The LDP divisions of Foreign Affairs, Defense , and Land and Transport held a joint meeting to discuss the leaking of a video of the Chinese fishing boat collision with a Japanese coast guard's vessel off the Senkaku Islands, Okinaka, on November 11. The meeting condemned the actions of Chief Cabinet Secretary Senkoku and Land and Transport Minister Mabuchi in leaking the video and demanded they take responsibility. Foreign Policy Division Director Itsunori Onodera said that Japanese people were building resentment against the Democratic Party administration about its handling of the coast guard officer's actions in the leaking of the video. He argued that Chief Cabinet Secretary Sengoku must take ultimate responsibility. Chairman of the Policy Research Council Shigeru Ishiba asserted that people's anxiety over the government's handling of various issues is now widespread. He was severe in his criticism of the cowardly attitude of the Democratic Party administration in shifting the burden of the responsibility onto Director-General of the Maritime Safety Agency Suzuki. Politicians should not let public servants who administer policy take the burden of responsibility. Chairman of the General Council Yuriko Koike said, "Minister Sumio Mabuchi should take political responsibility. We must take swift political action regarding this issue, otherwise it would give the wrong image to the world that Japan does not have a proper system to control regulated information." |
