Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who now serves as minister in charge of local economy rebuilding, speaks during the 10th Tokyo-Beijing Forum on Sept. 28 in Tokyo. (Yuichiro Masumitsu)
Participants at a private-sector Japan-China forum agreed on the need for the two countries to hold a summit, but even they started bickering over territory and perceptions of history.
Jointly hosted by the Genron NPO, a Japanese think tank, and the publisher of the China Daily, the 10th Tokyo-Beijing Forum was held on Sept 28-29 in Tokyo to discuss various issues between Japan and China, such as security, politics, economics and media.
In his keynote speech on the first day of the session, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who secretly met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in late July, urged the two countries to make efforts to hold a summit at the earliest possible date.
“I have high hopes for the leadership of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Xi Jinping,” Fukuda said.
The two Asian neighbors have not held a summit in two years, and Fukuda has recently been negotiating behind the scenes with the Chinese side to arrange a top-level meeting.
Chinese Ambassador Cheng Yonghua said Beijing also hopes to thaw the chilly ties with Tokyo.
“China’s policy of placing emphasis on China-Japan relations has remained unchanged,” Cheng said in his speech on Sept. 28.
Working with the China Daily, the Genron NPO conducted an opinion poll covering both Japanese and Chinese nationals. The results showed that more than 50 percent of respondents from the two nations believe a summit is necessary, while nearly 40 percent of Chinese said the top-level talks are unnecessary.
Former Chinese Ambassador to Japan Chen Jian touched on the topic at a Sept. 29 news conference.
“Chinese people worry that if the two countries’ leaders hold talks, (Abe) may visit Yasukuni Shrine immediately after the meeting,” Chen said.
Abe’s visit in December to the shrine, which honors Japan’s war dead, including 14 Class-A criminals from World War II, further strained relations with China.
During the forum, Chinese experts criticized Japanese politics as shifting toward the right, sparking a counterargument from the Japanese side that Tokyo “has no choice but to be sensitive to Beijing’s maritime expansion.”
At a Sept. 28 sectional meeting, Chen brought up the Abe administration’s decision to lift a long-standing ban on exercising the right to collective self-defense that would enable Tokyo to rush to the aid of an ally under attack.
“Citing the threat from China, Japanese leaders have been swinging the domestic politics to the right and trying to emerge from restrictions set by the nation’s pacifist Constitution,” he said.
Former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who now serves as minister in charge of local economy rebuilding, hit back at Chen’s criticism.
“(Tokyo’s recent move) is not swinging to the right but becoming realistic,” Ishiba said. “Exercising collective self-defense is an inherent right granted to all U.N. member states.”
(This article was written by Yuichiro Masumitsu, Nanae Kurashige and Nobuyoshi Sakajiri.)
Experts call for Japan-China summit, argue over Senkakus, history - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun
