2012 June 13 - 19 [
TERRITORIAL ISSUE]
Not purchase but diplomatic efforts will solve Senkakus dispute
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Japanese Communist Party representative Tazoe Tamio at a meeting of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on June 12 said that the Tokyo metropolitan government should refrain from buying the Senkaku Islands because “China’s claim (to the Senkakus) fails in legitimacy.”
In order to settle the dispute, Tazoe stressed that Japan should “make diplomatic efforts to confidently and reasonably tell the Chinese government as well as the international community that Japan has historically and internationally possessed the legitimate territorial right over the Senkakus,” and expressed the JCP’s opposition to the plan proposed by Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro to purchase the islands.
The JCP has coherently presented the reason and legitimacy of the Japanese claim before the world’s governments at every occasion. Successive Japanese governments have, however, neglected to make such a diplomatic effort.
Tazoe stated, “A local government buying the Senkakus would not solve the problem,” and called on the central government to “avoid taking a posture which drives the Chinese government into escalating the situation or increasing tensions.”
He called on “both the Japanese and the Chinese governments to peacefully solve the dispute through dialogue and diplomacy.”
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June 14, 2012
Reaction of other political parties
The plenary session of the metropolitan assembly on this day highlighted the fact that each political party has a different view on the purchase of the Senkakus.
The Democratic Party of Japan supports a transfer of the property right to public authorities from one individual (a man in Saitama Pref.), but calls for the creation of a public interest incorporated foundation because the DPJ sees, “The metropolitan government has its limits to its right to implement projects.”
The Liberal Democratic Party is in support of the purchase, and the Komei Party did not even touch on the Senkaku question.