FUKUOKA -- When revising guidelines for defense cooperation with the U.S. in the case of emergencies around Japan, it is important, for strategic reasons, to keep the geographical scope vague, Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Taku Yamasaki said Aug. 18.
Yamasaki made the comments during a local lecture amid disagreement in the party ranks on whether emergencies involving the Formosa Strait should be covered by the new defense cooperation guidelines. Tokyo and Washington are currently revising the current guideline agreed on in 1978.
Concerning such emergencies, Yamasaki said, "If relations between Japan and China and between the U.S. and China develop closely, such emergencies will not happen. Talking under the hypothesis that such emergencies occur runs counter to the wisdom of deliberately leaving a fuzzy factor in the nation's strategic policy," he said.
Yamasaki said in a news conference after the lecture that he hopes talks involving the LDP and its non-Cabinet allies, the Social Democratic Party and New Party Sakigake, will be completed by the end of the week.
The three parties should agree that Taiwan's problems are China's internal affairs and that their resolution should be peaceful, he suggested.
Officials from the three parties will meet with ambassadors posted in Tokyo from the nine ASEAN member states to explain that the proposed guideline is not designed to increase Japan's military role, he said.