Japan opposition parties formally called Thursday for
resignation of Foreign Minister Taro Aso over repeated statements
suggesting the country debate developing atomic weapons, despite
its long-held anti-nuclear warfare policy.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe quickly rejected the demand, but the
call underlined mounting pressure on Abe to rein in more hawkish
Cabinet members who have pushed for bolstered defences in the wake
of North Korea's first-ever nuclear bomb test last month.
The call for Aso's resignation was submitted by four of Japan's
opposition parties in an afternoon meeting with Deputy Chief
Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimamura, said Yukio Hatoyama, a top
leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan.
"Since Japan is a country that should take leadership in calling
for the elimination of nuclear weapons, it is unacceptable for
Foreign Minister Aso, the top diplomatic official with the greatest
international influence, to repeatedly call for the need to have a
nuclear debate," Hatoyama said. "The wrong message has already been
transmitted to the world."
The opposition parties asked the government to reply to their
demand by Monday, but Abe responded only hours later, saying Aso
will stay on as Japan's top diplomat.
"Since we agree to abide by the three non-nuclear principles, I
don't think there's any problem with him," Aso said, of Japan's
long-standing tenets not to possess or make nuclear weapons or
allow them on Japanese soil.
"I have no intention of dismissing him," Abe said.
Abe had tried to allay concerns only a day earlier by insisting
that Japan will not stray from its no-nuclear weapons policy.
(China Daily November 10, 2006)
