Former trade minister Takeo Hiranuma said Sunday that Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda should not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics due to China’s crackdown in Tibet and increased military spending.
Fukuda “needs to take a firm response (to show) that he cannot attend the ceremony as the representative of Japan, unless we see prospects of resolution” of those issues, Hiranuma said on a Fuji TV talk show.
Hiranuma in late April spearheaded a group of about 240 conservative lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties that adopted a resolution pressing the government to prod China to respect human rights in Tibet and hold talks with the Dalai Lama.
