The Mori administration and the Foreign Ministry in particular have been taking an ambiguous attitude toward a request for a Japanese visa from former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui. I must criticize this attitude categorically.

Lee said at a press conference at his Taipei office on April 15 that he had applied for a visa on April 10. But Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda and the Foreign Ministry told reporters that the government had not yet received a visa application from him, and that it was therefore irrelevant to discuss whether or not to grant him a visa.

Three of the four Liberal Democratic Party candidates for LDP president, when asked by newspapers whether they are in favor of issuing a visa, said yes. But former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto would not answer the question for the same reason that the government refused to discuss it.