On the evening of October 4th at the LDP's street meeting in Yuraku-cho, Tokyo, Chairman Shigeru Ishiba of LDP's Policy Research Council criticized the current government over the Okinawa issue. Ishiba said that though a city council delegation from Ishigaki City - which has jurisdiction for Okinawa's Senkaku Islands - visited the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry that day to discuss the collision of the Chinese fishing boat with a Japanese Maritime Safety Agency's patrol-boat off the Islands, neither the Foreign Minister nor the Defense Minister made efforts to meet them. Ishiba believes this reveals JDP's attitude toward Okinawa and its sovereignty as empty rhetoric. He said the LDP would urge the government to deploy the Self Defense Forces around Japan's southern border, since diplomacy at times needs to be backed by show of power to secure a safe fishing environment for Japanese fishing boats around the Senkaku Islands.   |
