Press Conference, 24 June 2008

The G8 Kyoto Foreign Ministers' Meeting
Visit to Japan by Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon
The Third Ministerial-Level Meeting of the Four-Party Consultative Unit for the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity"
Questions concerning the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit
Question concerning Japanese public opinion on the United States

I. The G8 Kyoto Foreign Ministers' Meeting

Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi: Hello and thanks for coming. I've got three announcements to make to start it off.

First, on the upcoming G8 Kyoto Foreign Ministers' Meeting. From Thursday, June 26 to Friday, June 27, Foreign Minister Koumura will host the G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Kyoto at the Kyoto State Guest House. The International Media Center will be located in the Kyoto International Conference Center.

Minister Koumura and other G8 ministers will exchange their views on regional issues and other themes, including nonproliferation issues surrounding North Korea and Iran. They will also discuss the issues of peacebuilding in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Middle East Peace Process. Minister Koumura will sum up the Meeting in the "Chairman's Statement" while the G8 as a whole is planning to release a "G8 Foreign Ministers' Joint Statement on Afghanistan."

Prior to this G8 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Foreign Minister Koumura will give a speech at the FCCJ, the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan today, from 15:00 to 16:00. The title of the speech is "Japan's Role as Chair of the G8."

II. Visit to Japan by Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon

Mr. Taniguchi: The Kyoto Foreign Ministers' Meeting will be quickly followed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations's Official Visit to Japan which extends from Saturday, June 28th to Tuesday, July 1st. The Secretary-General will stay in Kyoto on the 28th and 29th, after which he will move to Tokyo.

In Kyoto, Mr. Ban Ki-moon will visit historic sites and participate in a town meeting on climate change at the University of Kyoto. During his visit to Tokyo, the Secretary-General will be granted an audience by Their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Japan. Prime Minister Fukuda will also hold a meeting with the Secretary-General.

III. The Third Ministerial-Level Meeting of the Four-Party Consultative Unit for the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity"

Mr. Taniguchi: The next and the last announcement is on the Third Ministerial-Level Meeting of the Four-Party Consultative Unit for the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity." Representatives of Israel, Palestine and Jordan will attend this meeting which follows the Second Ministerial-Level Meeting held in August 2007 and aims to promote Japan's initiatives for future co-existence and co-prosperity between Israel and Palestine. The idea behind the "Corridor for Peace and Prosperity" is to promote collaboration among the parties concerned to materialize projects that promote regional cooperation for the prosperity of the region, such as establishing an agro-industrial park in the West Bank and facilitating the transportation of goods.

Related Information (Press Release)

IV. Questions concerning the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit

Q: What are the goals of the Japanese Government for the G8 Summit?

Mr. Taniguchi: Because of the wide array of issues to be discussed by the G8 Summit Meeting it's hard to sum it up in a couple of words but given the salience of climate change as an issue, one of the most important goals for the Japanese Government is to try to give an important contribution in the course of the discussion for the post-Kyoto Protocol. The Japanese Government has to play a pivotal role in trying to include all the major emitters, the United States, China, India and others, and so the role that Japan should play in making the broad framework to which those countries can be incentivized to get in will be very much an important one.

Q: You mean motivate them, to inspire them?

Mr. Taniguchi: Yes.

Q: Can I use the word "inspire"?

Mr. Taniguchi: Inspire, motivate, incentivize. To give incentives.

Q: So climate change is one of your...

Mr. Taniguchi: Climate change is one of the most important issues and due also, in part, because Japan held the TICAD IV Meeting, made sure that the African future should be the one that is brighter, and fifty-one African nations that joined the TICAD IV Meeting all were on the same wavelength, so to say, in recognizing the importance of having more investment and laying out more infrastructure, the Japanese Government together with the African nations and the international community, I think have been able to change the basic tone of African development from the one that focused on poverty reduction to the one that, while losing no focus on poverty reduction, will put more emphasis on maximizing the growth potential of African nations, that will be nailed down in the meetings of the G8 Summit, also.

I should not forget to mention that these days the hike in prices of natural resources, notably petroleum, has been a source of grave concerns for many nations. Market volatility relative to those commodities should also be in the minds and hearts of many participants at the G8 Summit Meeting, so those issues will also be given bigger focus. The Japanese Government is ready to steer the course of discussions on those issues, as well.

Q: Do you think you will be able to accomplish these goals?

Mr. Taniguchi: How to judge the accomplishment is hard for me to specify in a couple of words. But the G8 community has to come to a broad consensus as to the cause and effects of this volatile market change that is occurring in commodities such as oil and food, and there has got to be a shared recognition by the G8 Summit as to the urgency of the food crisis, for instance, which is called by some a "silent tsunami." To that end I think the Japanese Government is going to do a lot in coming up with a consensus among the G8.

Q: What is the G8's responsibility toward peace and human rights issues?

Mr. Taniguchi: Peace and human rights issues of which areas? Could you be more specific?

Q: Say, for example, what happened in Burma, where they had the protests, or what is happening in Tibet in regards to China.

Mr. Taniguchi: I cannot make any prediction as to whether or not those issues will be taken up by the G8 Summit leaders, but we should not be surprised if those issues will be addressed by those people. Again, I don't think there is any notable discrepancy of any kind between and among the G8 leaders when it comes, for instance, to the situation in Myanmar. Food aid and assistance have taken way too much time to be made accessible to ordinary people. It is still hard to verify whether those assistance goods have been given to those most needy. The Japanese Government's position is to, once again, continue to tell the authority in Naypyidaw that they have to better their governance, they have to take care more seriously of the conditions of the ordinary people. Those concerns, I think, are already widely held and shared by the G8 meetings.

V. Question concerning Japanese public opinion on the United States

Q: Moving to another subject, recently the Pew poll came out. In all the countries, the United States popularity went up, but Japan went down 11 percent. It is still high: 61 to 50 percent. What is the reason that it went down?

Mr. Taniguchi: I don't know. The figures of those kinds you are talking about could change almost overnight, and sometimes the date when the polling was made should matter, for instance, (because shortly before the day) you could have any sort of bad news between even the closest allies. So it is hard for me to make a speculation on that. But I think Japan is one of those countries where people have been pretty much consistent in appreciating the roles that the United States plays and the values the United States cherishes. So I am not going to say that Japanese attitudes towards the United States have been undergoing a noticeable change.

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