Press Conference, 29 July 2008

Food Aid to the Developing World
Statement on the bombing in India
Grant aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan
Personal farewell by Mr. Taniguchi
Questions concerning the Takeshima issue
Questions concerning grant aid
Questions concerning the 2008 G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit
Questions concerning the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games
Personal thanks from the press to Mr. Taniguchi
Questions concerning arbitration of the Takeshima issue
Questions concerning anti-trust issues
Questions concerning the war on terror
Questions concerning the Air Self-Defense Force airlift mission in the Middle East
Questions concerning the travel plans of Minister for Foreign Affairs, Masahiko Koumura

Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi: Good afternoon, and thank you very much for coming to join me.
The notice sent out to you yesterday underlined the so-called importance of today's conference, of which you may be wondering, and I will tell you what later on. Before that, here follow today's announcements.

I. Food Aid to the Developing World

First, today, Tuesday, the 29th, the Government of Japan decided to provide food aid worth 6.62 billion yen, or about 66 million US dollars. This is in response to the steep rise in global food prices, and is going to the following ten countries.

Eritrea, Cote d'Ivoire, Congo, Sao Tome Principe, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Haiti each will receive bilateral assistance. The rest, Timor-Leste, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh will receive the aid through the WFP or the World Food Program. For more details, please refer to the press release uploaded on the Ministry's web site.

Related Information (Press Release)

II. Statement on the bombing in Ahmedabad, India

Second, yesterday, Monday, the 28th, Press Secretary issued a statement condemning the bombings that occurred in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, India, over the past weekend. We reiterate our position that we strongly condemn terrorism in any form and manifestation, and that there would be no justification, whatsoever, for any acts of terrorism.

Related Information (Press Release)

III. Grant aid to Pakistan and Afghanistan

Third, let me just briefly touch upon two grant aids recently announced. One goes to Pakistan, for water supply system improvement in Faisalabad for over the next three years. The amount of money involved will be about 4.4 billion, if put into US dollar terms. And the other is for Afghanistan for the border enhancement program in Takhar Province, worth 1.1 billion US dollars.

IV. Personal farewell by Mr. Taniguchi

And finally, this concludes press cons I've been giving you since September 2005. It's been an eventful couple of years and I have thoroughly enjoyed always working with you, answering your oftentimes unanswerable questions, and being your contact person. I have come to realize that out there I have quite a few loyal readers of my transcripts. To them I should give my appreciation. My thanks also go, obviously, to the MOFA staffers, note-takers and transcriptionists, who have done a great service for me and for the conferences.

I'll be soon leaving government service and returning to where I'm from originally, the private sector. My e-mail account, that's tomohiko@taniguchi.name, will remain unchanged, and I'd be happy to be contacted.

Thank you and questions please.

V. Questions concerning the Takeshima issue

Q: I have a question regarding the Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea who traveled to Takeshima Island, or Dokdo, as they call it. I was wondering how the Government of Japan feels about this and if whether there will be communication through back channels to the Koreans?

Mr. Taniguchi: The fact that there is a governmental organization in the United States called the Board on Geographic Names came to most of us here at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as news. We have seldom heard about this organization. One can imagine that the action taken by the South Korean Prime Minister would've been in response to the fact that some sort of changes have been introduced by the US Board on Geographic Names about the name of the islets and islands. That is as much as I can say. There is no official response from the Government of Japan.

VI. Questions concerning grant aid

Q: Can you please give an explanation and breakdown of this aid to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and East Timor.

Mr. Taniguchi: I'd be happy to. Basically it is aid in the form of money given to the WFP. A certain amount of money has been earmarked to countries, such as your country, Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka and Timor L'este. To Bangladesh, the amount of money going there is 850 million yen. It is supposed to be used to purchase and procure food for Bangladeshi people.

VII. Questions concerning the 2008 G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit

Q: This question is after the event, but relates to the G8 Summit. There was a very, very convoluted sentence in the communiqué following the Summit relating to the commitment of the G8 with regard to cutting emissions by 50% by the year 2050. Very few of us could understand that sentence. Finally, Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, explained his view and very firmly said that the G8 would make this cut only if the other parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) also agree to do it. Someone told me yesterday that this is not the Government of Japan's interpretation of it. Could you please clear this up for me as it seems that there are differing interpretations even now of what it meant?

Mr. Taniguchi: What I can say to you is what you see is what you get. What the communiqué says is what it means.

Q: That's precisely the point, what it said was almost meaningless, so much so that people could put a different meaning on it, and they had to until Gordon Brown was willing and firm in his interpretation. But you can tell that the Government of Japan does not seem to say that this means that the G8 will commit to cutting their emissions by half by 2050. I am correct in saying that you are saying that each reader can make his own interpretation of that sentence?

Mr. Taniguchi: The communiqué that you are talking about calls on the international community to cut emissions by half by 2050. Each individual member of the G8 nations has its own goal. For instance, in the case of Japan they have made it clear that by the year 2050 Japan is going to reduce emissions by 60-80%. But there are other countries that have not made any pledge of that sort, but there at least is a consensus shared by the members of the G8 and the consensus is that as the G8 it would call on the international community to follow that we should cut the emissions by half by the year 2050. That is what the communiqué actually says. I am not sure if I can give any footnotes to that further.

Q: You are saying that they will call on the international community to do that; that is the agreement. So, they are not saying that they are trying to assign meaning to it or they are not saying that we will not do it if the international community does not do it? It is still very unclear as to what does it mean.

Mr. Taniguchi: I'm not saying that this is a clear pledge in the sense that the G8 said something like it would cut this amount of emissions by this target year. The G8 communiqué did not say anything like that. If I may repeat what I said already, what the G8 said is to call upon the others (and all parties to the UNFCCC: added by the briefer, ex post facto) to cut the emissions by half by the year 2050.

VIII. Questions concerning the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Q: There 10 days now to go till the start of the Olympic Games, but the pollution levels in Beijing are still very high, higher than the standard levels acceptable set by Chinese Government itself. Is Japan concerned about the wellbeing of its athletes, or indeed, Japanese spectators attending the Games?

Mr. Taniguchi: If I were participating in the Olympic Games I would have had concerns like that. The fact remains that a number of countries have decided to pre-camp here in Japan before going to Beijing, but as a government spokesperson I can only say that we wish the Olympic Games to be a great success.

IX. Personal thanks from the press to Mr. Taniguchi

Q: Congratulations on your career move. First of all, I would like to thank you for all of the help you have provided for us.

Mr. Taniguchi: Thank you, that's very kind.

Q: I know I have called you many times on the phone and there was one time you agreed to give us an interview. That was very great. Thanks also go to your section and we appreciate all of your efforts. My question is... Oh, I forgot.

Mr. Taniguchi: Take your time.

Q: Maybe you should come back to me.

Q: I should have added my thanks too. I'm sorry, that was very discourteous of me. I fully agree with what my colleague has just said. Mr. Taniguchi, since it is your last press conference, can I ask you, what was the most difficult question you've ever been asked?

Mr. Taniguchi: Oh, well, one of the most memorable questions that I had to deal with was from you. It was about "comfort women" and..... whaling stuff is always a difficult one for me to handle.

Q: What was the question that you were asked that was difficult?

Mr. Taniguchi: I don't want to remember.

Q: Oh, was it that bad?

X. Questions concerning arbitration of the Takeshima issue

Q: In terms of Takeshima, has either side ever attempted to take this to the International Court of Justice, or to any other international arbitration body?

Mr. Taniguchi: No official attempt has ever been made by either side. The Japanese side had an interest before to bring this to court, but according to the arrangement pertaining to the International Court of Justice, we need both parties to come to the court at the same time.

Q: And the other party was not agreeable?

Mr. Taniguchi: In this case the answer to your question is no.

XI. Questions concerning anti-trust issues

Q: Also, from me, many thanks for these last two and a half (actually three, added by the briefer, ex post facto) years and congratulations on surviving our scathes.

Mr. Taniguchi: Thank you.

Q: I have a question which I asked you this morning which you answered immediately, that it would not be answerable. Have you had any further thought on that? My question was on the proposed takeover by BHP of Rio Tinto and whether there is a view here on antitrust issues raised. I find it very surprising that there should not be a desk or 3 desks in this building with people looking and meeting questions coming outward to you.

Mr. Taniguchi: I have not done my homework to answer your question. The following therefore would be based on my instinctive response to your question. There is no official line on your question, but one can think of a couple of elements that might be of concern to the industrialists here in Japan or elsewhere. Number one, the tighter supply and demand equation; two, many companies are seeking to create economies of scale; three, you will get price setting power tilted more towards the producers rather than the consumers. Given that the price of many materials and resources has been on the rise, one must wonder if a mega-merger of that sort would help world commerce to achieve more prosperity.

Q: There is a piece in the Financial Times this morning that there is legislation coming out in China and India which would give these parts of the world also, huge authority on anti-trust issue and theoretically big, big company markets of this kind. Do you see this happening by any chance?

Mr. Taniguchi: No, I don't know.

XII. Questions concerning the war on terror

Q: About the war in Afghanistan, while it is commendable that Japan has been providing to help country-building and social structure there, we are hearing more reports about civilian casualties. Whole families are being killed by NATO bombing. Since Japan is a part of the war on terror, do you feel that Japan is also responsible for these civilian killings? Do you have any comment on this issue?

Mr. Taniguchi: Whenever civilian people are involved in casualties of that sort one must be saddened and the members of the Japan Foreign Ministry must be saddened as well. But the overall picture has to be put into perspective that the international community, prominently NATO forces are doing a lot to help build a nation that is still in its fledgling stage in Afghanistan. And the Government of Japan has been putting a lot of effort into DIAG (the Disbandment of Illegal Armed Groups), separation of forces and civilians or disarming those people, so on and so forth. Or by pulling together countries to discuss what should be done and what sort of aid should be given to Afghanistan. In that sense, I think the Government of Japan has been a player in the game. I'm not making any comment on the casualties that you mentioned, I can only say that it is a very sad thing to happen.

XIII. Questions concerning the Air Self-Defense Force airlift mission in the Middle East

Q: There is a Nikkei report today that says that the Self-Defense Forces' commitment to the Iraq campaign will end in a year. Has there been any Government of Japan decision on that?

Mr. Taniguchi: No official decision has ever been made on the airlift conducted by the Air Self-Defense Force.

Q: Is there a time limit as to when the decision will be taken?

Mr. Taniguchi: The answer is no. There might be a point in time down the road when they will have to give consideration as to what should be done next or whether we should withdraw our forces from Iraq. At the moment, we have not been discussing anything of that sort.

XIV. Questions concerning the travel plans of Minister for Foreign Affairs, Masahiko Koumura

Q: Thank you for the past few years and helping me with all sorts of comments.

Mr. Taniguchi: You're welcome.

Q: I would like to ask you a straightforward question. Does Masahiko Koumura, your Foreign Minister, have plans to go on an overseas trip in the near future? I hear speculation of a cabinet reshuffle and because of this possibility is there nothing planned?

Mr. Taniguchi: Someone asked the same question to Foreign Minister this morning and if I can paraphrase what he said to you, he has got to have a phased-array radar to detect what could happen next, so he is watching all sorts of different points. That is what I detect he meant in his press conference that he gave.

No more questions?

Q: We're trying to make it easier on your last day.

Mr. Taniguchi: Well, thank you all very much. I hope our paths will cross.

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