Ishiba’s Diplomatic Debut

After dissolving the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba made a trip to Laos to participate in international conferences of ASEAN and East Asia Summit. In the backdrop of the conferences, Ishiba had meetings with some foreign leaders, making a moderate debut in his diplomacy as a new prime minister of Japan. Basic stance was succeeding diplomacy of his predecessor Fumio Kishida to maintain relationship with likeminded countries, as keeping channel with a major power in Asia, the People’s Republic of China.

In the bilateral meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, Ishiba reconfirmed sharing Mutual Beneficial Relationship Based on Common Strategic Interests, established between Shinzo Abe and Hu Jintao in 2006. Ishiba expressed his hope to work together so that the people could benefit from development of relationship of both governments.

 

Those two countries have multiple issues which does not promote improvement of their relationship. A Chinese military aircraft intruded into Japan’s territorial airspace in Nagasaki prefecture in August. Ishiba called Li for a full explanation and expressed his concern on situation in East China Sea, including installation of buoy in the open sea around Okinotori-shima island.

 

Ishiba also demanded Li early restoration of imports of Japan’s sea products, regarding discharge of processed water from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Raising deep concern on the deaths of Japanese School students in Suzhou and Shenzhen in China, Ishiba urged Li to clarify the facts and provide explanations to ensure safety and security of Japanese in China.

 

Li expressed his hope that Japan would meet China halfway, keep the bilateral relations on right track, maintain political foundation of bilateral ties, and strengthen dialogue and cooperation. Two leaders did not talk about Ishiba’s personal commitment to establish Asian NATO, trying instead to focus on economicn and technological development and cooperation between two nations.

 

In the meeting with the President of Republic of Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, Ishiba agreed with Yoon to continue shuttle diplomacy between two leaders, which was resumed between Kishida and Yoon. Although two leaders did not touch on historical issues, they exchanged their views on North Korea and its military cooperation with Russia, as well as further strengthening of relations toward 60th anniversary of normalization of both countries.

 

In the meeting of ASEAN Plus Three (Japan- China-ROK), Ishiba referred to Japan’s fundamental standpoint that any unilateral attempt to change the status quo by force or coercion would be unacceptable, which indicated concern on China’s advance in South ana East China Sea. It is unclear how China responded to the idea of Japan’s side.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when COVID-19 was preval
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, which is
Read more

Death Penalty Demanded on Criminal of Arson

On the historically brutal case of arson, the public prosecutors demanded an ultimate penalty to the offender. In the trial on the arson and murder in Kyoto Animation in 2019, the prosecutors requested death penalty on the defendant, Shinji Aoba. The lawyers of Aoba argued that the court should avoid sentencing death penalty. The judgement will be passed next January. Aoba was indicted as putting fire after pouring gasoline in the building of Kyoto Animation (Kyoani), a studio producing animation works, and killed 36 staffs and injured 32 on July 18 th , 2019. In the trial, Aoba argued that he could not tolerate Kyoani, because it had stolen his novel story in its works. Aoba later apologized to the victim’s families that he had done too much and regretted it.   In the closing argument in Kyoto Regional Court, the prosecutors demanded death penalty for Aoba, because the number of victims were extremely high in the history of criminal trials in Japan. “It is hard to describe about how t
Read more