Diplomatic protocol broken to please the Chinese
Forget about President Obama’s bow. This is the kind of story that actually makes the news in Japan:
A bitter conflict between ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) bigwig Ichiro Ozawa and Imperial Household Agency chief Shingo Haketa over the Emperor’s official duties highlights Japan’s failure to clarify relations between the Emperor and politics in the post-war period.
The dispute erupted between Haketa, grand steward for the Imperial Household, and the DPJ-led government over the administration’s request that a meeting be hastily arranged for Tuesday between Emperor Akihito and visiting Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping.
Haketa criticized the Cabinet for breaking a customary rule, under which the Cabinet should request a meeting between the Emperor and a distinguished guest from overseas at least one month in advance. The request was made just short of a month ago.
The exception was apparently made because of pressure from the ruling Democratic Party of Japan. Many in both the ruling and opposition parties have criticized the decision, which looks very much like an attempt by the government to use the elderly emperor as a political tool.
“There are many people, even within the Democratic Party of Japan, who regard it as a poor decision,” Senior Vice Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Shu Watanabe said, emphasizing that the meeting should kept to a one-time exception if it cannot be canceled.
Members of the two other parties in the ruling coalition — the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party — also spoke out against the hastily arranged meeting.
“It shouldn’t be granted even as an exception,” SDP lawmaker Tomoko Abe said on the same program, while PNP lawmaker Akiko Kamei said she shared the Imperial Household Agency’s concern over political manipulation of the throne.
Nobutaka Machimura, a former chief Cabinet secretary and a member of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, also said when he was asked to arrange a similar meeting by an ambassador he knew, he turned the request down “according to the rules.”
DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa, who recently returned from a visit to China, has denied direct involvement and blasted those who think it was a bad idea to break the rule:
Ozawa dismissed this line of argument, saying it is possible that all national events involving the Emperor that are held with advice and approval from the government “result in the use of (the Emperor) for political purposes.”
“If any bureaucrat (in a division of the Cabinet) wants to say something about Cabinet policies, he or she should do so after offering to resign,” Ozawa said.
If the Emperor is not feeling well, he should skip events that have lesser priority, the former DPJ chief said.
“There are many people, even within the Democratic Party of Japan, who regard it as a poor decision,” Watanabe said, emphasizing that the meeting should kept to a one-time exception if it cannot be canceled.
Members of the two other parties in the ruling coalition — the Social Democratic Party and the People’s New Party — also spoke out against the hastily arranged meeting.
“It shouldn’t be granted even as an exception,” SDP lawmaker Tomoko Abe said on the same program, while PNP lawmaker Akiko Kamei said she shared the Imperial Household Agency’s concern over political manipulation of the throne.
Nobutaka Machimura, a former chief Cabinet secretary and a member of the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party, also said when he was asked to arrange a similar meeting by an ambassador he knew, he turned the request down “according to the rules.”
The Imperial Household Ministry has apparently been quite strict in enforcing the one month rule ever since the Emperor had surgery for prostate cancer in 2004 and it is unlikely that the Chinese government would not have known about the rule.
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