Koizumi to visit WW II war dead cemetery on May 30th

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is to attend a ceremony
for Japanese World War II victims at the cemetery of
Chidorigafuchi in the Nippon Budokan of Tokyo on Monday
May 30th. This time, not (yet) at Yasukuni Shrine... In
the same time, rivalry on the gas rich territories in
the East China sea continues.

Quote:

"Japan's trade minister accused China of hypocrisy
yesterday for starting construction of a gas project in
disputed waters of the East China Sea, the latest in a
series of remarks threatening to worsen a diplomatic
feud.

China, whose ties with Japan are at their worst in
decades, said on Thursday it was committed to talks
scheduled for May 30-31 on resolving the row but
criticized Japan for starting the process of awarding
exploration rights in the disputed area.

Japan, in turn, expressed outrage over evidence that
Beijing was going ahead with the construction of
facilities in the same area ahead of the talks. "It's
outrageous," Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
Shoichi Nakagawa was quoted by a ministry official as
telling a news conference.

"While shaking hands with the right hand, they are
dealing a blow with the left. It's unacceptable,"
Nakagawa said, adding it was only natural that this
would affect next week's talks in Beijing, Nakagawa said
that government inspections of the area had shown that
rather than halting its project, China was going ahead
with building facilities.

"Work is proceeding. That is a big problem from the
viewpoint of Japan-China friendship," Nakagawa-who last
month called China a "scary country" ? said.

Sino-Japan relations, already chilly, worsened sharply
this week when Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi abruptly
cancelled a meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi over his refusal to stop visits to Tokyo's
Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are
honored along with Japan's 2.5 million war dead.

Ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) senior official
Shinzo Abe told reporters after meeting Koizumi that he
thought China would continue to raise the issue of how
Japan handles its wartime past whenever Beijing thought
it would benefit.

"I told him my views ... that they (China) would
continue to use this as a diplomatic card as long as
they can and they would not let go of it," said Abe,
often cited as a possible successor to Koizumi and known
for his outspoken criticism of China.

Koizumi is set to visit the Chidorigafuchi tomb for the
unknown soldier on Monday to take part in a ceremony in
which more war dead will be honored, a spokesman for
the prime minister's office said late Friday.

Visits to secular Chidorigafuchi have not sparked Asian
outrage before, because the site it lacks associations
with convicted war criminals or Japan's pre-war Shinto
religion, in which the emperor was viewed as a god.

Koizumi usually visits Chidorigafuchi, on August 15, the
anniversary of the war's end.

China and Japan, the world's second and third biggest
oil consumers, are also at odds over the disputed area
of the East China Sea, with Tokyo demanding China halt
energy exploration and provide data on its gas
development projects there. Trade between the two Asian
giants have been growing, valued at nearly $170 bn in
2004.

But diplomatic ties deteriorated sharply in April, when
thousands demonstrated across China to protest the
Japan's approval of school textbooks that critics say
gloss over its wartime atrocities and to oppose its bid
for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

On Thursday, former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro
Mori, Koizumi's predecessor, accused China and South
Korea of "niggling" in their attacks on the textbooks.

China on Friday lashed out at the comments of a junior
Japanese cabinet minister on Thursday that war criminals
honored at the Yasukuni Shrine-who include wartime
prime minister Hideki Tojo-were no longer regarded as
criminals in Japan, Kyodo news agency reported.

Japanese officials have repeatedly said this is not the
stance of the Japanese government. The remarks were
absurd and a "blatant provocation to international
justice and human conscience", China's Foreign Ministry
said on Friday in a statement on its Web site,
www.fmprc.gov.cn.

"The Chinese government and people express their intense
indignation and severe condemnation," spokesman Kong
Quan said in the statement. The comments were not
isolated or accidental, he said.

"This cannot but make people ask, does Japan play a
responsible role in the international community?" he sai

Shoichi Nakagawa, Japan?s trade and industry minister,
accused China of hypocrisy on Friday for starting
construction of a gas project in disputed waters of the
East China Sea, the latest in a series of remarks
threatening to worsen a diplomatic feud.

China, whose ties with Japan are at their worst in
decades, said on Thursday it was committed to talks
scheduled for May 30-31 on resolving the row but
criticized Japan for starting the process of awarding
exploration rights in the disputed area.

Japan, in turn, expressed outrage over evidence that
Beijing was going ahead with the construction of
facilities in the same area ahead of the talks. ?It?s
outrageous,? Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry
Shoichi Nakagawa was quoted by a ministry official as
telling a news conference.

?While shaking hands with the right hand, they are
dealing a blow with the left. It?s unacceptable,?
Nakagawa said, adding it was only natural that this
would affect next week?s talks in Beijing."

end of quotes