Kunihiko Miyake, foreign affairs critic and counselor to the Cabinet Secretariat, appeared on Nippon Broadcasting System’s “Koji Iida’s OK! Cozy up! He explained about the East Asia Summit (EAS) held in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Prime Minister Kishida Attends East Asia Summit, Seeks Understanding on Treated Water Release
On September 7, Prime Minister Kishida attended the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, and stated that “no problem has arisen from a scientific standpoint” regarding the discharge of treated water from the TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the ocean, and sought understanding from other countries as he did on September 6. The meeting was attended by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, as well as U.S. Vice President Harris, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, and others, but according to the Foreign Ministry, no condemnation of Japan was issued by China’s Li or other countries.
China’s condemnation of Japan’s release of treated water is to release gas that has built up in its people – China is isolated and does not have good relations with the U.S.
(Miyake) It is natural that there is no condemnation. China is the only country that is loudly condemning the incident, and in the first place, it is a false accusation.
(Iida) That’s right.
(Miyake) The reason why China is saying such things is because real estate prices are falling, the economy is bad, unemployment is high, and things are not necessarily going well in the country, so gas is building up among the people.
(Iida) Discontent.
(Miyake) They are working against Japan to release the gas, but if they are not careful, “anti-Japan” may turn into “anti-government. If that happens, China will be in trouble.
(Iida) If it becomes anti-government.
(Miyake) In that sense, we are not in a situation where we can corner Japan even if we try. They say “internal and external problems,” but in terms of external problems, China is isolated. And relations with the US are not good.
China is in a bad economic situation and cannot completely cut off Japan – If Japanese companies leave, the economy will deteriorate more and more.
(Miyake) Since Mr. Biden, Mr. Putin, and Mr. Xi Jinping will not be coming to this East Asia Summit, I wonder what the outcome will be. However, I think Japan is saying what needs to be said and doing well.
(Iida) Even at the timing of the ASEAN+3 (Japan, China, and South Korea) Summit, Mr. Kishida caught up with Mr. Li Qiang of China and had a standing conversation with him.
(Miyake) It is only natural that the other side would call for an improvement in relations. Even China has absolutely no intention of cutting off Japan completely. If they did, Japanese companies would leave China in droves.
(Iida) The economy would deteriorate further.
