June 22, 2022

The latest issue of the major weekly news magazine “Sunday Mainichi” paid attention to the Japanese Communist Party’s diplomatic vision and carried an interview given by JCP Chair Shii Kazuo.

At the beginning of the interview, interviewer Kurashige Atsuro, who is a former Mainichi Shimbun senior writer, expressed his concern over Japan’s foreign policies by stating that Japan’s efforts to have dialogues and contacts with neighboring countries for the purpose of overcoming disagreements appear to be insufficient. In addition, he voiced his dissatisfaction about the poverty of grand ideas for establishing an inclusive framework for collective security in East Asia.

Kurashige said that based on this thought, he examined political parties’ diplomatic policies in their platforms for the July 10 House of Councilors election and found that the JCP’s diplomatic vision is notable. “That’s why I decided to have an interview with you,” he said to Shii.

Shii pointed out that the results of the Upper House election will determine Japan’s future because Japan is standing at a historical crossroads over a choice between a path toward being trapped in a vicious cycle of military responses and a path toward building peace through diplomacy.

Shii criticized the Prime Minister Kishida-led government for being obsessed by the arms race with Japan’s participation and having no coherent foreign affairs strategy. In contrast, he said, the JCP proposes a diplomatic vision for the creation of peace in East Asia based on the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution. He explained that the JCP, with this diplomatic initiative, seeks to make an East Asia-wide treaty of friendship by making use of the East Asia Summit consisting of ten ASEAN nations plus eight non-ASEAN countries, including Japan, the United States, China, and Russia.

In the interview, asked about the JCP’s view on China-related issues, Shii said that it is important to deal with China’s hegemonic acts in the East and South China Seas in a cool-headed manner based on the UN Charter and international law, such as the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. He continued to say, “It is also important to utilize and strengthen the East Asia Summit and other multinational frameworks which include China and to keep on holding talks with China under these structures. Regarding Japan’s relation with China, the government should actively promote bilateral dialogues with the aim of pursuing the establishment of a peace structure.

Other themes that Shii talked about in the interview included Japan’s participation in the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the ongoing aggression by Russia in Ukraine.

Past related article:
> Japan should give priority to peaceful solution of disputes and promote AOIP in cooperation with ASEAN nations [ June 20, 2022]