Press Conference by the Press Secretary 22 May, 1998

1. The current situation in the Republic of Indonesia
2. Role of the International Monetary Fund in the current situation in the Republic of Indonesia
3. Ongoing assistance to the Republic of Indonesia by the Government of Japan
4. Letter from Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Republic of India
5. Position of the Government of Japan concerning accession of the Republic of India to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
6. Situation of Japanese businesses in the Republic of Indonesia
7. Return of Ambassador Hiroshi Hirabayashi of Japan to the Republic of India
8. Response of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to nuclear tests conducted by the Republic of India
9. Political reform in the Republic of Indonesia
10. Position of the Government of Japan concerning release of the movie "Pride"

1. The current situation in the Republic of Indonesia

   Firstly, I would like to say a few things about the developments in the Republic of Indonesia. Yesterday, when President Suharto of the Republic of Indonesia announced his decision to step down, Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto and Minister for Foreign Affairs Keizo Obuchi each issued a statement, I think you have the text with you, and in these statements Prime Minister Hashimoto and Foreign Minister Obuchi both paid tribute to President Suharto's role in achieving a great deal in terms of the development of Indonesia and raising Indonesia's international status. They also expressed appreciation for President Suharto's role in enhancing the bilateral relations between Japan and Indonesia. At the same time, through Prime Minister Hashimoto and Foreign Minister Obuchi, we noted that Indonesia is now entering a new phase and we also sincerely pray that Indonesia will achieve social stability and economic recovery as soon as possible. On our own part, we are determined to keep assisting the Indonesian people's efforts for reform. Prime Minister Hashimoto sent a message to former President Suharto and President Baharuddin Jusuf Habibie of the Republic of Indonesia. Foreign Minister Obuchi also sent a message to President Habibie. In their messages to President Habibie, Prime Minister Hashimoto and Foreign Minister Obuchi congratulated the new President on his assumption of office and expressed Japan's willingness to extend support and cooperation to Indonesia's reform efforts and also conveyed our hope for its economic recovery as well as the stability of the Indonesian people's life. Those are the things that have been taking place since yesterday. I will further add that Foreign Minister Obuchi said in his press conference this morning that we appreciate the fact that this transition of government has taken place without bloodshed in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia. Foreign Minister Obuchi also noted that President Habibie in his speech yesterday, expressed his intention to implement political and economic reform and also his intention for the Government of Indonesia to be clean. Foreign Minister Obuchi expressed our sincere hope that through these reform efforts the new President will succeed in his objective of reforming Indonesia's national economy as well as stabilizing the livelihood of its people. That was Foreign Minister Obuchi's statement at the press conference. About an hour and a half ago, President Habibie announced the members of his new cabinet, a cabinet called the "reform and development cabinet." We note that in this new cabinet some important members of the previous cabinet have stayed on. For example, Minister of Coordination on Economic Policy Ginandjar Kartasasmita, Chairman and Defense Minister Wiranto, who is also Commander in Chief of the Indonesian National Military and Foreign Minister Ali Alatas have stayed on. They have some new ministers, for example Finance Minister Prabow Subianto and Commerce and Industry Minister Rahardi Ramelan. We do hope that reform will steadily be implemented under this reform and development cabinet and it is Japan's intention to extend our assistance to the reform efforts to be made by the people of Indonesia.

2. Role of the International Monetary Fund in the current situation in the Republic of Indonesia

   Q: Mr. Numata, was the IMF President Suharto's downfall?

   A: I think that would be putting it too simply.

   Q: How would you put it?

   A: Among the challenges that are faced by Indonesia today, the first challenge is the impact of the Asian economic and financial turbulence and in trying to tide over these difficulties, there is this evident need for Indonesia to move forward with its reform programs and these reform programs do need to take place in consultation and agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). That is the first point. The second point is that in looking at the difficulties that Indonesia faces at the moment, the implementation of some aspects of IMF's reform programs has in a way -- I have in mind in particular the raising of prices on energy and oil, triggered some of the social disturbances which have plagued Indonesia in recent weeks, but that does not alter the fact that Indonesia needs to move forward with its reform program. The third point is that the international community and the Group of Eight (G-8) in particular, in light of these circumstances, recognize the need on the part of Indonesia to carry out both economic and political reform but at the same time it is also clear that the international community, including the G-8 countries, are not in a position to dictate what sort of political reform should take place in Indonesia. It has been left to the choice of the Indonesian people. The events of the last couple of days indicate that they have provided their own answer and we do hope that this answer will provide what the Indonesian people are striving for, that is economic reform, economic recovery as well as a more stable livelihood. It is arguable to what extent the IMF has been a cause of all of this. I touched on it tangentially, but I think that is as far as I would go.

3. Ongoing assistance to the Republic of Indonesia by the Government of Japan

   Q: You mentioned several times that Japan intends to extend assistance to the reform efforts in Indonesia. The Finance Minister this morning also said that Japan would consider resuming aid. I understand there is -50 billion in loans for the fiscal year that needs to be worked out. There is the Export-Import Bank loan. There is the US $5 billion as part of the IMF package, of which US $1 billion was to be implemented rather quickly. Is Japan looking for signs that -- President Habibie has said that he will carry out reforms, but does Japan want to see evidence first before actually moving ahead on any or all of these aid assistance programs?

   A: Firstly, let me reiterate our intention to continue to assist Indonesia or the Indonesian people in their efforts for reform. Secondly, yes we do have these commitments or pledges that we have made and we would like to see these commitments or pledges actually being disbursed as soon as possible. In the mean time there have been some practical problems arising in the sense that, for example last week there was a Government of Japan mission which was sent to Jakarta precisely to discuss how to implement these commitments or pledges by Japan. They were in the midst of consultation with the Indonesian authorities about all this with respect to loans as well as grants but the situation in Jakarta was such that it became impossible for their Indonesian counterparts to attend the meetings. So that consultation was suspended for that unavoidable reason and as I understand it, something similar has happened with respect to the World Bank mission. We hope that these practical difficulties will be resolved as soon as possible and that at the same time, to the extent that there has been this change in the Government of Indonesia and in the composition of the new cabinet, we have naturally been interested in seeing who our new interlocutors will be and what their policies or programs may be. However, as I said earlier, as far as we can gather from President Habibie's statement yesterday in which he expressed his commitment to reform and this very recent announcement of the new cabinet, I think there are some encouraging signs that the sort of reform programs that we are interested in seeing happen in Indonesia may very well take place. We expect to be in close touch with them in the coming days and weeks.

4. Letter from Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of the Republic of India

   Q: Yesterday, Ambassador Hiroshi Hirabayashi of Japan met the chief aide to the Prime Minister of India and gave him Prime Minister Hashimoto's letter. I could understand you would not want to go into full details of the letter, but could you tell us how the contents of this letter differ from certain previous letters which have also made reference to intentions on the nuclear issue?

   A: The messages are privy to the leaders so I do not intend to go into too much detail about what the message may have contained. Certainly the message is in keeping with the previous messages that we have been sending the Government of India. Ambassador Hirabayashi was not back in Tokyo for very long, perhaps four or five days, and did have the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Hashimoto. The letter was really underlining the sort of points that we have been conveying to the Government of India, asking that India's nuclear testing be stopped, that India join the nuclear non-proliferation regime and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) without condition and also asking India not to engage in provocative actions or words vis-a vis the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. That, in essence is the message, I believe.

5. Position of the Government of Japan concerning accession of the Republic of India to the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

   Q: You mentioned joining the CTBT and the nuclear non-proliferation regime without condition. Does this mean that yesterday's statement from New Delhi about being willing to negotiate its way into CTBT is completely rejected by Japan?

   A: I am not saying we completely reject it but the assumption that the entry is to be negotiated does seem to imply some sort of conditions and we do not have the advantage of knowing exactly what they may be.

6. Situation of Japanese businesses in the Republic of Indonesia

   Q: After the changeover of the presidency in Indonesia, is Japan still worried about the situation there and I would like to know about the losses suffered by Japanese companies during the unrest.

   A: To take the latter part of your question first, it is true that quite a number of Japanese nationals living in Indonesia have either returned to Japan or have gone to the Republic of Singapore and other nearby places. In that sense, as far as this short period since last week is concerned, a number of Japanese businessmen who have been working in Indonesia have left Indonesia and so have not really been in a position to operate their businesses. We had nearly 14,000 Japanese residents in Indonesia, however the number of Japanese in Indonesia exceeds that figure because there are also short-term visitors. As of 5 May, we had nearly 14,000 Japanese in Indonesia. As of today, there is estimated to be 3,700 Japanese nationals now in Indonesia. In that sense there has been a temporary impediment to conducting businesses as far the business people are concerned. They will be monitoring the situation in Indonesia, which seems to be calming down, to decide when we can give signals to these people who wish to go back to Indonesia, to do so. We certainly hope that it will not have to be too long. Regarding the first part of your question about how we view the situation in Indonesia in general, as far as we can gather from the reports that we have from the Embassy and Consulates of Japan in Indonesia, things seem to be calming down considerably, both in Jakarta and in the provinces and for example, the number of students who were in the parliament building has been reduced very considerably. There do not seem to be many violent demonstrations in other provinces. We certainly hope that with this new government and with the new program announced by the new cabinet, things will come back to normalcy as soon as possible.

7. Return of Ambassador Hiroshi Hirabayashi of Japan to the Republic of India

   Q: Regarding India, when Japan announced its second list of punitive measures including the suspension of the yen loans, there were reports that one of the measures is to reduce or curtail the exchange of senior officials or ministers. Could you confirm that is included in the list? Ambassador Hirabayashi is probably the first of the Ambassadors withdrawn from the G-8 countries or New Zealand and Australia to return to New Delhi.

   Could we attach some significance to Ambassador Hirabayashi's quick return in the context of what in India is seen as Japan's rather harsh reaction to the tests?

   A: Perhaps it is best to answer your questions in the reverse order and start with your last point. Nuclear weapons, especially the proliferation of nuclear weapons, is a matter of very serious concern to the Japanese people in general and one of the important factors behind this is the fact that Japan is the only country in the world which actually suffered from the devastation of two nuclear weapons. Therefore our desire and commitment to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons is very, very strong and given that, India's nuclear testing in our view was a very serious challenge to the international community to which we felt compelled to send a clear message. Secondly, Ambassador Hirabayashi did come back to Tokyo but he is already back in New Delhi. Prime Minister Hashimoto and the other members of the Government of Japan wanted Ambassador Hirabayashi to be back in Tokyo so that we could consult with him about what is happening in India and what we will be doing in the future in terms of talking with the Government of India. Thirdly, you mentioned Australia and New Zealand and the G-8 members. The G-8 countries in their statement did condemn India's nuclear testing. They have this message but exactly how this message may be conveyed by each member of the G-8 to India is really left to the judgment of that particular country. With respect to your first question about personnel exchanges, I think what we did decide at the time of our second announcement is that as far as personnel exchanges are concerned, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kanezo Muraoka announced on 14 May that Japan will ask Ambassador Hirabayashi temporarily to return to Japan to discuss the issue. We said no more than that.

8. Response of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to nuclear tests conducted by the Republic of India

   Q: Could you reiterate Japan's position on the potential for Pakistan to conduct similar tests as India and on the possibility of diverting aid promised India to Africa or the Middle East or other places?

   A: With respect to Pakistan, when the India nuclear testing took place, we did make a demarche to Pakistan asking for restraint -- not to trigger or spiral -- and Prime Minister Hashimoto dispatched his personal envoy Seiichiro Noburu to Pakistan and Special Envoy Noburu went to Islamabad and talked to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan as well as Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and he reiterated our concern about this escalation and proliferation to the Government of Pakistan. We certainly hope that this message from us will be heeded. I think that is where the matter is. We are keenly monitoring Pakistan's reaction. I think it would be premature and inappropriate for me to comment on what may be happening in the area of Japan's aid to Pakistan in this instance when we are still anxiously waiting to see what Pakistan's reaction may be. In any event, I think to talk about diversion is not to my taste.

9. Political reform in the Republic of Indonesia

   Q: We have spoken mainly about the desire for economic and IMF-imposed reforms. Where does the Government of Japan stand on the question of direct presidential elections in Indonesia? Political aspirations have been expressed by many of the opponents of the government.

   A: My answer is very simple. Political reform does indeed seem necessary in tandem with economic reform. Exactly how that political reform may take place is a matter left to the judgment of the Indonesian people.

10. Position of the Government of Japan concerning release of the movie "Pride"

    Q: Concerning this movie called "Pride," which is not a government-made movie --

    A: That is quite true, yes.

    Q: North Korea and China have both condemned this movie on an official level. Do you consider China's condemnation of this movie an interference in internal matters?

    A: Let me try to answer the question from a slightly different angle. Firstly, this film has been produced by a private company in Japan, so whatever comments may be made by people or governments outside Japan on this film should not be seen as comments on the Government of Japan, as such. In fact, the film in no way reflects the position of the Government of Japan. The position of the Government of Japan on the question of past history in relation with the People's Republic of China and other countries is reflected fully in the statement made by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama on 15 August 1995. If I may remind you of that, in his statement he expressed on behalf of the Government and people of Japan the deep remorse and heartfelt apology to a number of people, especially in Asia who underwent tremendous pain and suffering during the war. We humbly accept that such was the fact and on the basis of this deep remorse and heartfelt apology, we are determined to exert our efforts toward world peace and prosperity. I might add, that with respect to this film you may have noted that already in Japan there have been a variety of views expressed on this film.

    Q: Your remark that comments made by countries outside Japan should not be seen as comments on the Government of Japan as such, is there not a bit of sophistry in this in the sense that if Prime Minister Hashimoto visits Yasukuni shrine in his "personal capacity" and China takes umbrage, would you give the same response?

    A: I have been accused of many things, but I have rarely been accused of sophistry, if I may say so. I think I made myself very clear when I said that whatever may be contained in this film in no way reflects the position of the Government of Japan. I have also noted that already a variety of views on this film have been expressed in Japan where there is freedom of expression.

    Q: Have you received any official protests regarding this film from China or North Korea?

    A: Let me say that we are aware of the sensitivity of the Government of the People's Republic of China on this issue.

    Q: Has the Republic of Korea said anything about it?

    A: I am not aware of that. The spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China made a comment. Through that and other means we are aware of China's sensitivity.

    Q: Have you been asked by China to stop the distribution of the film?

    A: It has been produced by a private company and put out on the private market. I reiterate, whatever message may be contained in that film in no way reflects the position of the Government of Japan. So, we have concentrated on these three or four countries in Asia.