JAPAN: PM embarks on Asia tour
Updated
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has begun a week-long visit to Indonesia, India and Malaysia. In the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Mr Abe met President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and signed a bilateral free trade agreement, which aims to strengthen ties ahead of next year's 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. On Tuesday Mr Abe will travel to India -- where he's due to visit relatives of Indian leaders who supported Japan during and after World War Two.
Presenter: Nasya Bahfen
Speakers: Punendra Jain, Professor, University of Adelaide
BAHFEN: Prime Minister Abe plans to meet descendants of Justice Radhabinod Pal - the only judge at the Tokyo war crimes tribunal to support Japan. Mr Abe will also meet with the family of Indian independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose, who sided with imperial Japan in the 1940s. The University of Adelaide's Professor Purnendra Jain has written extensively on Japan's international relations. He says the pre-war Indian nationalists saw an alliance with Japan as a step to independence.
JAIN: Some Indian leaders at that time they were thinking in terms of cooperating with Japan in order to get rid of the British from India. This judge… Radhabinod Pal was on the eleven judge panel of the Tokyo tribunal where he had the lone dissenting voice saying that it was not fair for the victors to impose on the vanquished.
BAHFEN: Prime Minister Abe has been instrumental in repairing ties with China and South Korea, after his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi angered Beijing and Seoul with regular visits to a shrine commemorating Japan's war heroes. According to Mr Abe meeting the families of two prominent Indians who supported Japan during and after World War II, will not strain ties with China and South Korea. But South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper calls the proposed visits nauseating. And the Korea Times says they're "deplorable" and tantamount to denying that Japan inflicted suffering on other Asian countries during the war. Professor Jain says they're unlikely to affect Japan's current relationship with its neighbours.
JAIN: Certainly there will be some eyebrows raised in some of those countries as to the intention behind Abe's meeting with these people, but I really don't think it's going to create a whole deal of problems in China or South Korea with regards to Abe's meeting with descendants of these Indian leaders who were very sympathetic to Japan.
BAHFEN: Prime Minister Abe's visit is historic. He's following in the footsteps of his grandfather and the then Japanese Prime Minister Nobosuke Kishi, who visited India fifty years ago. He's expected to announce strategic agreements with his Indian counterpart on security, economic ties, and scientific research. And he'll be the first Japanese Prime Minister to address a joint session of the Indian parliament. Adelaide University's Professor Purnendra Jain says this is a rare honour - not extended to US President George W Bush or Chinese President Hu Jintao when they were in India.
JAIN: Abe is in particular becoming well known in India because of his views as to how Jap and India should work together. I mean democracy is one aspect but there are a whole range of other strategic issues where Abe sees a clear role for India and the current Indian government under Manmohan Singh has responded very very positively.
