Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura yesterday called China's criticism of visits to a war shrine "absurd" and defended a controversial history textbook, accusing Beijing of ignoring Tokyo's pacifist record as a donor.
China has said relations were at a three-decade low due to an annual pilgrimage by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.46 million Japanese war dead, including 14 convicted war criminals.
"As soon as he visited the Yasukuni shrine, China said Japan was turning to militarism and we were not peaceful. This is absurd," Machimura said.
"We gave them aid, even by issuing deficit-covering bonds. At least in the 1990s, we were the world's biggest provider of aid" to China.
"I can say this proudly," Machimura told a foreign ministry meeting on foreign aid.
Koizumi has visited the Yasukuni shrine each year since he took office in 2001, with his last visit on January 1 last year.
He has indicated he will go again this year despite criticism from China and South Korea, and also appeals by former prime ministers concerned about Japan's diplomatic isolation.
In April sometimes violent protests erupted in China, which accuses Japan of not atoning for its past after Tokyo approved a history textbook written by self-described nationalists who believe Japan is too apologetic about its wartime record.
But Machimura defended the book by the Fusosha publisher, saying that "leftist Japanese scholars and journalists" had taken the issue out of proportion.
"If you read the textbooks you know," Machimura said. "Obviously there is no textbook that praises militarism and colonialism."
"The teachers' union would not adopt a textbook unless it has leftist-slanted passages," Machimura told a luncheon hosted by Jiji Press.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS