ID :
95387
Thu, 12/17/2009 - 04:59
Auther :

Emperor`s meeting with Xi not state affairs: official+

TOKYO, Dec. 16 Kyodo -
An exceptional meeting between Emperor Akihito and Chinese Vice President Xi
Jinping at the Imperial Palace did not constitute a matter of state affairs
that requires the Cabinet's advice and approval, a senior official of the
Imperial Household Agency said Wednesday.
Hirofumi Oka, councilor at the agency's Grand Steward's Secretariat, made the
remarks to a special committee of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party to
examine the meeting, which has stirred controversy the emperor was exploited
politically by exceptionally meeting with the rising Chinese leader.
The agency's stance contrasts that of Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the
ruling Democratic Party of Japan, who argues the meeting was state affairs as
stipulated in the Constitution, and thus the request of Prime Minister Yukio
Hatoyama's Cabinet to the agency to arrange the meeting was appropriate.
Ozawa apparently attempted to brush aside criticism that the exceptional
meeting constituted political exploitation of the emperor.
Japan arranged the exceptional audience for Xi against a customary rule that
such a meeting should be requested at least a month before.
==Kyodo

X