This revised GDP data gives a boost for Prime Minister Shinzo Abes aggressive economic reform policies, known as Abenomics after Japan entered into technical recession in 2014 with a sudden drop in consumption. “Shinzo Abe must not issue a statement which everyone thinks is a step back”, ex- Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono said.
While a Japanese leader’s war anniversary statement is always closely watched, this year’s is getting extra attention, because it marks the 70th anniversary and Abe is considered a revisionist.
That has caused disquiet among Japanese liberals and anger in Beijing and Seoul, which insist Tokyo has not made amends, the report noted. Kono argued that the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the war’s end “doesn’t require the issuing of a separate statement”.
Kono warned that any attempt to whitewash historical facts instead “hurts the Japanese people’s reputation”.
Since taking office in late 2012, Abe has said he won’t necessarily follow the Murayama apology.
“If he is carrying on the [previous] statements as he has recently suggested, Prime Minister Abe should avoid questions and misunderstandings from the worldwide community by speaking frankly and clearly in his postwar 70th anniversary statement”, he said. He is seen as avoiding the terms aggression, colonial rule and atrocities, including “comfort women” sexual exploitation. In his past August 15 speeches, Abe omitted his predecessors’ references to the damage Japan inflicted on its Asian victims and apologies to them.
Murayama said Tuesday that the point is not to offer an empty apology, but to show the world as Japan’s leader that Abe has squarely faced the country’s wartime past and pursued its pacifist pledges.
Abe’s spokesman, Yasuhisa Kawamura, told reporters at the G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps that Japan would not say whether or not it would join the bank until China had tackled concerns about human rights, debt sustainability, environmental protection and governance.
“International society is watching what he is really thinking”, Murayama said.
“Whether the AIIB would clear those elements is quite important for United States”.
