ニュース 2014/05/26 Kaieda states remembrance ceremony at Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery reminds him of “the horror of war and the importance of peace” On May 26, DPJ President Banri Kaieda held his regular press conference at party headquarters and commented on the remembrance ceremony held at Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery and the incident in which Chinese military aircraft had flown abnormally near to Japanese SDF planes in airspace over the East China Sea. First, Kaieda commented on the remembrance ceremony for the war dead that had been held earlier that same day at Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery, saying, “It made me realize anew the horror of war and the importance of peace.” He added that in addition to Prime Minister Abe, diplomatic guests from the United States and Russia, and a variety of other countries including Indonesia and Mongolia, had attended, and commented, “I believe that Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery is a place which those from overseas can visit without feeling awkward, and that it is well suited to act as a national facility for paying respects to the war dead.” Kaieda also commented on the incident in which two Chinese military aircraft came abnormally close to SDF planes over the East China Sea in the morning of May 24, saying, “This is an extremely dangerous act, and the DPJ would like to issue a strong protest to China urges them not to repeat such behaviour.” He also said that the party would like to urge the Japanese government “to encourage the Chinese side to ensure that a marine communications mechanism, which includes the airspace and a hotline are operational as soon as possible, in order to prevent the situation from escalating any further.” Kaieda went on to comment about obtaining a consensus regarding the DPJ position on exercising the right to collective self-defence, saying that the party had already adopted the position that “in the context of the fundamentals of constitutionalism and the rule of law it is unacceptable to directly deny the existing Cabinet interpretation relating to the exercise of the right to collective self-defence, which states that it is not permissible under Article 9 of the Constitution and does not permit its use, and to change the interpretation to permit the exercise of the right to self-defence in general.” He went on to explain that the party was currently debating how this would apply in a number of concrete cases. Kaieda added that he would engage in the debate in June 11’s Prime Minister’s Question Time based on this position.