Press Conference by the Assistant Press Secretary, 22 July 2010

1. Visit to Afghanistan by Foreign Minister Okada to attend the Kabul International Conference on Afghanistan
2. Visit to Vietnam by Foreign Minister Okada to attend the ASEAN-related meetings
3. Question concerning the East Asian Community initiative
4. Questions concerning the return of Korean cultural assets
5. Question concerning Japan's position on the sinking of the Cheonan
6. Question concerning joint military exercises

Visit to Afghanistan by Foreign Minister Okada to attend the Kabul International Conference on Afghanistan

Assistant Press Secretary Takeshi Akamatsu: Good afternoon gentlemen. Thank you very much for coming to the press conference. Mr. Sobashima is with the Minister, so I am taking his place. I have a couple of points to share with you today before I take questions regarding agenda related to MOFA activities. My two points relate to Minister Okada's visits, one in Afghanistan, and the other to ASEAN-related meetings, at which Mr. Sobashima is accompanying him.

Foreign Minister Okada visited Afghanistan on Tuesday 20 July to attend the Kabul International Conference on Afghanistan, and he held talks with Mr. Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, alongside attending this very important ministerial meeting. At the conference Foreign Minister Okada made a speech and stressed the Afghan Government's responsibility and ownership, and of course the international community's support of nation building of Afghanistan, and we reiterated Japan's support policy for security, integration, and development of the country. Minister Okada also shared the view on Japan's support for Afghanistan that Japan has provided assistance based on the announcement last November of a cooperation package to Afghanistan of up to around 5 billion US dollars. The focus is on the three priority areas, which are security, reintegration, and development, and we will contribute out of this 5 billion US dollars about 1.1 billion dollars by the end of 2010. Plus of course we will be closely coordinating with the Afghanistan Government and their priorities. So, Minister Okada's visit to Afghanistan was thus, and he is now on a trip to Vietnam to attend the ASEAN related meetings.

Visit to Vietnam by Foreign Minister Okada to attend the ASEAN-related meetings

Mr. Akamatsu: Minister Okada moved to Hanoi yesterday morning and will be there until Saturday 24 June, attending the ASEAN-related Foreign Minister's meetings. So far, yesterday, the Minister attended the ASEAN+3 meeting at the Foreign Minister's level, and the East Asia Summit (EAS), again at the Foreign Minister's level, informal consultations. On top of that, he attended the Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers' meeting. Alongside these multilateral meetings, he held a couple of bilateral meetings, including one with the Foreign Minister of Myanmar.

At the ASEAN+3 meeting Minister Okada stated that Japan will take a proactive stance toward concrete regional cooperation, in particular the areas of disaster management, trade, investment, and security. Minister Okada announced that we will be hosting an international conference in Tokyo next month, focusing on municipal and community disaster management. So this is new. Perhaps you recall last year we had the Mekong-Japan Exchange Year, so to follow up there was a meeting with Mekong Foreign Ministers – the Mekong-Japan Foreign Ministers' Meeting. Minister Okada reviewed the progress of Mekong-Japan cooperation and there he announced the so-called Green Mekong Initiative for action towards environment and climate change within the region. He is going to stay, as I said, until Saturday, so the meetings will go on, with ARF and so forth, so please watch the website for further news coming from Hanoi, and there might be some new developments during this week.

That is about all for me today, so if you have any questions related to this or any other topic I would be delighted to welcome them. Yes, please.

Question concerning the East Asian Community initiative

Q: On the second topic about the ASEAN meetings, as you know, former Prime Minister Hatoyama was pushing the initiative of the East Asian community. Is this still a policy that Japan is positively trying to achieve?

Mr. Akamatsu: Yes indeed, with regard to the East Asian community, you might recall that in Prime Minister Kan's initial statement at the Diet session, he was clear in saying that we will pursue this idea of an East Asian community. Of course there are many details to be discussed, so not only related to ASEAN we are going to pursue this initiative of East Asian community even under the Kan Government. So my answer is yes. Whether we had direct discussion specifically on the East Asian community at the ASEAN level, I do not know; I don't have a precise memo on that point. But still we are pursuing this issue.

Questions concerning the return of Korean cultural assets

Q: My question is not about today's topics. First, what is the Japanese Government's stance for the return of Korean cultural assets?

Mr. Akamatsu: We are hearing from the Korean media that there are some movements and about the request. With regard to this question, whether we are going to return these cultural assets to Korea, I don't think we have arrived at the conclusion. But still we know there are some requests coming from Korea, and we are taking this seriously and trying to come up with some kind of position on this. That is my understanding of the situation.

Q: My second question is a related question. As you know, many Korean people are interested in this topic, Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced next month to create Japan-Korean 100 years for both countries history.

Mr. Akamatsu: You mean a kind of statement? Well, I think if you follow the various statements from the ministers or the Secretary General or the Prime Minister himself, we have not decided yet, but I think the Chief Cabinet Secretary has been clear on this point that we acknowledge that there are some media reports on these issues coming to Japan. But again, I don't think our position has been fixed on this.

Question concerning Japan's position on the sinking of the Cheonan

Q: Two more Korea related questions. First of all, I understand that on the Cheonan sinking it is the Japanese Government's position to support the South Korean Government's position, and there was recently a UN statement on this issue as well, which says there was an attack, but it doesn't say who made the attack, it just says there was an attack. Is it at this point the Japanese Government's position that it was a North Korean attack - is this something that you officially say "we believe the Cheonan report of the South Korean Government and this was an attack" - or are you still saying "we support the South Korean Government" without specifically saying whether or not it was an attack by North Korea?

Mr. Akamatsu: Our position is always the same. We have not changed our position that we fully support the South Korean view on this incident. Of course there are some different views regarding this incident, as with many other issues, and there were some kind of negotiations among the related parties at the United Nations Security Council level. So far we welcome this statement by the UN Security Council and we understand that the South Koreans are quite supportive of this UN Security Council decision, so we go along with this line. We have from the very start of this incident fully supported the South Koreans along with the United States, and our position remains the same.

Question concerning joint military exercises

Q: The last question on Korea is that recently there is a lot of talk about military exercises, especially US-South Korean military exercises, which are not directed at any particular nation from what I understand, and there was even one report I did not really believe that said that Japan might also participate in some kind of exercises in the sea. I guess there are two parts to my question. First, is there any chance at all that the MSDF would be participating in a trilateral military exercise, and the second part is do you have any particular statement or position on the exercises that are ongoing between the United States and South Korea?

Mr. Akamatsu: First, to the second part of your question, I don't think we have any particular position at this stage about this US-Korea joint exercise in these nearby seawaters. Coming back to the first part of your question, I do not think that the three countries, Japan, the US, and the ROK, have carried out tripartite marine exercises in the past. However, these three countries have been participating in wider multilateral exercises, such as RIMPAC, held every two years. And of course, as for future participation of Japan's MSDF to such US-ROK exercise and thus making it tripartite, I have no idea at all at this stage.

If there are no further questions, thank you very much for coming.