Japan tells world leaders it needs UN Council seat
Japan tells world leaders it needs UN Council seat
Masayuki Kitano, Reuters/United Nations
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a renewed pitch on Thursday (Friday morning in Jakarta) for Japan's flagging bid to gain a permanent United Nations Security Council seat, stressing its record of pacifism since World War II.
Koizumi, fresh from a landslide election win, told a UN summit that a decision to enlarge the 15-member Security Council should be made during the 60th General Assembly session, which ends in a year.
"Japan is convinced that Security Council reform is a just cause for the international community," Koizumi said."For the last 60 years, Japan has determinedly pursued a course of development as a peace-loving nation."
Koizumi did not mention veiled threats by Tokyo to cut its UN dues if the deadlock continued on the council, whose permanent members are the World War Two victors over Japan and Germany.
Japanese officials said earlier Tokyo would negotiate a reduction of dues. Japan pays nearly 20 percent of the UN administrative budget of US$1.2 billion, more than any UN member except for the United States, which pays 22 percent.
Yoshinori Katori, the foreign ministry spokesman, denied that the push was related to the Security Council controversy. But other Japanese officials said last month Tokyo would be under domestic pressure to cut UN payments if Japan's quest for a Security Council seat fails.
"Reform is always a challenge, as it requires us to confront the status quo. But that is no justification for inaction," Koizumi said, speaking in English.
Japan has stepped up a decade-old drive for a permanent seat but faced opposition from Asian neighbors including China, which resents what it perceives as Tokyo's failure to atone for its wartime past.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan gave council reform momentum this year as part of his plan to overhaul UN institutions but the issue is among the most divisive at the United Nations.
Japan then joined forces with Germany, Brazil and India in a plan that included two permanent seats for African nations. The 53-member African Union, whose backing was crucial, came up with its own proposals and the issue never came to a vote.
Koizumi was on a one-day visit to New York for the UN summit, his first trip abroad since his Liberal Democratic Party took 296 seats in Sunday's election for parliament's 480-seat lower chamber.
Enlarging the Security Council requires a change in the UN charter and needs approval from the five permanent members, including China. The United States supports Japan but has not come up with its own plan and rejects all the others.
Japan's ties with China have been frayed by a host of disputes led by Koizumi's visits to a shrine for war dead in Tokyo that China views as a symbol of Japan's wartime militarism.