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.