Makiko Tanaka made some sensible points in her column, but she, the daughter of a notoriously corrupt former prime minister Kakuei Tanaka, is a right-winger, with no moral authority, totally disconnected from all in Japan who are actively opposing the war. In any case, the JG says yes to the USG again:
***** NYT March 10, 2003 Japan Says It Will Back the U.S. Resolution on Iraq By HOWARD W. FRENCH
TOKYO, March 9 - Japan's statement on Saturday that it would support a new United Nations resolution on Iraq sought by the United States came after weeks of fence-sitting, marked by almost no public debate on the issue.
"Japan supports the proposed resolution as something that will mark the final step of the global community's effort to pressure Iraq to disarm on its own," Yoriko Kawaguchi, Japan's foreign minister, said in the statement.
Ms. Kawaguchi's announcement came two days after a strongly worded criticism of the government's failure to discuss publicly its position on the Iraq crisis issued by her predecessor, Makiko Tanaka, who said that Japan should do more to avoid war. The decision also coincided with the first large antiwar protests, involving an officially estimated 14,000 demonstrators, who marched through the central city....
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/10/international/asia/10TOKY.html> *****
NYT once again underestimates the number of protesters; Asahi Shinbun says 50,000 -- "50,000 March against Iraq War," IHT/Asahi, March 11,2003, <http://www.asahi.com/english/national/K2003031100235.html>. -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://solidarity.igc.org/>