Japan Press Weekly

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2014 May 7 - 13 [JCP]

JCP Kokuta visits China as delegate of lawmakers’ friendship group

Japanese Communist Party Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji between May 4 and 7 visited China as one of nine delegates of the Japan-China Friendship Parliamentarians’ Union.

After the group’s return, they held a press conference on May 7. Kokuta explained that the delegates visited China with the aim of mending soured ties between the two nations through communications at parliamentary and private levels.

Seeking to open a line of intergovernmental contact, the lawmakers group during their visit held talks with China’s key figures, such as the third-ranking official of the Chinese Communist Party, Zhang Dejiang and former Chinese foreign minister, Tang Jiaxuan, who now heads the China-Japan Friendship Association.

Kokuta said to reporters that in the series of talks, the Chinese side cited issues concerning Prime Minister Abe’s visit to Yasukuni Shrine, his distorted historical perspective and the Senkaku Islands, and that he explained to Chinese representatives about the JCP stance on these issues.

The JCP condemns the PM’s visits to Yasukuni Shrine on the grounds that the shrine plays a role in glorifying and promoting Japan’s past war of aggression as a “war of self-defense”. Regarding the Senkaku issue, the JCP claims that even though the islands are Japanese territory, the issue should be resolved through diplomatic negotiations and peaceful dialogue based on international law and historical facts.