Japan’s Abe won’t attend Beijing events
Print Edition
JAPANESE Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will not attend events in China next month marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, a Japanese government spokesman said yesterday.
More than 10,000 troops — mostly Chinese but with contingents from more than 10 countries, including Russia — will march through central Beijing on September 3 in a parade that will be the highlight of the events marking the end of the war.
Abe has apparently tried to improve relations with China, but progress has been slow due to Japan’s failure to atone for its wartime aggression.
“The prime minister has decided not to attend because of his schedule in parliament,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo.
“He will not be traveling to China shortly before or after September 3. We will continue to seek out ways for our two countries to communicate with each other.”
Abe had previously expressed a desire to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in September, but talks had not been confirmed.
Earlier yesterday, Japanese broadcaster NHK said Abe would skip the ceremony in China to focus on self defense bills being debated in parliament.
Abe is facing a backlash over the bills that could pave the way for Japanese troops to see combat for the first time since the end of the war.
Sino-Japan relations have long been affected by Japan’s failure to atone for its occupation of parts of China before and during the war.
“Seventy years ago we relied on the unity and patriotism of the Chinese people to defeat the Japanese fascist invaders, and today we rely on this same spirit to oppose the Japanese rightists’ plots to beautify the history of invasion,” China’s Study Times newspaper said yesterday.
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