RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE FOR SUPPORT OF U.S. CANDIDATE

C O N F I D E N T I A L TOKYO 005065

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR IO/T LTOBEY, EB/CIP/TS DMAY, NASA FOR JTILLMAN

C O R R E C T E D C O P Y/////ADDED (C) MARKINGS IN PARAGRAPHS////

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/06/2016
TAGS: TSPA JA SENV TSPA
























SUBJECT: RESPONSE TO DEMARCHE FOR SUPPORT OF U.S. CANDIDATE
STEVEN LATT AS DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL MOBILE SATELLITE
ORGANIZATION

REF: SECSTATE 140757

Classified By: JOYCE B. RABENS, MINISTER COUNSELOR FOR EST FOR REASONS
1.4 b/d.


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Summary
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1. (C) REFTEL demarche was delivered to Japan Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. NASA Attach met with Japan,s lead
delegate to the International Mobile Satellite Organization
(IMSO),Mr. Toru Nakaya, Director of the International
Organizations Office, Telecommunications Bureau, Ministry of
Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) to deliver the
brochure on Mr. Lett and relay the talking points. Mr.
Yasuhiro Otsuka, Deputy Director, International Organizations
Office, also attended. Mr. Nakaya was familiar with Mr. Lett
and knew that the USG was nominating him. END SUMMARY.

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About Mr. Nakaya
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2. (C) EST-NASA Attach Bill Jordan met with Mr. Nakaya
and Mr. Otsuka of MIC on August 30th at the Ministry of
Internal Affairs and Communications. Mr. Nakaya knew the USG
was nominating Mr. Lett, but had never met him. Mr. Nakaya
has only recently (6 months prior) assumed his current
position, but has a long record of experience in the GoJ,s
international organizations including his prior 4 years (2002
) 2006) living in Geneva as the representative to the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU),a member of the
Postal Services of Japan (1999-2002, a member of the Japan
Mission to the European Union (Belgium) (1996-1999. Prior, he
joined the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (previous
name of MIC) in 1985. During his tenure working in the ITU,
Mr. Nakaya had met the U.S. Ambassador to the ITU David Gross
on multiple occasions.

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Delegates
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3. (C) Mr. Nakaya indicated that he, Mr. Otsuka and Mr.
Yoshiyuki Kato, Official, International Science Cooperation
Division, Foreign Policy Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(and previously from MIC) would travel to attend the IMSO
meeting in London, September 25-29. In addition, the Japanese
Science Counselor from the Embassy of Japan to the U.K. will
also probably attend.

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Reaction to U.S. Demarche
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4. (C) Mr. Nakaya expressed surprise on receiving a
personal call regarding the demarche and also explained that
there had been no other demarche received from any of the
other nominating countries. He said that, to his knowledge,
the MIC had never received such a personally-delivered
demarche request before.

He explained the background of the IMSO,s origins, and that
the charter of the IMSO was to oversee the government
obligations of Inmarsat. He also acknowledged that the
current IMSO organization has become &much more political8
than in the beginning of the IMSO.

Mr. Nakaya stated that they were very curious as to what the
USG stood to gain by becoming the Director of the IMSO. He
pointed out that the current wide spread support within the
IMSO membership for the possible expansion of the IMSO
oversight seemed counter to the USG goals. Since the Director
would be obligated to follow the two-thirds majority vote of
the IMSO members, a USG director might be in a position of
supporting a non-US supported position. With this background,
he asked: &Why does the Department of State want to nominate
someone for the Director of the IMSO?8

(Mr. Jordan provided a response in a follow-on e-mail pulling
from the talking points of the REFTEL and after consulting
with Mr. Doug May/EB/CIP/TS)

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Additional comments
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5. (C) Mr. Nakaya said that he had just attended a meeting
of the International Telecommunications Satellite



Organization (ITSO) in July. He said that he had tried to
make a point of order at that meeting to have members of the
Intelsat company attend, but did not gain enough support to
get his position accepted by other members. He made a point
of stating that he did not get support from the U.S.
Delegate, and did not know the reasoning why.

He also stated that there are many UN organization elections
going on, including some positions within the ITU. He
informed me that Japan has a nominee for the ITU
International Standardization Sector, to which Japan was
nominating Mr. Yuji Inuoe, Senior Vice President and Chief
Telecommunications Officer of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph.
Mr. Nakaya also informed me of Mr. Inoue,s website:
www.y-inoue.info




SCHIEFFER