Chronologies
Japan - China
Chronology from Oct 2006 to Dec 2006
: Newly appointed South Korean FM Song Min-Soon meets PM Abe and discusses President Roh’s visit to Japan early next year.
: Joint history panel meets in Beijing.
: FMs Aso and Li confer by telephone on North Korea.
: State Councilor Tang meets visiting Lower House Speaker Kono.
: FM Aso says that additional sanctions are not an option at this time and that Japan always keeps its window open for dialogue with Pyongyang.
: At ninth bilateral talks in Tokyo, maritime officials of Japan and South Korea agreed to cut fishing quotas in each other’s waters to 60,500 tons.
: Japanese emperor on 73rd birthday reaffirms importance of mourning war dead; but avoids mention of Yasukuni.
: LDP drafts a set of additional punitive steps against North Korea as the Six-Party Talks recesses without progress.
: Japanese Foreign Ministry announces opening of new embassies in Malawi, Botswana, Mali, Lithuania, Bosnia, and Micronesia; decision interpreted by media as indication of intention to compete with China.
: Japan and China agree to set up organization to recover and treat chemical weapons abandoned in China by Imperial Army.
: UN General Assembly unanimously passes international convention aimed at preventing the abduction of foreigners by states in the form of “enforced disappearances.”
: Yomiuri Shimbun reports that a Yomiuri-Gallup poll in mid-November conducted in Japan and the U.S. shows that about 80 percent of Japanese respondents and about 75 percent of American respondents say that North Korea is a military threat to their countries.
: Upper House passes legislation to raise JDA to ministry.
: Japan Defense Agency upgraded to defense ministry, which will come into being Jan. 9, 2007.
: The Japan Times reports that former President George H. W. Bush said in China that Japan’s Yasukuni Shrine continues to distort the history of WWII.
: Japan releases the National Police Agency’s 2006 report on security that says North Korea may press ahead with harmful acts in retaliation to Japan’s sanctions.
: FM Aso and Li meet in Cebu; confirm experts history panel to meet Dec. 26-27; agree to set up experts panel on East China Sea.
: Cabinet Office public opinion survey confirms up-tick in Japan-China relations.
: Japan, China, and South Korea hold economic ministerial on Cebu in the Philippines.
: On the sidelines of ASEAN meetings in the Philippines, Japan, China, and South Korea agree to resume negotiations on a trilateral investment agreement.
: Abe meets visiting members of China-Japan Friendship Association; calls for expanded grassroots exchanges.
: Song Jian, chairman of China-Japan Friendship Associations, meets FM Aso in Tokyo; praises Abe’s visit to China.
: China arrests Chinese suspect in 2000 slaying of Japanese businessman in Yokosuka.
: Environment Minister Wakabayashi calls for post-2008 extension of Japan’s ODA program for China to protect environment.
: Kobe court orders government to pay ¥468.6 million compensation to 61 plaintiffs in suit by war-displaced Japanese.
: Japanese and Chinese diplomats begin planning for Premier Wen’s spring visit to Japan.
: Abe government appoints Tokyo University professor Kitaoka Shinichi to chair Japan team of joint history study.
: South Korean Defense Ministry and Japanese Defense Agency decide to hold talks between South Korean Minister Kim Jang-Soo and Japanese Defense Minister Kyuma Fumio next year.
: Upper House passes legislation to raise JDA to ministry.
: Japan-China working-level defense talks held in Tokyo.
: Director General for Asia and Oceanic Affairs Sasae meets in Beijing with Vice FM Wu Dawei and Assistant Minister Cui to discuss North Korea.
: Mainichi Shimbun poll shows that 78 percent of respondents opposed Japan’s possession of nuclear weapons while 61 percent said the debate on the question is acceptable. 22 percent of respondents opposed the debate.
: Metropolitan Police Department searches pro-Pyongyang Chongryun headquarters office in Tokyo and other locations on suspicion of violating the Parmaceutical Affairs Law.
: Nakagawa responds to critics.
: China’s Foreign Ministry blasts former Prime Minister Mori’s October visit to Taiwan and meeting President Chen.
: Abe lobbies visiting Danish prime minister against EU lifting of China arms embargo.
: Abe, at APEC, reaffirms Japan’s commitment to non-nuclear principles.
: PM Abe pledges that his Cabinet will not debate the issue of possessing nuclear weapons.
: Abe and Hu meet in Hanoi.
: Bush, Abe, and Roh exchange views on the situation in Northeast Asia on the sidelines of the APEC meeting.
: FMs Aso and Li meet in Hanoi during APEC meeting.
: Directors of War Bereaved Families Association approve study group on Yasukuni issues.
: Japan presents a list of 24 luxury items that will be banned from export to North Korea based on UNSCR 1718.
: PM Abe names 14 defense and diplomacy experts to a committee to consider how to create a body to take charge of diplomatic and national security policy.
: Dalai Lama in Tokyo; calls for democracy in China.
: Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Suga Yoshihide orders NHK to air more on North Korea’s abductions in its shortwave radio service.
: Chief Cabinet Secretary Shiozaki announces confirmation of flames emanating from Chinese platform in East China Sea.
: Kyodo News reports opening of war resource center in Saitama Prefecture.
: Japan calls for China to assume larger share of UN dues.
: Some 100 pro-Pyongyang Chongryun members stage a sit-in outside the Japanese Diet protesting Tokyo’s sanctions against Pyongyang and harassment over pro-Pyongyang North Koreans living in Japan.
: LDP Asia Policy Study Group holds inaugural meeting.
: FMs Ban and Aso meet in Tokyo and decide to work closely together with the U.S. over the resumption of the Six-Party Talks.
: Vice Minister Yachi protests to Ambassador Wang Chinese activities in East China Sea.
: Japan, EU, and other countries submit a draft resolution to a committee of the UN General Assembly to denounce the North’s abduction of foreign nationals.
: FM Aso states that Japan and North Korea are not likely to hold direct talks and Japan will not immediately change or ease sanctions with the news of the resumption of the Six-Party Talks.
: JDA Director General Kyuma in remarks to Diet calls for reconsideration of Article 9.
: Flames spotted emanating from Chinese platform in East China Sea.
: LDP factions meet; general opposition to debate on nuclear issues.
: Abe calls for reconsideration of Article 9 in Financial Times interview.
: Relatives of Japanese abductees meet with U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton to lobby for UN help.
: LDP’s Nakagawa Shoichi conducts video conference with Taiwan’s President Chen; says peace and stability in Taiwan Strait is important to Japan; calls on China to account for increases in its military spending.
: Japanese Ambassador to the UN Oshima Kenzo urges North Korea to return all the people it has abducted to their homelands.
: Group of relatives of Japanese abductees releases an emergency appeal reporting that North Korea has abducted people from 12 nationalities.
: Ambassador Wang tells Yokohama audience that Abe’s trip has overcome previous political obstacles.
: Shimomura affirms remarks on comfort women were made in personal capacity.
: Japanese Coast Guard drives off Hong Kong activists from Senkaku islands.
: Abe government begins consideration of legislation to upgrade Defense Agency to ministry.
: Democratic Party of Japan President Ozawa Ichiro meets Wu Bangguo, chairman of National People’s Congress Standing Committee.
: Abe sees no problems with Shimomura’s remarks; notes he was speaking in personal, not official, capacity.
: Chief Cabinet Secretary Shiozaki reiterates Japan’s claim to Senkaku islands.
: Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shimomura raises “reconsideration” of comfort women issue in remarks to Foreign Correspondents Club.
: FM Aso tells a Lower House Foreign Affairs Committee session that although he abides by the nonnuclear principle, it is natural that Japan should freely debate what had led Japan originally to adopt the nonnuclear principle.
: LDP’s Aisawa Ichiro, Lower House Steering Committee chairman, meets in Beijing with Vice FM Wu Dawei; discussion focuses on Wu’s trip to North Korea and six-party process.
: Chinese activists depart Hong Kong for Senkaku islands.
: Former Prime Minister Mori visits Taiwan.
: Association for Japan-China Friendship in the 21st Century meets in Beijing; on Oct. 18, Kobayashi, Japan chairman, meets Foreign Minister Li; on Oct. 23 Kobayashi, meets Premier Wen; discussion focuses on history and North Korea.
: The U.S., Japanese, and South Korean Foreign Ministers Condoleezza Rice, Aso Taro, and Ban Ki-moon meet for a trilateral meeting in Seoul and agree to cooperate on the North Korean nuclear threat.
: 84 members of Lower House visit Yasukuni for autumn festival.
: Abe declares that Japan will not pursue nuclear weapons.
: Aso in remarks to Diet calls for study of nuclear issue; Abe restates his government’s commitment to Japan’s nonnuclear principles.
: Diet delegation, led by Upper House President Ogi Chikage, meets in Beijing with Wu Bangguo, chairman of National People’s Congress Standing Committee; Oct. 18, Ogi meets President Hu; discussions focus on North Korea.
: Abe meets visiting Chinese Communist Party official Wang Jiarui; affirms Japan’s commitment to its nonnuclear principles.
: Japan-China Ruling Parties Exchange Conference meets in Tokyo.
: South Korean daily Choson Ilbo reports that the Japanese yen dipped below 800 won for the first time in nine years.
: Chairman of LDP Policy Research Council Nakagawa Shoichi, in wake of North Korea’s nuclear test, calls for debate on Japan’s possession of nuclear weapons.
: Nakagawa Shoichi, chairman of the LDP’s Policy Affairs Research Council, remarks on a TV talk-show that Japan needs to discuss the nuclear option from every angle for the sake of its peace and security.
: The UN Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1718 to impose sanctions against North Korea under Chapter 7 taking measures under its Article 41, which limit sanctions to nonmilitary areas.
: Tokyo announces additional economic sanctions against Pyongyang for the regime’s nuclear test, which include a total ban on North Korean ships, a ban on all imports from North Korea, and a ban on North Korean nationals from entering the country. North Korea warned against “countermeasures” over Japan’s punitive sanctions.
: Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People’s Assembly, meets delegation from Japan’s Kyodo News headed by President Ishikawa Satoshi.
: Fukuoka High Court upholds lower court decision rejecting claims for damages resulting from former Prime Minister Koizumi’s 2001 and 2002 visits to Yasukuni Shrine; avoids discussion of constitutional issue.
: Toshiba Corp. announces partnership with the LG Phillips LCD Poland to target the European market. The company will pay ¥5.5 billion for 20 percent stake in the LG Phillips LCD Poland.
: Pyongyang conducts its first underground nuclear test.
: PM Abe visits Seoul for summit with President Roh for the first time in 11 months.
: Abe arrives in Beijing; meets Premier Wen and President Hu.
: Diet members of Japan-Republic of China Parliamentary Discussion Council visit Taiwan for 10-10 National Day celebration.
: South Korea and Japan begin joint radiation study near Dokdo/Takeshima islets.
: PM Abe Shinzo acknowledges war responsibility of former Prime Minister Kishi, and accepts earlier government statements apologizing for Japanese colonial rule and aggression before the House of Representative Budget Committee.
: Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shimomura announces summit for Oct. 8.
: Japan’s Vice FM Yachi Shotaro announces that Japan and the U.S. agree to seek a UN Security Council Chapter 7 resolution if Pyongyang conducts a nuclear test.
: Abe deals with issues of history during first Diet interpolation.
: Senior members of War Bereaved Families Association consider study group to consider disenshrinement of Class-A war criminals from Yasukuni Shrine.
: Vice Minister Yachi and Ambassador Wang wrap-up summit coordination.