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A look at how politics

influenced the prosecutors
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

2010/09/27 Share Article Print

［PR］注目情報
The decision by Japanese prosecutors to release the captain of 独身、彼女彼氏ナシなら。
アラサー、独身、彼女彼氏ナシ…。
a Chinese trawler appears to have been the result of strong
オーネットで“婚活”はじめない？
political influence.
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While government officials at all levels are denying that
AWS(Asahi Weekly Select)
political pressure was applied, government sources did say
that Prime Minister Naoto Kan appeared increasingly agitated Submit your stories
over the prolonged row with China over the arrest of the Share your offbeat stories for a column
captain of the trawler that collided with two Japan Coast Guard
vessels in waters near the Senkaku Islands. Let's Study!
ASAHI WEEKLY
Kan was visibly frustrated even before he left Wednesday to
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attend a U.N. General Assembly session. Central government
officials also whispered rumors that Kan remained agitated Hungry For Words (e-Learning)

during his stay in New York before prosecutors decided to Tips on English

release the captain on Friday. Bilingual Vox Populi, Vox Dei

Bilingual Opinion, Editorial

Officials in the Kan administration were becoming increasingly
Develop An Ear For English!
concerned that bilateral relations could be hurt to an extent

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asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：A look at how politics influenced the prosecutors - English 10-09-27 7:09 AM

that it would take years to repair. Subscribe

Herald Tribune/Asahi
Many central government bureaucrats said they believe that
Kan hurried along the decision to release the captain. Asahi Weekly

NYT Weekly Review

Kan himself stressed in a news conference in New York that no Asahi Shimbun English-language Publication
political interference had been involved in the prosecutors'
decision. Advertise
online newspaper
"(The release) was the result of prosecutors considering the
nature of the incident in a comprehensive manner and making Link
a judgment in an orderly fashion based on domestic law," Kan International Herald Tribune
said Friday evening in New York.
New York Times

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He also called on China to observe more restraint.
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"The two nations are important neighbors that have a Foreign Press Center,Japan
responsibility to the international community," Kan told
reporters. "In order to deepen a mutually beneficial The Asahi Shimbun Asia
relationship based on common strategic interests, both Japan Network

and China must make efforts in a calm manner."

Up-to-date columns and reports on pressing

However, in Tokyo, government bureaucrats said the issues indispensable for mutual understanding
in Asia. [More Information]
government was irresponsible for saying the decision was
made entirely by prosecutors. Asahi Haikuist Network

Why don't you take pen in hand and send us a

"It's a farce to say prosecutors made the decision," a senior haiku or two. Haiku expert David McMurray
ministry official said. "(The government) is irresponsible." will evaluate your submission. [More
Information]

Some bureaucrats predicted events would turn out as they did

in the wake of the arrest Tuesday of a prosecutor at the Osaka
District Public Prosecutors Office on suspicion of altering
evidence.

After the arrest, a high-ranking Foreign Ministry official said,

"It will absolutely have an effect on the Senkaku issue. The
officials in the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office are not
idiots."

The official predicted that prosecutors would bow to political

pressure and release the captain.
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Tours of The Asahi Shimbun head office in
Even after the captain's release, China has not backed down English

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asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：A look at how politics influenced the prosecutors - English 10-09-27 7:09 AM

from its confrontational stance.

朝日新聞社インフォメーション
Japanese officials were seeking a meeting in New York for Kan
採用情報 教育関連・ＮＩＥ
and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao after the release, but that 記事や写真利用案内 写真の購入案内
never materialized.
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Moreover, the Chinese Foreign Ministry demanded an apology
and compensation for the detention of the captain.
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On Saturday, the Foreign Ministry released a statement that
引越し見積もりはこちら
said, "China's request has absolutely no basis and cannot be
accepted."

In Nara, Katsuya Okada, the secretary-general of the ruling

Democratic Party of Japan, said, "It is a completely
unconvincing request. China should respond in a more
restrained manner."

A high-ranking Foreign Ministry official predicted that China

will become increasingly arrogant.

When asked about how to deal with such an emerging China,

the official said, "There is nothing we can do. This is a huge
trend that will continue for 20 years."

Although the Kan administration initially gave the go-ahead to

arrest the captain, it eventually hurried to resolve the issue
even as it prepared for the criticism that such a move would
bring.

They were forced to make that course change because the

unexpected pace at which China escalated its confrontational
stance led government officials to begin thinking about the
worst-case scenario.

After calling the Japanese ambassador to the Chinese Foreign

Ministry numerous times, even late at night, Beijing cut off all
ministerial-level contact. Exports of rare earth metals from
China also came to a halt.

After four Japanese construction company employees were

detained in China, a senior Foreign Ministry official said, "China
has begun moving as the options available to it have

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asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：A look at how politics influenced the prosecutors - English 10-09-27 7:09 AM

decreased."

The official also warned that Japanese in China should be more

careful because "it is a nation like North Korea."

Another Foreign Ministry official said other measures that

Beijing could have taken include "an informal product boycott
against Japanese companies" and "the carrying out of
sentences, including the death penalty, against Japanese
arrested in China in connection with prostitution and drugs."

A Defense Ministry source said, "Chinese naval ships could be

dispatched to the waters near the Senkaku Islands."

In 1993 after France approved the sale of fighter jets to

Taiwan, China, in a retaliatory measure, closed the French
Consulate General in Guangzhou.

Considering the circumstances, Beijing could have taken similar

measures against Japan in the trawler incident, officials said.

A high-ranking official in the prime minister's office said that if

the captain had been indicted, China would likely have recalled
its ambassador and might also have severed diplomatic ties.

When asked about criticism of being weak-kneed, the official

said, "What would you do? Would you go to war? In the past,
this might have ended in war."

The decision to release the captain was also a difficult one for
prosecutors.

After the decision was made, sources in the Supreme Public

Prosecutors Office indicated just how unusual the decision was.

One high-ranking prosecutor said, "There was enough

evidence to indict, but we considered the effects on the Japan-
China relationship. It just went beyond our hands."

Another high-ranking prosecutor warned that prosecutors

could not be held responsible if a similar incident occurred in
the future.

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asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：A look at how politics influenced the prosecutors - English 10-09-27 7:09 AM

On Friday before the decision to release was made in Naha,

Okinawa Prefecture, a meeting was held in Tokyo between
officials of the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office, Fukuoka
High Public Prosecutors Office and Naha District Public
Prosecutors Office.

Naha prosecutors asked that an indictment be allowed, but

objections were raised by prosecutors at higher levels.

The decision to release the captain was made at the meeting.

A high-ranking Justice Ministry official explained why the

decision to release the captain was made before the
Wednesday detention deadline.

"If the decision was made after the prime minister returned to
Japan, doubts would surely have been raised about political
interference in the decision," the official said.

Prosecutors also were aware of the pressure being applied by

China.

One senior prosecutor said, "The detention of the four

Japanese had a psychological effect."

Meanwhile, Tadamori Oshima, vice president of the opposition

Liberal Democratic Party, said the party would ask that Toru
Suzuki, the deputy prosecutor at the Naha District Public
Prosecutors Office who made the announcement to release the
captain, be called to testify in the Diet to explain the process
behind the decision.

An extraordinary Diet session will be convened from Friday.

Oshima said about the comment by Chief Cabinet Secretary

Yoshito Sengoku accepting the prosecutors' decision, "We have
to think that is evidence of interference by politicians in the
judicial sector."

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asahi.com（朝日新聞社）：A look at how politics influenced the prosecutors - English 10-09-27 7:09 AM

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