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Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga met with Okinawan Gov Takeshi Onaga on Saturday night and apologized for remarks made on June 25 at a meeting of junior lawmakers of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
At the meeting, novelist Naoki Hyakuta — a former NHK board member and close friend of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — said that the Okinawa Times and the Ryukyu Shimpo should be put out of business. Other lawmakers present suggested the government put pressure on the Japan Business Federation to urge members not to advertise in the two Okinawan newspapers.
Suga and Onaga discussed the issue during a two-hour dinner at the Hotel Okura. Onaga told reporters afterwards that Suga apologized for the trouble caused to the Okinawan people by the remarks, Fuji TV reported.
The opposition parties spent much of last week questioning Abe in the Diet about his responsibility for the remarks. At first, Abe said it was up to the lawmakers in question to apologize but on Friday, he said the remarks were thoughtless and that as party leader, he was responsible.
Abe reiterated that freedom of the press is a fundamental part of democracy which the LDP respects.
Japanese media said Suga's meeting with Onaga and his apology were an attempt to keep negotiations on track over the contentious plan to relocate the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air base in Ginowan to the Henoko district of Nago, which Onaga resolutely opposes.
© Japan Today
11 Comments
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BertieWooster
"Sorry you got upset!"
That's an apology?
Everything the LDP is doing in Okinawa is cementing the Okinawans against them.
And why do they call the party "Liberal" and "Democratic" when it is NEITHER?
gogogo
He should be fired!
sandhonour
The horse has bolted my friend and you let your true feelings out so I doubt whether that will be seen as a sincere apology.
YuriOtani
The new base should not be built as it is against the desires of the people of Okinawa. This apology is just a way to keep trying for that new base.
Aly Rustom
Bertie
you took the words right out of my mouth. well done!
Christopher Glen
Suga is hopeless
I agree
smithinjapan
"Sorry" doesn't make the problem go away, does it? And how does Hyakuta think about it? When HE apologizes, and is punished for suggesting what he did, THEN perhaps it might be taken without a load of salt. This smoothing things over business should never fly with the public.
Yubaru
(Sarcasm alert....)
Now people here can sympathize with how the folks in SK feel with regards to "apologies" by the Japanese government, it's all words and no substance, but they "apologized".
plasticmonkey
The bandage apology.
Base issues aside (and not to poo-poo them), a more fundamental issue is the Abe government's stance toward the press and free speech. When it comes to right wingers calling for the expulsion or death of Koreans, Abe and friends just say it's unfortunate, but shoganai. We have freedom of expression. But when it's about state secrets, national security, the constitution, criticism of government policy by the press, it's shut these people down. 'Have some respect for Japanese traditions and national polity,' they say.
The people of Japan need to rise up against this horse #$t and put Abe Inc. out of business.
toshiko
He should get rid Hyakuta from LDP