Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s instruction to arrange a meeting between the emperor and Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping against protocol has stirred criticism even from his Cabinet and ruling coalition parties.
On a TV Asahi Corp. program broadcast Sunday, Senior Vice Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Shu Watanabe criticized the arrangement of the meeting, which China requested on Nov. 26 and Japan has granted against a customary rule that such a meeting should be requested at least a month before.
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