Koizumi speech cut short

Coming from a country where every second of time is respected, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi probably did not mind having to shorten the length of his speech to the Asian-African Summit heads of state and government on Friday.

The Deputy Director General of the Asian and Oceania Affairs Bureau at the Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sinichi Nishimaya, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday that the prime minister's original speech had been shortened after the summit organizers said that due to time constraints, each head of state or government would be given no longer than seven minutes to speak.

Nishimaya expressed discontent, however, with what he called the discriminatory implementation of the ruling. Certain leaders, he said, had been allowed to exceed their allotted times.-- JP