ニュース 2014/04/08 Kaieda holds press conference in U.S. On the afternoon of April 8 (the morning of April 9 Japan Time), DPJ President Banri Kaieda held a press conference in Washington D.C. during his visit to the United States. Kaieda said, “Although we are an opposition party delegation we were able to engage in a very frank exchange of opinions.” He expressed his warm appreciation for the United States’ stance in actively engaging in discussions with Japanese politicians regardless of whether they belonged to the ruling and opposition parties, and said this indicated the importance which they placed on Japan-U.S. relations. He also stressed, “I believe that the Democratic Party of Japan has a role to play in relieving tensions in East Asia and I am intending to work toward this.” He mentioned that a leadership summit had recently been held at last with the Republic of Korea, with President Obama acting as intermediary, and stated, “I appreciate the efforts made by President Obama in facilitating the meeting, but we must create a situation in which a leadership summit can take place at any time between Japan and the Republic of Korea, without it being necessary for the United States to act as an intermediary.” Kaieda reported that in these circumstances, he had dispatched a delegation led by Acting President Yoshiaki Takaki to the ROK and one led by Acting Secretary General Masaharu Nakagawa to China, and that on their visits they had discussed the need for candid discussions to take place between the top leaders of each of the countries. Asked what issues the United States was interested in with regard to Japan, Kaieda replied that the U.S. hoped for the recovery of the Japanese economy and wanted to obtain Japan’s understanding for the rebalancing policy, as well as asking Japan to make efforts toward the stabilization of East Asia. He added that there was also a lot of interest regarding the state of play in Japan on the TPP and in particular what the position of the DPJ was on this issue.