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REGIONAL NEWS & SPECIAL REPORTS
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 |
AsiaViews, Edition: 13/III/April/2006
The South Korean government on Wednesday strongly reacted to an alleged Japanese government report that argued Roh Moo-hyun would never abandon his anti-Japanese policies to duck down and slip past criticism against his increasingly lame duck presidency.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that if the news report is true, Seoul has no other option but to sternly deal with Japan's misconception.
Lee Hyuk, head of the foreign ministry's Asian Affairs Bureau, summoned Masatoshi Muto, Japan's envoy extraordinary, to the ministry in Seoul and asked him to confirm whether the report allegedly written by the Japanese Foreign Ministry is true, Ban said during the weekly press briefing.
``The report, if it is true, distorted Seoul's effort to develop relations between Seoul and Tokyo,'' Ban said. ``It's so regrettable that Tokyo is distorting the truth even though Japan's wrong interpretation of the shared history is the reason for the current tension between the two countries.''
Chong Wa Dae also said that it is now conducting a fact-finding process through diplomatic channels.
``The report, allegedly issued by Japan's Foreign Ministry, was taken very seriously at the daily morning meeting of Cheong Wa Dae staff today,'' Choi In-ho, presidential deputy spokesman, said. ``But the priority for now is to confirm whether such a report exists.''
The alleged classified Japanese report, disclosed by the vernacular daily JoongAng Ilbo, said that the Roh government's anti-Japanese policies are politically motivated and will never be submerged before the end of the upcoming major elections.
By: Park Song-wu
Korea Times April 5, 2006
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 )
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REGIONAL NEWS & SPECIAL REPORTS
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 |
AsiaViews, Edition: 13/III/April/2006
Customs officials seized a record number of fake brand-name imports last year, and China became the Japan's biggest supplier of the counterfeit products, government statistics showed Tuesday.
Most of the seized products were contained in international mail, according to the Finance Ministry's Customs and Tariff Bureau.
Nine customs offices intercepted a total of 13,467 fake goods in 2005, a drastic increase of 47.3 percent from the previous year and the highest figure since the ministry started compiling such statistics in 1982.
South Korea had long been the largest exporter of illegal products to Japan, but China overtook that dubious position in 2005, accounting for 6,278, or 46.6. percent, of the items seized.
A bureau official said exporters have apparently switched to international mail to avoid the stricter inspections at ports and other facilities.
Small-lot illegal imports using international mail have increased rapidly in the past three to four years. Last year, 96 percent of the seized products were contained in international mail.
The Asahi Shimbun April 5, 2006
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 )
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REGIONAL NEWS & SPECIAL REPORTS
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 |
AsiaViews, Edition: 13/III/April/2006
The Foreign Ministry declared a Cote d'Ivoire diplomat persona non grata for allowing gangsters to use his apartment in Tokyo for an illegal gambling operation, sources said Wednesday.
The diplomat in his 30s received about 40 million yen ($342,144) from the organized crime group that ran the card games. He returned to the African nation a day before the ministry said March 31 that he was no longer welcome here, the sources said.
The diplomat's name came up during an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department into a baccarat pit in a room in Tokyo's expensive Minami-Azabu district.
The baccarat pit was effectively controlled by a gang affiliated with the Inagawa-kai organized crime syndicate, but the room was rented to the Cote d'Ivoire diplomat.
A 45-year-old president of a trading company with connections to the Inagawa-kai asked the diplomat to rent the room to take advantage of his diplomatic immunity, the sources said. The two had met through a trade fair.
Gambling in the room took place from March to October last year, reaping profits of roughly 550 million yen, the sources said. The trading company president rewarded the diplomat with monthly payments that totaled about 40 million yen.
Tokyo police cracked down on the gambling pit in October and arrested 37 people. The trading company president has since been convicted of making illegal profits and assisting in an illegal gambling operation.
The MPD, through the Foreign Ministry, asked the Cote d'Ivoire Embassy to revoke the diplomat's privileges, including his diplomatic immunity.
The embassy did not comply, and the ministry on March 31 declared the diplomat persona non grata, but he had already returned to his country.
The Cote d'Ivoire government called the incident "regrettable," according to the sources.
It marked the second time the Foreign Ministry has designated a foreign diplomat persona non grata. The first time was for the first secretary at the South Korean Embassy after the 1973 kidnapping of former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung in Tokyo, according to the ministry.
The Asahi Shimbun April 5, 2006
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 )
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REGIONAL NEWS & SPECIAL REPORTS
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 |
AsiaViews, Edition: 13/III/April/2006
Last week's declaration by Chinese President Hu Jintao on Yasukuni Shrine continued to ripple through Japan's political community Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Taro Aso once again had strong words for Hu over the Chinese president's suggestion that he would meet with Japanese leaders on condition that they stop visiting Yasukuni Shrine.
"It sounds like a method similar to saying to Taiwan 'We won't meet with you unless you recognize such-and-such aspect of China,'" Aso said Tuesday. "Their methods go beyond our understanding."
He criticized Beijing for attaching various conditions to holding talks with different parties.
Aso brought up Hu's statement that he would meet with any Taiwanese official, regardless of party affiliation, as long as that official recognized the "one China" principle and the 1992 agreement between the two sides affirming it.
The foreign minister rejected Hu's similar assertions about the visits to Yasukuni, where Class-A war criminals are memorialized along with Japanese war dead.
"They said they would not meet (with the prime minister) to resolve the issue, but I believe, in order to resolve the issue, leaders of the two nations have to meet," Aso said.
Aso's words carry weight not only because he is foreign minister, but also because he is one of the four politicians considered leading candidates to replace Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi when he steps down in September.
Another candidate, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, also criticized Hu's comments, calling them unacceptable.
Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, another possible Koizumi successor, was less emphatic.
"It is important to be able to frankly discuss whatever issues turn up, so it would be problematical if the leaders could not meet," Tanigaki said.
Analysts think Hu likely made his comment to influence Koizumi's successor on the Yasukuni issue.
But, they added, there is also the danger that remarks from Hu and other Chinese officials could lead to a backlash in Japan that would only worsen relations between the two nations.
Even those with close ties to China appear to be disappointed by Hu's comments.
Business leaders such as Kakutaro Kitashiro, chairman of Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives), have been trying to persuade Koizumi to stop visiting Yasukuni to avoid hurting economic ties with China.
However, even Kitashiro expressed disappointment at Hu's words.
"A comment like this will turn the Yasukuni visits into a political issue, and domestic public opinion will be such that it will be impossible for politicians to stop visiting Yasukuni," Kitashiro said.
"I am deeply disappointed by Hu's latest comment."
The Asahi Shimbun April 5, 2006
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 21 December 2010 06:12 )
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