Representative of Komeito Visits Beijing

Chief Representative of Komeito, coalition partner of Liberal Democratic Party, Tetsuo Saito, made a visit to China and had meeting with officials in Chinese government. The leaders discussed how to maintain free trade system against unilateral tariff policy exercised by the President of the United States, Donald Trump. However, they did not reach a level of completely remove mutual distrust between their governments. 

Saito had a meeting with Wang Huning, the chairman of the National Committee on the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee and ranked fourth among the members of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee. Saito and Wang agreed on importance of maintaining international free trade system, concerning confusion of international society with tariff policy by Trump administration.

 

The meeting marked the first discussion between the leaders of both governments after Trump’s announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on foreign countries. “Stability between China and the U.S., which have a great influence on world economy, is extremely important for international society,” said Saito with expectation of careful response of China on the issue. Wang insisted that maintenance of free trade system will be common interest for China and Japan, or the world.

 

In a series of meetings in Beijing, one of the leaders of CCP told Saito that China was in trouble with Tramp’s tariffs. Wang hoped to build relations with Japan based on mutual benefit through exchanges of people between the two nations. Japanese officials expect that China is approaching Japan more than ever. It is also important for Japan to maintain relationship with China which is Japan’s biggest partner in trade.

 

However, Saito expressed his concern in trade activities of China, indicating China’s regulation of rare earth materials. “It is important for China to take necessary responsibility, abiding by rules in international society,” said Saito to Wang. Saito handed out Wang a letter from Japanese Prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, to Chinese President Xi Jinping. In the meeting with Xi last November, Ishiba hoped Xi to lift China’s restriction policy on Japanese sea products.

 

Komeito has traditionally been maintaining a close relationship with China. Soka Gakkai, Komeito’s political backbone, built relationship with Chinese officials even before Japan officially normalized diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1972. Former representative, Natsuo Yamaguchi, had one-on-one meetings with Xi for multiple times.

 

Saito hopes to make his visit to China a momentum for Komeito to raise its popularity in Japan, looking to the election of House of Councillors in July. Suffering from defeat in the general election last October, the party is seeking a way to get rid of current political slump. But it has not achieved effective policy to sell to the voters in the coming election. It is still unclear whether Saito’s visit to China will work for the campaign this summer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Struggle over a Hearing on Accounting Manager

Without a simple majority in the House of Representatives, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) struggles against the opposition parties on inviting former accounting manager of Abe faction to the Committee on Budget. While the oppositions hope to keep the issue alive until the Upper House election this summer, the LDP wants to terminate the prolonged discussion over the slush fund scandal. The committee still cannot determine the date to begin discussion on FY 2025 budget.   The public prosecutors indicted former accounting manager of Abe faction, Jun-ichiro Matsumoto, with charge of wrong reporting about kickback fund of the faction. Tokyo District Court  sentenced  Matsumoto last September three years of imprisonment with suspension of five years. Matsumoto requested the LDP not to invite him to the Diet, because he had already told about the scandal in the court and had no further information to reveal.   The opposition parties have been demanding a hearing ...
Read more

Dilemma between Alliance and Constitution

  In the new year ministerial online meeting, Japan and United States resolved to work together to deal with various challenges by China. In the Joint Statement of the Security Consultative Committee, or “2+2,” the ministers of both government, US Secretaries of State and Defense and Japanese Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense, expressed their concerns on Beijing’s efforts, which were recognized as undermining the rule-based order in Indo-Pacific region and the world. On possible countermeasures, however, there still is a possibility of constitutional dispute in Japan over the principle of exclusively defensive security policy. The ministers referred to their concern about China’s activities in the East and the West China Sea. They reaffirmed to apply Article V of US-Japan Treaty of mutual Cooperation and Security to the Senkaku Islands, and strongly objected to China’s unlawful maritime claims, militarization and coercive activities in the South China Sea. They did not forge...
Read more

Defense Minister Admits Problem of Civilian Control

Concerning a series of scandals coming out from the Ministry of Defense (MOD), both Houses of the Diet held a recess discussion on the issue on July 30. To the questions of the opposition parties on why the Minister of Defense, Minoru Kihara, did not know about the scandal for months, Kihara   admitted   the problem was about civilian control. Kihara refused his stepping down as the minister, abiding by a request from the Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, to take leadership for rebuilding up the ministry. The discussion was focused on fraudulent record of allowance for divers in Maritime Self-defense Force (MSDF). Although the criminal investigation unit of MSDF arrested four members over the fraudulence last November, Kihara insisted that he did not know about it until it was disclosed in July 12. An officer of MOD explained that the staffs did not report it to the minister, because the incident would not affect other organizations outside the Self-defense Force.   The oppo...
Read more