On the morning of June 10, DP President Katsuya Okada met with United States Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy in Tokyo. After Okada had paid his respects to the Ambassador as leader of the recently-established party, the two discussed a variety of topics, including the question of Okinawa. The meeting was also attended by Deputy President Kenji Eda, Policy Research Committee Chair Shiori Yamao and Director-General of International Department Yukihisa Fujita .
Following the meeting, Okada responded to reporters’ questions at party headquarters, and touched on the various matters which had been discussed.
In the meeting, Okada first explained the meaning and determination that lay behind the foundation of the DP, stating, “The two political parties of the DPJ and the JIP have joined together and aim to create a party that will be capable of forming a government in the future.” He also referred to U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, stating that it was “very welcome”. He expressed his appreciation to Ambassador Kennedy for all her efforts in organizing the visit, and said that “the image of the hibakusha and the President hugging is one that will long remain in people’s memories.”
Okada went on to refer to the alleged murder of a women by a former U.S Marine employed at Kadena Air Base, stating that this incident had deeply wounded the people of Okinawa. He said that a look back over the history of Okinawa shows that such incidents keep on occurring, and that this fact and the issue of the burden placed by U.S. bases on Okinawa, are a matter of grave concern to the Japan-U.S. alliance. In response, Ambassador Kennedy said that the United States Forces Japan had issued orders placing a temporary ban on all U.S. Marines based in Japan drinking both on and off-base and restricting their off-duty activities to the home-workplace commute. Okada responded by pointing out, “A variety of temporary measures have been taken, but if more effective measures are not thoroughly implemented then we will just end up seeing a repeat of such incidents. Surely more permanent measures are required.” He also made a suggestion regarding the U.S. Japan Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), saying, “Although it is not directly related to this incident, it is at the root of the issue. One reason for the current incident is that that the SOFA is not fair. The governments of Japan and the United States should discuss this properly.”
Okada also commented on the issue of the relocation of Air Station Futenma, saying, “If this is carried out too heavy-handedly, then we will end up being unable to relocate the base at all. The Japanese government needs to handle the issue more delicately.” Eda, who had served as Executive Secretary to the Prime Minister during the Hashimoto administration, when the agreement had been signed for the total return of Futenma, gave his opinion based on this experience, saying, “If land reclamation is forced through then we will reach a point of no return. We need to proceed with discussions carefully.”
Following this, open discussions took place on a variety of other themes, with Ambassador Kennedy asking about the advancement of women within the DP.
The fact that the four opposition parties have made the abolition of the new security laws enacted last year an election pledge for the House of Councillors campaign was raised. Okada responded, “It is the view of successive prime ministers that exercising the right to collective self-defence is unconstitutional, and there is a strong possibility that the recent revisions to the security legislation violate the Constitution. Therefore, we are calling for that legislation to be abolished. However, that means returning to the situation we were at before last year’s legislation was passed, and not scrapping the whole existing legislative framework. If we are giving the impression that we want to scrap all existing security legislation then that is not the case. We consider the Japan-U.S. alliance to be extremely important.”
In connection with this, Okada was asked for his opinion regarding criticisms made by Prime Minister Abe in a campaign trail speech the previous day, in which Abe had stated, “Do you really want to entrust the Democratic Party and the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) with the reins of government? If you end up doing so, the security legislation will be scrapped and the Japan-U.S. alliance will be damaged.” Okada stated, “We only intend to return things to the way they were prior to September of last year. I perceive the Prime Minister’s speech as being extremely problematic in the way it paints us as being unwilling to accept the original security legislation.” Okada also commented on the Prime Minister’s remark that “The DP and the JCP are fighting the campaign together in spite of the fact that they have few similar policies.” He responded “This is a House of Councillors election and not an election for a change of government. We have stated that it is inconceivable that we would form a coalition government with the JCP. It is unjust of the Prime Minister to extrapolate wildly based on one single instance. The same can be said of his remarks on the security legislation. Such behaviour is an insult to the Japanese people.” Okada went on, “I would like to see the Prime Minister engaging in a more forward-looking debate.”