Comment by Mike

April 22, 2007 @ 5:14 pm

Interesting stuff on Cheney and the abduction issue. Of course, when Cheney visited, it was pretty much reported everywhere that the US stands by Japan on the abduction issue and all that. There was a Financial Times article that hinted at some tension (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/daeb82a0-c113-11db-bf18-000b5df10621.html), but it seemed as though the point was to say that everything was fine between the two nations on that issue.

Now this snippet has come out and it’s not helping Japan at all. They say they will not join the other nations in offering aid until the issue is resolved but will not say what would constitute resolution of the issue. Why do they even have a negotiator there to begin with? And just what is Christopher Hill doing that has prevented him from asking this question of his Japanese counterpart to begin with?

Trackback by Japanese Politics

April 22, 2007 @ 8:40 pm

More on Cheney’s Visit to Japan…

When US Vice President Dick Cheney visited Japan, he asked Shinzo Abe what he felt would be a satisfactory resolution to the abductee issue. Abe was smart enough not to play his game, saying that Japan would decide what would constitute a satisfactory …

Comment by ken

April 22, 2007 @ 9:52 pm

I’m surprised that it was the short bit on Cheney that caught the attention. I think Cheney’s question makes quote a bit of sense; the US was about to express its support for Japan and thus it seems natural for them to want to know exactly what that means. I don’t think Christopher Hill can really broach such a subject or push Japan on it, since they’re supposed to be on the same page as a negotiating team. I hope Bush pushes Abe on it, and that State publicly declares it to be on the agenda, but I’m doubtful.

Comment by DeOrio

April 22, 2007 @ 10:23 pm

I don’t think we’re going to see much public pressure from the US on this one - even Cheney’s question was probably not supposed to be as public as it is - for the same reason that Hill can’t really push Japan at the Six-Party Talks. After all, this is a point the US would like cleared up, it’s not as if the US is about to withdraw its support of Japan. Japan is refusing to send aid to North Korea, not refusing to participate in tsunami relief in Java or something like that. A clear goal would be nice since it’s necessary to making plans, but Japan’s not really suffering in terms of image for not having a goal. Hell, until Cheney’s question became public, there wasn’t much public discussion at all - blogs or mainstream media - over what a resolution would be. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to many people.

Comment by Dick Clark

April 26, 2007 @ 3:16 am

Does any of this relate to the murder of the mayor of Nagasaki?

Pingback by equinoXio » » Violencia mafiosa y ultraderecha en Japón

April 27, 2007 @ 2:18 pm

[…] Es bien conocido el vínculo histórico entre algunos mafiosos y los cada vez más notorios grupos de extrema derecha, si bien estos lazos son individuales y no entre organizaciones. Itō era respaldado por el oficialista Partido Liberal Democrático (PLD), el mismo del ultraderechista primer ministro Shinzō Abe, pero era medio “izquierdoso”, dada su abierta oposición al uso de armas nucleares (Itō nació dos semanas después de que EUA lanzara la bomba atómica sobre Nagasaki), expresada en diversos eventos nacionales e internacionales. Era segura su reelección, por otro lado. Su yerno Makoto Yokoo, un reportero de un periódico local, lo reemplazó y perdió los comicios con el independiente Tomohisa Taue. Esta hipótesis, la del ultraderechismo, no puede descartarse tan de buenas a primeras. El asesino se disculpó con “su nación” por el crimen, no con la familia del alcalde, y de paso declaró por medio de su abogado que cometió el asesinato “sin consultar con nadie”. El predecesor de Itō, Hitoshi Motoshima, recibió un disparo por la espalda propinado por un ultraderechista en 1990, pero sobrevivió. Motoshima había hecho comentarios acerca de la “responsabilidad del Emperador” Hirohito en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, cuando el monarca agonizaba por el cáncer, a finales de 1988. […]