Takaichi to Keep Ministers Out of Takeshima Day Ceremony

Tokyo, Feb. 16 (Jiji Press)–Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will not send any cabinet minister to an annual ceremony for the Takeshima Islands, now under effective control of South Korea, in Shimane Prefecture, it was learned Monday. As usual, the Cabinet Office’s parliamentary vice minister will attend the “Takeshima Day” ceremony to highlight the Japanese claim on the group of islets in the Sea of Japan, called Dokdo in South Korea, government sources said. The western Japan prefectural government and other local bodies are scheduled to organize this year’s ceremony in Matsue on Sunday. During the previous year’s leadership race of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Takaichi argued that the central government should have a cabinet minister take part in the ceremony regardless of a possible backlash from South Koreans. Now that she has become prime minister, however, Takaichi is trying to further improve ties with the neighboring East Asian country. She agreed with South Korean President Lee Jae-myung to forge future-oriented bilateral relations in their first-ever summit in the South Korean city of Gyeongju in October last year and had a drumming session with Lee after their second summit in Nara, Takaichi’s hometown, in January. In view of China, Russia and North Korea strengthening their cooperation and the United States demanding that its allies boost defense spending, Tokyo and Seoul also find it important to enhance their security partnership. As part of such effort, the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force, in an unprecedented move, supplied fuel to South Korean Air Force aircraft last month. “There is no need to dispatch a minister to the ceremony at a time when Japan-South Korea relations are going well,” a government official said. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]