Press Conference by the Deputy Press Secretary, 8 April 2010

1. Destabilization of the situation in the Kyrgyz Republic
2. Statement by Foreign Minister Okada on the release of the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)
3. Establishment of an investigation group on the suggested lack of documents relating to the so-called secret agreements
4. Diplomatic Bluebook 2010
5. Dispatch of a Japanese Election Observation Team for the General Elections in Sudan
6. The Fourth International Manga Award
7. VIP Visits
8. Question concerning the Japanese and U.S. Agriculture Ministers agreement to resume talks on the issue of trade in beef
9. Questions concerning the members of the investigation group related to the "so-called" secret agreements

Destabilization of the situation in the Kyrgyz Republic

Deputy Press Secretary Hidenobu Sobashima: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. We have already distributed three kinds of papers, but I have more than three topics that I would like to present to you.

The first is about the situation in the Kyrgyz Republic. We issued the statement by Press Secretary/Director-General for Press and Public Relations Mr. Kodama on the destabilization of the situation in the Kyrgyz Republic. Yesterday, as a result of collisions in Bishkek, the capital city of the Kyrgyz Republic, between the security forces and anti-government demonstrators, including members of the opposition parties, and shooting from the governmental forces, over 40 individuals were killed and hundreds injured. The Government of Japan is deeply concerned with these, and is monitoring the situation closely.

The Government of Japan expects that the problem will be resolved peacefully through dialogues between all parties concerned, and that democracy and constitutional order will be restored, as soon as possible.

This is my private and informal translation of the Japanese text already issued, and the formal translation may be a little different. In any event the English text will be loaded on our website soon. This is the first topic.

Related Information (Press Release)


Statement by Foreign Minister Okada on the release of the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)

Mr. Sobashima: Secondly, the statement by Foreign Minister Okada on the release of the U.S. Nuclear Posture Review (NPR). Please read all paragraphs, but I will only focus on the second and fifth paragraphs.

"Japan welcomes the NPR which clearly states the U.S. policy to reduce the role and the number of nuclear weapons while enhancing security of the United States and its allies and partners. Furthermore, Japan appreciates the statement by the United States that it is prepared to strengthen its long-standing negative security assurance by expressing its willingness not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapons states in compliance with the nuclear non-proliferation obligations of the NPT. Japan considers this development to be a concrete first step towards a world without nuclear weapons advocated by President Obama."

I will skip reading paragraphs 3 and 4, but please read these as well.

Paragraph 5 says, "Japan strongly hopes that all countries possessing nuclear weapons implement concrete nuclear reduction measures, maximizing the momentum built by the release of the NPR and the NPT Review Conference to be held in May. Japan also expects that all nuclear weapon states besides the United States make efforts for strengthening of their negative security assurance and to deepen the discussion on the 'sole purpose,' the concept which limits the purpose of possessing nuclear weapons to the deterrence against use of nuclear weapons. Furthermore, Japan welcomes the signing of a treaty between the United States and Russia to reduce their strategic nuclear weapons on 8 April. Japan hopes that other nuclear weapon states also continue their efforts to reduce both strategic and non-strategic nuclear weapons."

This is the second item. 

Related Information (Press Release)


Establishment of an investigation group on the suggested lack of documents relating to the so-called secret agreements

Mr. Sobashima: Thirdly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established an investigation group in relation with the suggested lack of documents pointed out by the individual eminent persons who were involved in the study of the so-called secret agreements. Also, the lack was pointed out in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives. Therefore the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to establish a group to investigate the suggested lack of those documents. The group consists of Foreign Minister Okada himself, as the chair of the group, and also State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Koichi Takemasa, and two other members: Professor Katsuya Uga of the University of Tokyo and Professor Sumio Hatano of the University of Tsukuba. The group will review the reports of the individual eminent persons engaged in the investigation of the so-called secret agreements, and also the discussions in the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. They are also expected to conduct interviews with the people concerned and prepare a report as soon as possible. When the report is ready it will be made public. This is the third item.

Diplomatic Bluebook 2010

Mr. Sobashima: The fourth item is just to inform you that on 6 April, two days ago, the Diplomatic Bluebook was submitted to the Cabinet meeting and later it was made public. My announcement is that perhaps in mid-May the summary of the Diplomatic Bluebook 2010 will be available in English on our website.

Related Information (Diplomatic Bluebook)


Dispatch of a Japanese Election Observation Team for the General Elections in Sudan

Mr. Sobashima: Next, we distributed the paper entitled Dispatch of a Japanese Election Observation Team for the General Elections in Sudan. The Government of Japan will dispatch an election observation team to Sudan to assist free and fair elections to be conducted in the general elections in Sudan scheduled to be held from the coming Sunday, 11 April to Sunday, 18 April. The team will be headed by Mr. Yuichi Ishii, former Ambassador of Japan to Sudan, and composed of 16 members including government officials and private experts.

Related Information (Press Release)


The Fourth International Manga Award

Mr. Sobashima: Next is the Fourth International Manga Award. We started to accept the applications for this competition, the Fourth International Manga Award. We will close accepting the applications by the end of May, and we will have the selection, and then the prizes will be awarded early next year. So we started applications for this International Manga Award.

Related Information (Press Release)


VIP Visits

Mr. Sobashima: Finally some information on visits. I don’t have a new announcement, except that the visiting Belgian Prime Minister had a meeting with our Prime Minister yesterday, and the Belgian Foreign Minister had a meeting with our Foreign Minister yesterday. In the meetings, both the meetings at the Prime Ministers' level and at the Foreign Ministers' level, the discussions covered bilateral relations as well as the international situation. One of the issues they discussed was further enhancing the economic relationship, and the proposal was made that perhaps Japan and the EU may consider an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in the future.

As I said, there is no new official formal announcement, but I already announced earlier that the Malaysian Prime Minister will be coming to Japan from the 18th to the 20th of this month.

These are the topics I would like to share today. Now I would like to invite your questions.

Related Information (Press Release)


Question concerning the Japanese and U.S. Agriculture Ministers agreement to resume talks on the issue of trade in beef

Q: Today, the Japanese and U.S. Agriculture Ministers have agreed to resume talks on the beef trade issue. How would the Ministry of Foreign Affairs be involved in this issue? Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Hirotaka Akamatsu has said that the talks would resume at various levels, such as the political level and the working level, but isn’t the Foreign Ministry also going to be involved in the talks, and if it is in what way would the Foreign Ministry be involved?

Mr. Sobashima: Thank you for that question. I'm afraid I don’t have the latest, although I knew that there was a meeting scheduled. I am afraid I don’t have the latest report of the result of that meeting. However, as for your first question I have an answer. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been involved in the process of consultation with the U.S. side about the issue of beef and indeed on the various other issues as well, so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to be involved in the process of consultation vis-à-vis the United States also on this particular issue of beef.

Related Information (U.S. Beef import issue)


Questions concerning the members of the investigation group related to the "so-called" secret agreements

Q: Who were the two professors in this secret agreements investigation group?

Mr. Sobashima: There were four members of the group. Mr. Katsuya Uga, Professor of Tokyo University, and also Mr. Sumio Hatano, Professor of Tsukuba University.

Q: And Koichi Takemasa.

Mr. Sobashima: Yes, the group also includes Foreign Minister Okada and State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Koichi Takemasa.

Q: When is it expected to issue the report?

Mr. Sobashima: Well the Minister himself said that because we have just started we are not able to give you a precise timetable; however, he suggested that perhaps less than half a year, but that is just a rough idea.

Thank you very much.