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2010/08/16
Kan holds press conference, refers to possibility of “participatory democracy”
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On August 10, Prime Minister Naoto Kan held a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office. Giving his impressions following the end of the recent extraordinary Diet session, he said, “I have discerned the potential for a new type of democracy, parliamentary democracy, or if I were to put it in my own words a participatory democracy.” Kan said that rather than the old-style bureaucrat-led post-war system in which the governing and opposition parties were automatically at odds, what was called for was a Diet whose members engaged in vigorous debate, and then worked to reach a conclusion. He commented that he had the passing of legislation regarding a voluntary moratorium on loan repayments and on allowing organizations to continue operating social insurance hospitals in mind when making this remark.
Kan went on to say that he “wanted to deepen the goals of “Putting People’s Lives First” and “Restoring Vitality to Japan” into a nationwide debate.
He also touched on his visits to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and expressed the impression that with the participation of nations possessing nuclear weapons in the ceremonies and other developments “the larger movement toward the abolition of nuclear weapons had taken a further step forward.”
Following this, Kan referred to the statement that had just been released regarding the 100th anniversary of Japan’s annexation of the Korean peninsula. He said that he had had a telephone conversation with Republic of Korea President Lee Myung-bak regarding this, and revealed Lee had expressed the opinion that it was “a statement filled with sincerity”. Kan said that the two had also agreed that it was important to develop Japan and ROK relations solidly into the future over the next 100 years, and that this would lead to stability in North-East Asia as well as to world peace.
With regard to his forthcoming handling of government matters, Kan said, “I would like to have intense discussions within the Diet regarding the views of the people, and also within the international community increase the number of partners with whom we can move forward together toward the grand goal of the total elimination of nuclear weapons.”
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