joint study group, said at the meeting that the joint study group should serve as a bulwark against the spread of nationalism in both countries, according to the officials. The head of the South Korean side said it was regrettable to some degree that the study group failed to deal with the textbook issues, they said. The study group has been divided into three subgroups. One is studying ancient history, another medieval history, and the last group is studying modern history and current events.
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Read full article: 'S. Korea hopes future history study influences Japanese textbooks' (1068 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Friday, May 06, 2005 - 08:25 AM
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(Kyodo) _ SEOUL, May 6 Kyodo - South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun criticized Japanese politicians on Friday for Japan's interpretations of history in a meeting with top officials from Japan's ruling coalition. "We are not demanding formal apologies from Japan, but there are leading forces within Japanese political circles that are going against the spirit of the apology and the reflections that Japan has made in the past," Roh said at the outset of the talks with Liberal Democratic Party Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe and his New Komeito party counterpart Tetsuzo Fuyushiba at the presidential office.
Roh was commenting on bilateral relations which have deteriorated substantially since the approval of a "Takeshima Day" ordinance by Japan's Shimane Prefecture and controversial history textbooks by the Japanese government. The islets called Tokto in South Korea and Takeshima in Japan are administered by South Korea, but Japan claims South Korea is illegally occupying the islets. Takebe and Fuyushiba are in Seoul to discuss steps to improve bilateral ties with top South Korean officials. It is Roh's first meeting with key Japanese figures since ties soured.
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Read full article: 'S. Korea president criticizes Japanese politicians over history' (1323 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Thursday, May 05, 2005 - 09:18 AM
Politics
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(Kyodo) _ A visiting Japanese ruling party executive was taken aback Wednesday when a senior U.S. official mentioned the taste and safety of U.S. beef after being served and enjoying it at a White House luncheon. Trapped in the blatant -- if not coincidental -- tactics to press Japan to lift its 17-month-old import ban on U.S. beef was Liberal Democratic Party Acting Secretary General Shinzo Abe during the luncheon hosted by Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby. Abe just took note of the incident when he spoke to reporters after the luncheon and his meeting with Cheney.
The two nations remain at odds over the beef issue, with Japan turning down repeated U.S. calls to set a timeline to quickly lift the ban and resume imports after Japan agreed last October to do so with cattle aged up to 20 months. The Japanese government maintains that it needs to wait for approval by the independent Food Safety Commission, which is scientifically studying whether to exclude animals aged up to 20 months from the current blanket testing on slaughtered cattle for mad cow disease. A task force of the commission has proposed Japan may as well exclude young cows from all cattle testing. The commission is now reportedly in the process of drawing up its final decision.
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Read full article: 'Abe served beef at White House to taste safety for imports' (594 bytes more)
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Posted by: tokyosweetie on Tuesday, May 03, 2005 - 10:40 AM
Politics
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05/03/2005
The Asahi Shimbun
An Asahi Shimbun poll held to mark Constitution Day, the national holiday being observed today, found that a growing percentage of voters feel it is time to revise the nation's supreme set of laws.
Fifty-six percent of the respondents said the Constitution should be revised, while 33 percent said there was no need.
In 1997, 46 percent of respondents were in favor of revisions. The figure rose to 47 percent in 2001 and 53 percent last year.
In contrast, percentages of those who oppose revisions decreased from 39 percent in 1997 to 36 percent in 2001 and 35 percent last year.
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Read full article: '56% support revisions to Constitution' (1698 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Tuesday, May 03, 2005 - 08:22 AM
Politics
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Rice vows continued help for Japan to resolve abduction issue: Abe
(Kyodo) _ U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice vowed Monday to continue supporting Japan to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea, visiting Liberal Democratic Party Acting Secretary General Shinzo Abe said. Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Rice, Abe said she also expressed her "understanding" over his call for considering "other options" such as taking North Korea to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions if Pyongyang continues to refuse to return to the six-party talks on its nuclear ambitions.
Abe said he also conveyed his view that June will be the deadline for resuming the talks, which have been stalled since the third round last June. The talks involve China, Japan, South and North Korea, Russia and the United States. Arriving Monday in Washington for a visit through this week, Abe is scheduled to meet with various other senior U.S. officials -- an arrangement believed by many political observers as signaling that Washington sees him as one of the top candidates to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Abe, who has taken a hard-line stance against North Korea, said he stressed in his talks with Rice his unabated commitment to pressing North Korea to resolve the abduction issue, including accounting for the whereabouts of those Pyongyang has admitted to kidnapping in the late 1970s and early 1980s and has said have died there. Rice promised to "continue to fully support Japan's position" regarding the abduction issue, Abe said.
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Read full article: 'Rice vows continued help for Japan to resolve abduction issue' (1384 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Monday, May 02, 2005 - 09:02 AM
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(Kyodo) _ Development experts have said Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi should reflect Asia's views and interests in climate change and poverty situations when he attends a summit of the Group of Eight major nations in Scotland in July. Former Indonesian Environment Minister Emil Salim says he hopes Koizumi will tell other G-8 leaders of Asia's worries about global warming, which is leading to rises in sea levels, increased flooding and changes in rainfall patterns that may affect agriculture, the region's key income source. "If the sea level goes up by 1 meter, then Maldives will be under water," Salim told Kyodo News recently. "Other island countries, such as Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and Indonesia are in a similar situation."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the July 6-8 summit in Gleneagles will focus on ways to tackle global warming and promote African development. The G-8 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. Salim called for Japanese action in bringing together other G-8 members to "massively develop" alternative energy sources to fossil fuels, such as commercialization of fuel cells and solar energy, and extensive use of hybrid vehicles "with specific targets and time frames."
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Read full article: 'Japan asked to reflect Asian view on global warming at G-8' (2793 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 07:52 AM
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(Kyodo) _ Japan is ready to discuss China's pegged-currency policy with China and other Asian partners if the topic comes up on the sidelines of an annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Istanbul on May 4-6, Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki said Thursday. "As Asian economies are closely linked to each other, they have an interest in the issue," Tanigaki told reporters. "If the topic were raised, I think it would be necessary to discuss it in an open-minded manner." However, Tanigaki, who will represent Japan at the ADB gathering, said it is up to China to decide how best to reform its dollar-pegged currency system after taking into account its market and economic conditions.
The finance ministers of Japan, China and South Korea are scheduled to hold talks on the sidelines of the Istanbul meeting. The finance ministers from the ASEAN-plus-three grouping are to meet separately to discuss regional economic and financial issues. Tanigaki said that during these meetings, he wants to reaffirm the importance of regional financial cooperation and study ways to strengthen it to prevent a recurrence of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. The ASEAN-plus-three group consists of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- and Japan, South Korea and China.
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Read full article: 'Japan ready to discuss China's currency policy at ADB meeting' (361 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Thursday, April 28, 2005 - 07:50 AM
Politics
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(Kyodo) _ China and North Korea on Wednesday indirectly opposed Japan's bid to obtain a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, U.N. sources said Wednesday. Although the two nations did not directly mention Japan, they voiced strong opposition at an informal U.N. meeting to discuss reform of the United Nations, the sources said.
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Read full article: 'China, N. Korea indirectly oppose Japan's UNSC bid' (87 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - 07:30 AM
Politics
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TOKYO - West Japan Railway Co. bears grave responsibility for Monday's catastrophic train derailment, Land, Infrastructure and Transport Minister Kazuo Kitagawa indicated Tuesday, while a top company official said JR West President Takeshi Kakiuchi will resign over the accident. "It is extremely regrettable that it caused such a grave accident," Kitagawa told a press conference on being asked about the responsibility of the management of JR West.
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Read full article: 'JR West bears grave responsibility for derailment: minister' (87 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Monday, April 25, 2005 - 07:26 AM
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(Kyodo) _ Japanese and U.S. government officials met in Tokyo on Monday to discuss conditions for lifting the two countries' reciprocal ban on beef imports in connection with mad cow disease. Toshikazu Ijichi, adviser of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, led the Japanese team, which also included officials from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Foreign Ministry. The U.S. delegation, consisting of government and academic experts, was represented by Deputy Agriculture Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Charles Lambert.
The U.S. team is believed to have urged Japan to promptly remove the 16-month import ban, stressing the safety of U.S. beef, and to ease its safety standards in line with the World Organization for Animal Health guidelines. The organization is currently moving toward easing its trade guidelines regarding mad cow disease. The Japanese team is believed to have called on the U.S. side to provide more details about its cattle age verification method. Japan's Food Safety Commission, an independent government body, is studying the method, under which cattle age is estimated by checking the meat quality and bone formation.
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Read full article: 'Japan, U.S. discuss how to reopen bilateral beef trade' (503 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 04:02 PM
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(Kyodo) _ Chinese President Hu Jintao said he urged Japan to reflect on history and back up its apologies with action when he met Saturday in Jakarta with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Hu, however, said he expressed the hope of solving problems with Japan through dialogue and made "five proposals" to improve bilateral relations. He also said Japan should not hurt the feelings of Chinese people.
The Chinese leader said he urged Japan not to support any move by Taiwan toward independence. The two leaders held their meeting on the sidelines of a summit of Asian and African leaders.
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Read full article: 'Hu asks Japan to reflect on history, back up apologies by action' (100 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Saturday, April 23, 2005 - 04:01 PM
Politics
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(Kyodo) _ The United States and Japan are aiming at assembling an international agreement criticizing North Korea for its nuclear ambitions and urging it to immediately return to the six-party nuclear talks, a senior U.S. official and a Japanese diplomatic source said Saturday. The two nations will make a pitch for such an agreement during an international conference from May 2 in New York to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, they said. The U.S. official said the United States intends to raise the issue of North Korea's withdrawal from the NPT two years ago and call for the North to return to the six-party talks as "the best way to proceed" to peacefully resolve the tension over Pyongyang's nuclear development program.
The diplomatic source said Japan intends to "promote coordination with the United States and South Korea" and press the NPT conference to "compile a final document urging the (North to) return to the six-party talks and to the safeguard agreement of the International Atomic Energy Agency." The move comes amid North Korea's renewed "brinkmanship" diplomacy such as the recent reports that the North has stopped its nuclear reactor as a possible step to remove spent fuel rods to reprocess and extract plutonium for more nuclear arms. The reports came after Pyongyang declared in February that it possesses nuclear weapons and is indefinitely pulling out of the six-party talks also involving China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States.
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Read full article: 'U.S., Japan eye NPT accord urging N. Korea to return to 6-way talks' (1409 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Friday, April 22, 2005 - 07:26 AM
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(Kyodo) _ Japanese fish merchants should tap overseas seafood markets in an "aggressive" manner by taking advantage of the growing Japanese food boom and trade liberalization, a government report said Friday. Japan's seafood exports have been rising since 1999, with the country exporting 370,000 tons of seafood in 2003, up 20.7 percent over the previous year, the fiscal 2004 white paper on fisheries said. Falling exports of pearls, an expensive item, held the total value of seafood exports at 135.4 billion yen in 2003, almost unchanged from the previous year, but exports of fresh or frozen seafood rose, the report said.
The report also cited free trade agreement negotiations and various undertakings by the central government and local seafood producers to boost exports. Noting that Japanese food is viewed as healthy in Europe and the United States and as a luxury item in China and Southeast Asia, the report called on Japanese seafood merchants to cultivate overseas sales routes as seafood prices have been faltering in the domestic market. "Adding value to Japanese seafood is an important strategy," the report said.
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Read full article: 'Japan advocates 'aggressive' overseas seafood strategy' (518 bytes more)
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Posted by: Billy Bob Joe on Thursday, April 21, 2005 - 07:43 AM
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(Kyodo) _ Yukio Edano, a House of Representatives member of the Democratic Party of Japan, has delivered the message that the Constitution cannot be revised without the support of Japan's biggest opposition party. Edano, who is deputy chief of the House of Representatives' Research Commission on the Constitution, was speaking at a new conference last Friday after the commission presented a final report calling for revisions to the Constitution. He was referring to a clause in the current Constitution that no proposal on a constitutional amendment can be made without the backing of two-thirds of lawmakers.
The report was adopted with the support of members from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition ally New Komeito party, and the DPJ. The ruling coalition does not have enough lawmakers to devise their own proposal for amending the constitution.
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Read full article: 'DPJ wants more say in amending constitution' (1865 bytes more)
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