Chronologies
Japan - China
Chronology from Jul 2006 to Oct 2006
: Abe in policy speech to Diet calls for strengthening relations with China/South Korea.
: New JDA Director General Kyuma acknowledges that Japan cannot compete with China militarily.
: Abe becomes prime minister; new Cabinet announced; Aso remains foreign minister.
: Abe becomes prime minister.
: LDP and New Komeito agree on new coalition government under Abe.
: LDP Policy Research Council Chairman Nakagawa meets Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai in advance of Comprehensive Policy Dialogue to explore summit possibilities.
: Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry Nikai visits trade fair in Hunan province; meets Vice Premier Wu Yi and Commerce Minster Bo Xilai.
: Vice Foreign Minister Yachi Shotaro and Vice Foreign Minister Cui meet in Tokyo in sixth Comprehensive Policy Dialogue; talks major focused on summit possibilities; also discussed are East China Sea and Korean Peninsula issues.
: LDP Secretary General Nakagawa meets Chinese ambassador; assures that Abe will not visit Yasukuni Shrine during spring festival.
: Japanese and Chinese diplomats conduct Comprehensive Policy Dialogue in Tokyo; explore summit options.
: Abe elected LDP president; Beijing welcomes Abe with same greeting it gave to Taiwan’s President Chen; namely that China would listen to what Abe says and watch what he does.
: Abe elected president of the LDP.
: Abe rejects China’s logic on war responsibilities as basis for normalization, i.e., separation of general public and war leadership.
: Koizumi and China’s Premier Wen Jiabao meet in Helsinki at ASEM meeting; photographed smiling and shaking hands; photo taken by official Chinese photographer posted on ASEM website, reportedly at request of Chinese government.
: Senior Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Shiozaki visits Beijing; holds informal talks with Communist Party officials on possibility of summit.
: National Defense Academy President Iokibe Makoto in Koizumi government e-mail magazine criticizes the prime minister’s Yasukuni visits as having negative affect on Japan’s diplomacy.
: Former President Lee postpones travel to Japan due to health reasons.
: Keidanren Chairman Mitarai Fujio, adviser to the Japan-China Business Associations, visits China; meets President Hu; Hu calls for regular high-level exchanges, once political obstacles are removed; meeting, however, is focused on economic, financial, technology cooperation.
: Abe tells reporters that he will make efforts to realize a summit; urges China and Korea to make similar efforts.
: Former Prime Minister Nakasone raises issue of Japan possessing nuclear weapons; former Ground Self-Defense Force Gen. Shikata talks of need for Japan to possess pre-emptive strike capability.
: Abe tells Morioka LDP convention of plans to elevate JDA to ministry status.
: Abe announces candidacy for LDP presidency.
: Mainichi Shimbun reports Abe had initiated planning for a Japan-China summit during November APEC meeting in Hanoi; Nakagawa tells Naha audience that China is interested in improving relations.
: Chinese court awards 1.6 million yuan damages to Nanjing massacre survivor.
: Foreign Minister Aso declares candidacy for LDP presidency.
: Japan Coast Guard ship intercepts Taiwanese ship attempting to land on Senkaku islands.
: Koizumi visits Yasukuni; China protests; Japanese ambassador called in; Chinese ambassador protest to Japanese Foreign Ministry.
: Fisheries Vice Minster Miyakoshi Mitsuhiro makes “private” visit to Taiwan meets with Taiwan’s President Chen, Premier Su, and Agriculture Minister Su to discuss fisheries issues; China urges Japan to honor “one China” policy; trip acknowledged by Abe on Sept. 12.
: Ministry of Trade and Economics confirms no change in status quo in East China Sea.
: Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui announces plans for Sept. 12-17 sight-seeing visit to Japan.
: Relatives of war dead enshrined at Yasukuni file suit in Osaka District Court; demand relatives be disenshrined on grounds that enshrinement was effected without their permission.
: Koizumi says that he will decide appropriately with regard to visiting Yasukuni.
: Koizumi reaffirms 2001 campaign pledge to visit Yasukuni on Aug. 15.
: Kyodo News reports that China National Oil Corporation had announced on its website the beginning of full-scale production; later Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Futabashi reports that Beijing confirmed no change in status quo.
: Nakagawa Hidenao, chairman of LDP’s Policy Research Council, suggests legislation to make Yasukuni a government-directed entity.
: Koizumi announces that he is ready to visit Yasukuni at any time.
: 1944 War Ministry order becomes public; by order of War Minister Tojo enshrinement at Yasukuni limited to those who directly died from military service.
: Aso releases multi-step reform plan for Yasukuni.
: Reports surface that Abe had visited Yasukuni April 15.
: Koga presents War Bereaved Families Association with plan to study separation of Class A-war criminals; association decides to postpone consideration until after Sept. 20 LDP presidential election.
: Relatives of Taiwanese conscripted into Imperial Army file law suit in Osaka District Court requesting disenshrinement from Yasukuni.
: Hong Kong-Taiwan group announce plans for Senkaku protest.
: Akiba Takeo appointed director of Foreign Ministry’s China and Mongolia Division.
: Grandson of Class-A war criminal former Foreign Minister Togo Shigenori calls on Koizumi to end visits to Yasukuni.
: Koga suggests secularization as solution to Yasukuni issue.
: China’s Ambassador Wang suggests to Nagoya audience that restraint on the part of Koizumi with regard to Yasukuni visit could open door to summit meeting.
: LDP Tokyo chapter hosts Abe, Aso and Tanigaki in policy debate.
: LDP Asia Study Group meets at LDP headquarters; calls for strategic ambiguity with regard to Yasukuni.
: Foreign Ministers Aso and Li meet in Kuala Lumpur during ARF meeting.
: Asahi Shimbun publishes interview with grandson of Class-A war criminal Hirota Koki in which grandson voices family opposition to Hirota’s Yasukuni enshrinement.
: Minister for Financial, Economic, and Fiscal Policy Yosano calls on Yasukuni to create environment that would allow emperor to visit.
: In Tokyo speech, Koga calls on Yasukuni to remove Class-A war criminals.
: Abe tells Kobe audience that decision on Class-A war criminals should be made by the shrine or the War Bereaved Families; refuses to say whether he will or had visited the shrine.
: Finance Minister Tanigaki characterizes Yasukuni as a “fishbone” in Japan’s throat with respect to China and Korea.
: China’s Vice Foreign Minister Wu and Japan’s Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Nishida lead delegations to 10th China-Japan security dialogue in Beijing.
: Abe publishes campaign manifesto “Toward a Beautiful Country”; criticizes China for refusing to meet with Koizumi because of Yasukuni.
: Nihon Keizai Shimbun publishes record of conversation with Showa Emperor on the enshrinement of Class-A war criminals in Yasukuni.
: Yamasaki faction issues proposals for LDP presidential election; calls for secular war memorial.
: Foreign Minister Aso addresses Yasukuni issue; points to difficulty of government making decisions with regard to Yasukuni as private, religious corporation.
: Koizumi meets with German Chancellor Merkel during G-8 Summit in St. Petersburg; lobbies against dropping of EU arms embargo on China.
: Koga visits China; July 17 visits Nanjing and museum dedicated to Nanjing Massacre; on July 19 Koga meets with Wang Jiarui, head of CCP Central Committee International Department; Wang approves of Koga’s Yasukuni plan.
: Transportation Minister Kitagawa visits China; markets shinkansen technology to China’s railroad minister.
: Taipei Mayor and Nationalist Party Chairman Ma meets former Prime Minister Mori in Tokyo; also meets Tokyo Gov. Ishihara, Yokohama Mayor Nakada, and addresses Tokyo Foreign Correspondents Club during six-day stay in Japan.
: DPJ President Ozawa visits China; meets State Councilor Tang and President Hu.
: Yamasaki tells Asahi TV audience that Koizumi’s visits to Yasukuni may be unconstitutional.
: Working-level talks on East China Sea held in Beijing.
: Former LDP Secretary General Koga, head of War Bereaved Families Association, proposes secular war memorial as solution to Yasukuni.
: LDP and DPJ Diet members visit China, including acting LDP Secretary General Aisawa.
: Tokyo Gov. Ishihara equates 2008 Beijing Olympics to Hitler’s 1936 Berlin games.
: Cleanup of chemical weapons abandoned by Imperial Army begins near Ning’an in China’s Northeast; 210 poison gas bombs found; completion of chemical weapons cleanup slated for 2007; in August, Japanese official says complete cleanup will require five additional years.
: Ozawa meets with China’s President Hu Jintao.
: Delegation of junior Diet members from ruling and opposition parties visits China.
: Democratic Party of Japan President Ozawa meets Wang Jiarui, head of CCP Central Committee International Department and State Councilor Tang Jixuan.
: Japanese Foreign Ministry protests operation of Chinese research ship within Japan’s EEZ.