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On January 26, DPJ Secretary General Yukio Edano held his regular press conference at party headquarters. He stated, “Japan continues to face a tough situation regarding Japanese held captive in Syria. We urge the criminals responsible to release the hostages immediately. “ Edano also reconfirmed the DPJ’s intention of continuing to cooperate with the government to achieve a speedy resolution to this issue, saying: “Following on from a meeting held immediately after the incident occurred, the DPJ yesterday held a second meeting of its information liaison committee, and heard reports on the situation from government bureaucrats. As President Okada has repeatedly stressed, the DPJ will continue to provide support to the Japanese government, which is making every effort to resolve the situation, with an emphasis on the importance of human life.”
Edano also commented on the party’s response to the ordinary Diet session, which had started earlier that same day. He emphasized the party’s intention of strengthening its opposition in policy areas aside from the hostage issue, stating, “Numerous important legislative issues are on the agenda for this Diet session. These include the economy, national security, medical insurance, and employment. We must carry out rigorous checks to ensure that the reforms Prime Minister Abe talks of are actually for the benefit of the Japanese people.”
Edano also reported that the party executive had confirmed its intention to hold the DPJ’s annual party convention for 2015, postponed as a result of the election for party President, on March 1 at a Tokyo venue.
A reporter asked Edano for his reaction to comments made by the Prime Minister on national broadcaster NHK the previous day, in which Abe referred to the possibility of undertaking legal revisions to enable SDF troops to rescue Japanese held captive overseas. Edano said, “First we need to secure the release of the hostages. The government should be devoting all their energy to this goal. Any talk of the lessons to be learnt from this incident should take place after it has been resolved.”
In response to a question asking what points the DPJ intended to emphasize during the forthcoming Diet debate, Edano stated, “We would like to engage in debate on foreign policy and national security issues once the hostage issue has been resolved. On the domestic front, widening social disparities are an issue. The DPJ intends to put forward our views on this issue.”
Asked for the party’s stance regarding the content of a planned government statement on the 70th anniversary of WWII, Edano said, “There are no major differences of opinion on the main direction we should take. Certainly no one in the DPJ shares the Prime Minister’s view that expressing remorse for Japan’s colonial rule and aggression is a ‘trivial matter’.”
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