Press Conference by the Press Secretary 23 June, 1998

1. Position of the Government of Japan concerning the Kingdom of Cambodia
2. Sixteenth meeting of the Japan-ASEAN Forum
3. Emergency aid from the Government of Japan to the Republic of Indonesia
4. Response of the Government of Japan to announcement by the Government of Israel
5. De-mining assistance by Japan in the Kingdom of Cambodia
6. Receipt of announcement of the Government of Japan by the Government of Israel
7. Possible visit by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright of the United States of America to Japan
8. Agenda of the upcoming ASEAN Regional Forum
9. Release of certain documents by the Government of Japan

1. Position of the Government of Japan concerning the Kingdom of Cambodia

   Good afternoon. I would like to start with a couple of statements on the Kingdom of Cambodia. Firstly, in my last press conference I talked about the support that we are giving to the election in Cambodia. On 20 June there was this meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Troika and the Friends of Cambodia, which was held in Bangkok and Director-General Koreshige Anami of the Asian Affairs Bureau took part in it from the Japanese side. The participants in the meeting expressed their appreciation for the efforts made by the ASEAN Troika and Japan and expressed satisfaction over the process that has been followed in Cambodia and their perception was that there is a high probability of the election taking place as scheduled in July. At the same time, some of the participants expressed their concerns about what they thought to be an atmosphere of political intimidation and also their concern about the problems of fair access to the media and also the problem related to ensuring the secrecy of the ballot and the participants agreed that the Friends of Cambodia will continue to ask the Government of Cambodia to deal with these issues in a positive manner. Japan, on its part, has been making active contribution to the preparation of the election, including the more than US $9 million assistance and the dispatching of 30 election observers. In recognition of the fact that the preparation for the election is proceeding and that, at the same time, some of the issues remain as I have just outlined, Japan on its part would like see further efforts on the part of the Government of Cambodia so that all the parties and the politicians can take part in the election in a constructive manner and thereby contribute to the building of a new Cambodia.

   My next statement on Cambodia is that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) have dispatched a survey mission to Cambodia from 20 to 27 June with a view to exploring the possibility for cooperation in the areas of de-mining as well as in the area of support to the victims of land mines in Cambodia. They are there for the purpose of trying to identify suitable projects. They are in the process of meeting and exchanging views with the relevant Government of Cambodia agencies as well as international organizations and nongovernmental organizations in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. This is a part of the effort which Japan has been engaged in under our program to extend 10 million yen worth of support for de-mining technical assistance and support to the victims of land mines in five years, which we pledged at the time of the signing of the Anti-Personnel Land Mine Treaty in Ottawa in December last year.

2. Sixteenth meeting of the Japan-ASEAN Forum

   The sixteenth meeting of the Japan-ASEAN Forum will be held on 25 and 26 June in Hanoi, the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam. The meeting will be attended on the Japanese side by Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Koichi Haraguchi and officials of the relevant ministries and agencies; and on the ASEAN side by vice-ministers for foreign affairs or their deputies. This Japan-ASEAN Forum has been held since 1977, alternately in Japan or in the country which is acting as the coordinator for ASEAN with respect to ASEAN's relations with Japan. It is expected that in this forthcoming meeting there will be in part a following-up of the Japan-ASEAN summit meeting which took place in December last year and they will also be preparing the ground for the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference and the Japan-ASEAN dialogue which are to take place in Manila on 28 and 29 July. In that context, they will be discussing, among others, the economic difficulties faced by the ASEAN countries. They will also be discussing important political and security problems related to the region.

3. Emergency aid from the Government of Japan to the Republic of Indonesia

   We have on many occasions addressed the question of the very serious food shortage in the Republic of Indonesia caused by the El Niño drought and the recent economic crises faced by Indonesia. The shortage of rice is especially acute. In view of all of this, Japan announced its intention to extend food aid to Indonesia when we announced the comprehensive economic package in April. We have been working out the details and this morning the agreement to loan 500,000 tons of rice to Indonesia was signed between the Japanese Food Agency and the Indonesian State Logistic Agency of the Minister of State for Food Supply (BULOG). This loan of rice would entail some transport costs and in the Cabinet meeting of this morning, we decided to provide to Indonesia an emergency grant aid amounting to 10.99 billion yen to defray the sea freight cost of this rice. In addition to this sea freight cost, we are also providing five billion yen out of our supplementary budget, as the cost of transporting the rice to the port within Japan. Now that accounts for 500,000 tons. In addition, we have decided to provide 50,000 tons of rice to Indonesia in the form of grant assistance, which is divided into 40,000 tons to be provided through the World Food Program (WFP) and 10,000 tons of rice to be provided bilaterally. The exchange of letters for the 40,000 tons through the WFP is to take place in Rome today and the exchange of letters for the 10,000 tons of rice that is a bilateral grant aid is taking place in Jakarta today. We certainly hope that this food assistance will help alleviate the critical food shortage which the Indonesian people are suffering from, thereby contributing to social stability in that country.

4. Response of the Government of Japan to announcement by the Government of Israel

   I have one other announcement which is on the Middle East. The Government of Japan has heard with a sense of regret about the decision by the cabinet of the Government of Israel on the approval of a plan that would expand Jerusalem's municipal authority. We have urged both the Israelis and the Palestinians to make sincere efforts to advance the peace negotiations and we believe that the approval of the plan by the Israeli cabinet is undesirable since it adversely effects the peace process at a very critical stage. Japan will continue to watch closely how the Government of Israel intends to deal with this matter.

5. De-mining assistance by Japan in the Kingdom of Cambodia

   Q: You said that Japan is going to help with de-mining in Cambodia. How will this be done?

   A: Yes. To be a little more precise, I might say in the areas related to de-mining. I said earlier that the survey mission is in Cambodia to identify the projects. Now, what are the possible projects? For example, we may be supplying the detection and de-mining equipment, giving support to the training facilities for the de-miners, extending technical cooperation to the operation of the Cambodian Mining Action Center (CMAC) which has been very active in de-mining in Cambodia and conducting public relations activities to the people of Cambodia. With respect to the possibility of technical cooperation in the area of de-mining as such, we will be looking into whether or not the specific needs exist for that sort of cooperation, and on that basis we will be examining whether we will be able to cooperate. I might also refer to what I mean by the support to the victims. Of course, medical care and medical rehabilitation as well as vocational rehabilitation are the sort of areas that we will be looking at.

   Q: You stated that Japan is going to provide training and support. Is the Japanese military going to train them?

   A: Yes. We are not totally without experts in this area.

   Q: Do you have any timetable when you are going to supply the assistance?

   A: I think first we have to identify the projects. So we will see what the findings of the survey team will be first.

6. Receipt of announcement of the Government of Japan by the Government of Israel

   Q: Concerning the Middle East peace process and the situation in Jerusalem, I am wondering whether Japan has already conveyed your message concerning the Israeli cabinet decision to the Government of Israel via diplomatic channels?

   A: I am sure we are in the process of doing that and I do hope that the fact that I have referred to that will somehow be made known as well.

   Q: Has the Israeli side received the announcement of the Government of Japan yet?

   A: Well, given the time difference, I doubt if it has arrived yet.

7. Possible visit by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright of the United States of America to Japan

   Q: Concerning the visit of Secretary Albright to Japan, the reports out of Washington are that she will visit on 4 July.

   A: Well, the United States Independence Day may be as good a day as any other for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright of the United States of America to come to Japan, but the precise dates are still being worked out. It will be around that time frame and it will be after the visit by President William Jefferson Clinton of the United States of America to the People's Republic of China. We certainly look forward to having the briefing from Secretary of State Albright about President Clinton's visit to China, but the exact dates are still being worked out.

   Q: The main purpose of the visit will be the results of President Clinton's visit to China, but will the economic situation in Japan and in Asia in general be included in her discussion?

   A: Yes, given the timing of the visit, we certainly look forward to hearing about President Clinton's visit to China, but at the same time, since Secretary of State Albright is coming to Japan, we also expect that some other issues may also be addressed, including for example, possibly the economic questions and also some other international issues of mutual concern to Japan and the United States such as the whole question of nuclear non-proliferation.

8. Agenda of the upcoming ASEAN Regional Forum

   Q: Could you tell us the schedule and possible agenda of the ASEAN Regional Forum?

   A: Yes. The meeting will start on the morning of Thursday, 25 June. The first day will all be devoted to Plenary Sessions and the agenda items will be the regional economic and financial situation, the follow-up to the Japan-ASEAN Summit meeting, including such items as Japan-ASEAN dialogue, Japan-ASEAN economic relations, Japan-ASEAN development cooperation, Japan-ASEAN cultural cooperation as well as global issues including South-South cooperation and common challenges, somewhat like the common agenda between Japan and the United States. Regional and international issues will be included, for example Cambodia, the Korean Peninsula as well as topics related to ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), World Trade Organization (WTO), Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) and United Nations (UN) reform. Those are the main items to be discussed and we expect to have a press statement or some kind of document to come out of the meeting at the end.

   Q: Is that the ARF agenda?

   A: No. This is the Japan-ASEAN Forum. The ARF meeting itself is going to take place on 27 July.

   Q: Do you have any agenda set for the ARF?

   A: Matters of mutual interest to the participants relating to regional security.

   Q: I would like to get your personal view of the ARF agenda. Would you see a rather substantial change in terms of the agenda because of the economic crises in Southeast Asia? Will it change the focus of the so-called security dialogue, for example from international security to domestic security or things like that?

   A: I do not think that will necessarily be the case. I am not quite sure whether a spokesman can ever talk about his personal views but let me try to respond by offering what I hope will be a commonsensical view which is that yes, the recent economic and financial turmoil in Asia, especially among the ASEAN countries, is a matter of serious concern to these countries, but that in no way means that their concern with or interest in security issues is in any way lessened. If we look at the events of the recent months, the whole question of nuclear nonproliferation has been brought into sharp relief. The nuclear testing by the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a mater of concern to all of us because there is a danger that it may not just be contained in South Asia but may have a spill-over effect to this part of the world. Against such background, I think the participants in the ARF will continue to have an interest in discussing regional security issues as well as global security issues. Quite appropriately, there are a number of fora for discussing these diverse issues. I have been talking about the Japan-ASEAN Forum, which is at the senior official level. There is also the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference which is at the ministerial level and the dialogue between ASEAN and the Dialogue Partners, including the dialogue between Japan and ASEAN. The dialogue between ASEAN and its Dialogue Partners will be taking place in Manila back-to-back with the ARF meeting which is on 27 July. So there is no dearth of opportunities to discuss these issues.

   Q: Could you update us on the invitation of Pakistan and India to ARF?

   A: India is already a member. Pakistan is not a member. When India became a dialogue partner of ASEAN, it became a member of the ARF, but Pakistan has not joined the ARF in any capacity, and we felt that especially given this recent series of events, that it would be appropriate for Pakistan to take part in the discussions in the ARF in some capacity or other, but perhaps there is not a consensus on the participation of Pakistan. We have been in the process of communicating with the relevant governments concerned and we will know in due course what the outcome will be, but I think you will not be surprised to hear that there does not seem to be an enthusiastic consensus on the participation of Pakistan. I do not have to refer to which country might be feeling a bit of reservation about it.

9. Release of certain documents by the Government of Japan

   Q: Could you tell us what kind of documents were released in regard to the Tokyo war crimes tribunal recently? There were apparently a lot of de-classified documents.

   A: It is 3200 pages. There are a lot of documents relating to the trials of the B- and C-class war criminals. If my memory is correct, the A-class criminals were accused of crimes against peace and the B- and C-class criminals were accused of crimes against humanity, mistreatment of prisoners of war and so forth. These documents which were released were not simply those relating to the Tokyo Military tribunal but also to other war tribunals which were held in various parts of Asia. I have not gone through the whole 3000 pages of it, but that is roughly the idea.

   Q: What kind of documents are they? Are they just transcripts of interrogations?

   A: They are transcripts of interrogations and so forth. After 30 years we declassified quite a substantial portion of our documents, and although the tribunals themselves might have taken place much earlier, these documents accumulated and were stored in our office. It took some time to sift through them.

   Q: So these are not available in Washington in the national archives as far as you know?

   A: I am not quite sure whether we are talking about the same set of documents because the documents that we made available this time, were the sort of documents that we felt would be appropriate for us to make public. There may be some documents which cover the same sort of facts which may be found in some archives in the United States, but the point about this particular exercise is that the Government of Japan made available to the public those documents which the Government of Japan felt it would share with the public.