Japan Press Weekly

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2014 April 23 - May 6 [POLITICS]

Shii criticizes strengthening of Japan-US military alliance

Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and U.S. President Barack Obama visiting Japan as a state guest on April 24 held talks at the State Guest House in Tokyo.

In the talks, the two leaders stressed the strengthening of the Japan-U.S. alliance, including the planned construction of a new U.S. base in Okinawa and a revision of the Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines. Meanwhile, as to the meeting’s major agenda item, the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade framework, they only confirmed continuation of negotiations.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo later on the same day at a press conference held in the Diet building commented on the summit meeting as follows.

In the Japan-U.S. summit meeting, giving emphasis on the enhancement of the bilateral alliance, the promotion of the construction of a new U.S. base in Okinawa and a revision of the guidelines for Japan-U.S. defense cooperation were agreed upon. At a joint press conference after the summit talks, Prime Minister Abe said that in response to his explanation about the ongoing moves to authorize Japan’s use of the collective self-defense right, the U.S. president expressed his position which “welcomed and supported” such moves. These moves will pave the way for changing Japan into a nation engaging in wars abroad in violation of the Japanese Constitution. The JCP severely opposes this dangerous attempt to fortify the Japan-U.S. military alliance.

Regarding the Senkaku problem, President Obama said that the Senkakus have “been administrated by Japan” and are covered under Article 5 of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty. At the same time, it is notable that the president repeatedly emphasized “the importance of solving this issue peacefully” through dialogue and that it is a “mistake to continue to see escalation around this issue rather than dialogue and confidence-building measures”.

On the other hand, Abe only said that he opposes “changing the current conditions by force” and mentioned nothing about implementing efforts towards peaceful negotiations.

The important thing is that the issue of territorial disputes should always be dealt with through coolheaded diplomatic approaches based on international law and historical facts.

Regarding the TPP bargaining, even before the summit meeting, Japan made generous concessions, such as cuts in the tariff rates which will further damage Japanese agriculture, to its counterpart. Nevertheless, the U.S. side required Japan to make further compromises, leading to a failure to reach an agreement at the summit meeting. If Japan carries on with the TPP talks at this rate, it will deal an even heavier blow to the country’s agriculture and food safety as well as people’s lives and local economies in a wide range of areas. Japan should immediately pull out of the TPP negotiations.

During the joint press conference, asked about his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine, Abe took a so-what attitude. He said that he visited there to “renew a pledge not to engage in war” and that “many leaders of the world share this common attitude”. As long as he continues taking this stance, Japan will not only lose the trust of Asian nations but also create contradictions and frictions in its relationship with the United States which has criticized Abe’s visit to the shrine as “disappointing”. He is required to change his attitude of justifying the falsification of history.