DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 03/28/07

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 10 TOKYO 001360 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR E, P, EB, EAP/J, EAP/P, EAP/PD, PA WHITE HOUSE/NSC/NEC; JUSTICE FOR STU CHEMTOB IN ANTI-TRUST DIVISION; TREASURY/OASIA/IMI/JAPAN; DEPT PASS USTR/PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE; SECDEF FOR JCS-J-5/JAPAN, DASD/ISA/EAPR/JAPAN; DEPT PASS ELECTRONICALLY TO USDA FAS/ITP FOR SCHROETER; PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR; CINCPAC FLT/PA/ COMNAVFORJAPAN/PA. E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO PGOV PINR ECON ELAB JA SUBJECT: DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 03/28/07 INDEX: (1) Kono describes calls for a review of Kono Statement as "intellectually dishonest" in interview by Asian Women's Fund last November (2) Wartime comfort women issue: New Komeito Secretary General Kitagawa raps statement by Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shimomura (3) Editorial: Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shimomura's remark undermines prime minister's apology (4) ABE cabinet as a group casting doubts on coercive recruitments of comfort women (5) "Comfort women" issue (6) Facts about SDF mission in Iraq (Section 2); Thinking of SDF as Japan's new garrison-SDF in transformation (Part 1): Random steep approach frequented to dodge missiles; "This is not a drill. It's actual warfare." (7) LDP plays baseball game with US Embassy leisurely on the day after Noto Peninsula quake ARTICLES: (1) Kono describes calls for a review of Kono Statement as "intellectually dishonest" in interview by Asian Women's Fund last November ASAHI (Page 2) (Full) Evening, March 27, 2007 It has been learned that Lower House Speaker Yohei Kono, in an interview last November to the Asian Women's Fund (AWF, chaired by former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama),said, "it is Intellectually dishonest to discuss the wartime comfort women issue as if to deny the very existence of such women," just because documents showing the government's involvement in recruiting comfort women have not been discovered. In 1993, when he was serving as chief cabinet secretary, Kono released a statement expressing an "apologies and remorse" to the comfort women. In the interview, Kono severely criticized calls from various circles for a review of his statement. Kono's words will appear in the book, "Oral History: Asian Women's Fund," to be released shortly by the AWF. The organization was established following the Kono Statement with the aim of extending monetary compensation to the former comfort women. The Kono Statement noted, "Military authorities directly or indirectly took part (n the recruitment of comfort women)." Referring to this part, Kono stated clearly in the interview: "No matter what anyone might say, there was no question about that." Citing the results of the government's interviews with 16 former comfort women, Kono said, "They offered explanation after explanation on the situation known only to those who had experienced such tremendous hardships." He also said: "It is assumed that the Imperial Japanese Army disposed of the TOKYO 00001360 002 OF 010 documents related to the recruitment of comfort women. I have no intention of avoiding responsibility (for the statement) or revoking the statement." Prime Minister SHINZO Abe's remarks were reported overseas earlier this month in connection with calls for revising the Kono Statement. As a result, Kono has been swamped with requests for interviews from the Western media. Kono, in an effort to quell the situation, has simply said, "I issued the statement with conviction." (2) Wartime comfort women issue: New Komeito Secretary General Kitagawa raps statement by Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shimomura ASAHI (Page 2) (Full) Evening, March 28, 2007 Speaking of the wartime comfort-women issue, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura recently stated during a press SIPDIS conference, "My recognition of the issue is that there was no direct involvement by the former Japanese military." New Komeito Secretary General Kazuo Kitagawa during a press conference this morning criticized this statement: "The deputy chief cabinet secretary is not in a position to state his view on this matter. His role is to protect Prime Minister Abe. I would like him to be cautious about making a personal statement." He thus expressed strong displeasure with Shimomura, who expressed his own view while Prime Minister ABE has been reiterating his intention to abide by the stance taken by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono in his 1993 statement on the comfort women. SIPDIS Shimomura during a press conference on Mar. 26 took a stance of denying the involvement of the former Japanese Imperial Army. He later explained to reporters: "My personal view is that since (no public documents) have been found, there was no coercive recruitment by the military or constituted authorities." (3) Editorial: Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Shimomura's remark undermines prime minister's apology ASAHI (Page 3) (Full) March 28, 2007 Prime Minister Abe's remark about the so-called wartime comfort women set off a commotion that has yet to calm down. Sine his remark early this month, "Evidence does not exist to prove there was coercion," was roundly criticized at home and abroad, the prime minister has sealed his lips when it comes to referring to coercion, while repeatedly expressing his "apologies" to the former comfort women. Probably keeping in mind his upcoming first trip tot he Washington in late April, the prime minister is trying to quiet down the clamor by reiterating the stance of upholding the 1993 Kono Statement. However, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Shimomura has made remarks that could throw cold water on such efforts by the prime minister. In a radio program and at a press conference, he clearly denied any involvement by the Imperial Japanese Army. Shimomura flatly rejected the contents of the Kono Statement, which recognized the Imperial Japanese Army's involvement in the comfort women issue and offered an apology: TOKYO 00001360 003 OF 010 "In Japan, there was an age in which (young women) were sold into prostitution. Like that, I think there were cases in which parents sold their daughters. The Imperial Japanese Army was not involved. "I myself perceive that there was no military involvement. Cabinet Office's Foreign Affairs Deliberation Office Head Hiroshi Hirabayashi said in a Diet reply in 1997 that evidence did not exist to prove the military's direct or indirect involvement." The deputy chief cabinet secretary is the No. 3 post in the Prime Minister's Office (Kantei). Statements by the person in this post naturally might be taken as representing the prime minister's views. In this light, Shimomura's remarks have undermined the prime minister's apologies. It is hard to understand why Shimomura brought about the Hirabayashi statement as the basis to deny the military's involvement. The Hirabayashi reply, when the Kono Statement was released, just recognized that no government document was found to prove the military's involvement in recruiting comfort women. It is not correct to think that the reply said, "The military was not involved in the issue." As acknowledged in the Kono Statement, it is apparent that the military was involved in the establishment and management of wartime brothels and the transportation of comfort women, forcing such women to "live in misery under a coercive atmosphere." No matter how picky the argument about whether there was coercive recruitment or not, nothing changes the historical fact itself. The prime minister, based on this view, has offered his apologies. The media in Asia, the US, and Europe all initially reacted to the prime minister's earlier remarks with dismay and outrage. Recently, the influential US daily Washington Post carried an editorial titled, "Shinzo Abe's double talk." The article denounced the prime minister for trying to turn a blind eye to war crimes committed by Japan, while eagerly tackling the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea. Prime Minister ABE refuted the editorial, claiming, "The abduction issue involves ongoing human-rights abuses, but the comfort women issue is not going on now." The prime minister missed the basic point about the issue. The prime minister is now being questioned on how eagerly he as the person representing Japan can address the historical fact that Japan deeply hurt the dignity and human rights of women. This is not a matter of the past. The prime minister should have expressed his views on the wartime comfort women issue in a more polite manner. (4) ABE cabinet as a group casting doubts on coercive recruitments of comfort women ASAHI (Page 1) (Slightly abridged) Eve., March 27, 2007 Toru Hayano "I read it in a certain newspaper article the year my daughter went TOKYO 00001360 004 OF 010 on to junior high school that that particular textbook would be used at that school," said Shoichi Nakagawa (53),currently chair of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Policy Research Council. Sparked by this discovery, Nakagawa moved to establish the "Parliamentary League of Junior Lawmakers to Consider Japan's Future and History Education in February 1997 (TN: the words "Junior Lawmakers" were later deleted to read the Parliamentary League to Consider Japan's Future and History Education). Nakagawa found out that starting that April, junior high school textbooks (at his daughter's school) would begin carrying descriptions about "wartime comfort women." "I respect historical facts as facts. But I have doubts about simply putting descriptions about comfort women in textbooks, regarding which opinions are split," Nakagawa said. The secretary general of the Parliamentary League of Junior Lawmakers was Seiichi Eto (59),and the chief of the secretariat of the group was SHINZO Abe. Nakagawa was the chief representative of the group. He says he "shares basic political views with Eto and ABE about the Constitution and national security." The group invited as lecturers a number of scholars, government officials, textbook publishers and others to a total of 10 rounds of meetings, including question-answer sessions, that lasted until June (that year). There are only a few Japanese now who deny that the women working at "comfort stations" had horrible experiences. But were women forcibly rounded up by the Japanese military from Japan's colonies at the time, such as the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan? The group took issue with this point. Questions and answers were put together into a book, Rekishi Kyoukasho e-no Gimon (Questions about history textbooks) published by Tentensha. The book carries these comments by Abe: "Why wasn't there anyone who said that she was kidnapped like Megumi Yokota (a Japanese girl abducted to North Korea)?" and "There were so-called kaesong houses in South Korea, so such a thing (kidnapping) was a daily event." Does he mean that women went to the battlefields upon their own will? Abe, Nakagawa, and Eto all shared the perception that there was no evidence the Japanese military "broke into houses and rounded up" women. In January, a "comfort women resolution" calling on Japan to apologize to former comfort women was introduced in the US House of Representatives. In reaction to the resolution, ABE asserted: "There was no evidence to prove the existence of coercion as initially defined." ABE appeared to be representing the feelings of the "Parliamentary League of Junior Lawmakers" since he was a member. Shoji Motooka (76) was the lawmaker who first took issue with the "wartime comfort women issue" in the Diet in June 1990, when he served as a House of Councilors member of then Japan Socialist Party. Motooka was a former school teacher, who was sensitive to such issues as discrimination against Burakumin (descendants of outcaste groups of old) and Koreans. Motooka said: "The director-general of the Labor Ministry's Employment Security Bureau at the time took the floor to answer my question in the Diet and said that the actual state was unknown because private-sector brokers moved along with the military (bringing in women). That meant that the government was not responsible for the issue." TOKYO 00001360 005 OF 010 In August 1991, however, a South Korean woman, Kim Hak Sun, identified herself as a comfort women. In January 1992, Chuo University Prof. Yoshiaki Yoshimi (62) discovered official documentation indicating that the former Imperial Japanese Army gave orders for wartime comfort facilities to be established. This discovery made it difficult for the government to ignore the issue. Asked by South Korea to conduct a fact-finding investigation, Japan issued a government statement signed by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono (Kono Statement) in August 1993. The statement includes such phrases as: "In many cases they were recruited against their own will, through coaxing coercion, and ... at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments;" "to extend its sincere apologies and remorse to all those ... who suffered immeasurable pain and incurable physical and psychological wounds"; and "never to repeat the same mistake by forever engraving in our memories through the study and teaching of history." The statement confirmed the "military's involvement," even though it did not conclude that there was "coercion." During the period when the cabinet as led by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama (83),then chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Chief Cabinet Secretary Kozo Igarashi (81) established the "Asian Women's Fund," a fund based on public donations, that offered 2 million yen each as compensation money to former comfort women. Was this fund set up to allow the government to avoid its responsibility to pay compensation? This question came to Motooka's mind. At the time, he was a member of the Democratic Party of Japan (Minshuto). He then drafted a bill promoting the resolution of the issue of wartime victims of coerced sexual servitude. The bill was aimed at seeking compensation from the state. The bill is commonly called the "Motooka bill." Motooka remains passionate on the bill even now, though he has already retired from politics. "If a change of government occurs, this bill will be the first to be brought to fruition." Take a look at the "Parliamentary League of Junior Lawmakers." The names found on the roster are key members of the current ABE administration. The deputy representative of the league was currently Agriculture Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka (62),the deputy chief of the secretariat working under ABE of the league was currently Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura. The deputy secretary general of the league was Sanae Takaichi (46). The league's committee members, Jinen Nagase (63),Yoshihide Suga (58), and Yoshimi Watanabe (55) are now in cabinet posts. Takumi Nemoto (56) is currently in the post of special advisor to the prime minister. Yasuhisa Shiozaki (56),who was listed as an observer, now serves as chief cabinet secretary. The name of Genichiro Sata (54), who resigned from the cabinet post over the political fund scandal, was also included in the roster. The ABE cabinet is viewed as a cabinet consisting of members of the "Parliamentary League of Junior Lawmakers." (5) "Comfort women" issue From the website of Nariaki Nakayama Posted March 8, 2007 By Nariaki Nakayama, chair of the Liberal Democratic Party's Parliamentary League to Consider Japan's Future and History TOKYO 00001360 006 OF 010 Education We in the Parliamentary League to Consider Japan's Future and Historical Education have established a subcommittee on the comfort-women issue, and since last December we have conducted an investigation and verification, based on documentation provided by experts, historical researchers and others, and taking into consideration the results of our interviews. We think we should always treat historical facts with sincerity and humbleness. We also think we need to assert our views and rebut in a clear and proper manner those criticisms that are not based on facts or lack evidence. In accordance with these principles, the members of the Parliamentary League to Consider Japan's Future and Historical Education propose the following to the government: (1) The resolution now being debated in the US House of Representatives is simply a unilateral view that is not based on objective historical facts, with such claims as: "The Imperial Japanese Army's coercion of young women into sexual slavery," "unprecedented (in its cruelty and magnitude),including gang rape, forced abortions, humiliation, and sexual violence," and "the largest cases of human trafficking in the 20th century." The resolution calls on the government of Japan to apologize. For the honor of Japan, the government should continue diplomatic efforts to block the resolution, while urging domestic and foreign audiences, including the US House of Representatives, to have a correct understanding about the comfort women issue. (2) The mistaken perception on the "comfort women" issue, as found in the House resolution, stems from a statement released in 1993 by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono (Kono Statement). At the time (of the war),a licensed prostitution system was in place, and we are aware that there were some among the comfort women who had been placed in that unfortunate situation. We cannot hold back our sympathy for them and we express our regret. According to our survey, there were cases of private brokers' forcing women to work in brothels against their will, but there was no fact that supported the charge that the military or the government coerced women into sexual servitude, except for the case of the Semarang incident on Java Island. Regarding this case, the persons involved were all punished immediately. This fact should be taken as evidence to show that the military did not coerce women into sexual servitude. In order to fully resolve the comfort-women issue, we ask the government to again conduct a fact-finding survey and fully disclose the results of the documents and matters. March 8, 2007 All the member lawmakers of the Parliamentary League to Consider Japan's Future and Historical Education Likeminded lawmakers of the LDP, out of concern for the fact that the expressions "wartime comfort women" and "recruitment of women by force" are constantly used in Japan's history textbooks for junior and senior high school students, launched a Parliamentary League to Consider Japan's Future and History Education in 1997. We have since then worked to seek to eliminate those expressions going against historical facts. As a result, those expressions have now disappeared in most history textbooks, so we have been relieved (though they are still left in a portion of textbooks for senior TOKYO 00001360 007 OF 010 high school students up for the next round of textbook screening by the Education Ministry). Upon learning that a resolution condemning Japan over the wartime comfort women issue was submitted to the US House of Representatives and that the resolution calls on the prime minister of Japan to apologize for comfort women, our group has resumed its activities. Similar resolutions were submitted to the House in the past but fortunately, as of last year, none were ever adopted. This year as well saw a similar resolution submitted to the House. A hearing on the resolution was held on February 15, and three women claiming to be former comfort women testified in the hearing. Congressman Mike Honda, the proponent of the resolution, has stated clearly that the resolution stems from a government statement issued in 1993 by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono (Kono Statement). But when we examined the Kono Statement in 1997, then Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobuo Ishihara, a responsible official at the time for the investigation of the comfort women issue, which had become the basis for the Kono Statement, told us: "No documents showing coerced recruitment of women by government authorities were found." Why was the Kono Statement, which gave the impression that Japan acknowledged the government authorities' coerced recruitment of women, released? At that time, then Prime Minister Miyazawa was planning to visit South Korea, and ahead of his visit to South Korea, officials in Seoul told Japanese officials that "if the term 'coerced recruitment' were inserted in a government statement, South Korea would not bring up the comfort-women issue in the future." The Kono Statement was the result of a political compromise to calm down the public in South Korea. But it is well known that South Korea has constantly referred to the comfort-women issue even after that. Japan is now paying the price for its stop-gap diplomacy. Even our new investigation did not find any documentation showing forced recruitment by either the military or the police. An Imperial Army order issued in 1938 went: "Crack down on crooked brokers who are using the military's name to recruit comfort women." This fact is a clear evidence to prove that the military was not involved in the recruitment. In discussing the comfort-women issue, we need to take into account the historical background. On that occasion, we must have a good grip of the following points: (1) At the time, a licensed prostitution system was in place, with prostitution a business activity. Brokers, who were called zegen (meaning procurers),bought daughters from their parents and forcibly rounded up women. It is a fact that there were many women living in such an unfortunate situation. (2) The issue tends to focus on Korean comfort women, but most comfort women came from mainland Japan. Some comfort women came from the Korean Peninsula, which was Japan's territory at the time, and from other areas under Japan's occupation. (3) The US Armed Forces' intelligence unit investigated Korean comfort women on Java Island just days before the end of WWII. According to this investigation, the monthly earnings of (one comfort woman) were 1,500 yen, which was divided equally between the brothel owner and the comfort woman; as a result, each received 750 yen. Given that the average monthly pay for Japanese soldiers was 7.5 yen with 30 yen for the sergeant, the comfort-women business was TOKYO 00001360 008 OF 010 very profitable, accounting for why those women would go to the very dangerous war zone. It is often the case among Japanese not to be straightforward with each other, out of consideration for the other side. But in the international community, remaining silent is taken to mean acknowledgment. We should rebut groundless criticism with resolution. Such is necessary in order to protect the dignity of the Japanese and the honor of many soldiers and civilians killed in the war. That is our responsibility, because we are indebted to them for the peaceful lives we now lead on the Japanese archipelago. March 10, 2007 (6) Facts about SDF mission in Iraq (Section 2); Thinking of SDF as Japan's new garrison-SDF in transformation (Part 1): Random steep approach frequented to dodge missiles; "This is not a drill. It's actual warfare." TOKYO (Top play) (Full) March 25, 2007 In November last year, an Air Self-Defense Force C-130 transport plane was flying over the Iraqi capital city of Baghdad and nosed down to land at Camp Sather, a US military base. Suddenly, beep sounds reverberated in the C-130's cockpit. At the same time, dummy flares were automatically fired out of the C-130 with heavy sounds. "Right turn!" The C-130, banking its wings, turned rapidly to the right and then to the left. The ASDF plane went on with its random steep approach in flapping motions until the beep sound stopped. The alarm is set off when a missile approach is sensed. Missiles floating around in Iraq are Soviet-made "SA-7" ground-to-air portable missiles. The SA-7 flies toward an aircraft's engine or the source of heat and bursts near its fuselage. The alarm is set on both sides of the pilot's seat. The C-130 turns to the right when the right alarm beeps and turns to the left when the left alarm beeps. The C-130 risks facing a missile, so any C-130 pilots "take courage" to do so. Flares alone are not enough for them to escape. The ASDF's C-130 crewmembers who have flown to Baghdad think so. One of them said: "This is not a drill. It's an actual war." Japan currently stations about 200 ASDF troops at Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait under the Iraq Special Measures Law. Based on the Japanese government's decision, the Kuwait-based ASDF detachment began its Iraq-bound flights on July 31 last year. What the ASDF's C-130s needed there was evasive action to dodge missiles. They did not have to do so when they airlifted Ground Self-Defense Force troops in their shuttle flights to and from Ali (formerly Taril) in Iraq's southern province. Surprisingly, the ASDF C-130s were "frequently" alarmed to get away from missiles, according to an ASDF staff officer for flight operations. In November last year, the alarm beeped frequently over one and the same area. TOKYO 00001360 009 OF 010 Are the ASDF planes targeted? "They have never been shot," says GSDF Maj. Gen. Goro Matsumura, 48, director of the 2nd Operations Division at the Joint Staff Office. Was it a mechanical error? "I don't know," said ASDF Col. Hisaichiro Tanaka, 50, who commanded the ASDF's 10th Air Transport Squadron and returned home in December last year. "That's my accurate answer," Tanaka added. "ASDF crewmembers on board the C-130s watch out of the windows, but none of them have seen homing missiles," he said. If it was ascribable to an error, the question is why the alarm does not sound over Ali or Arbil. A missile attack cannot be ruled out, so the C-130s cannot but take such evasive action every time the alarm beeps. In September last year, an ASDF top brass officer called on SHINZO Abe, 52, the then chief cabinet secretary, at the prime minister's office to report ASDF activities in Iraq. ASDF officer: "They report to the multinational force that there are about 30 attacks on aircraft every month." Abe: "It's dangerous." ASDF officer: "That's why the SDF is there." Abe: "If they're shot, I guess that would kick up a row." ASDF officer: "I'm afraid that some people would ask why we are there in such a dangerous country." The SDF has been working in Iraq. Its activities there are based on the government's decision. If politicians play dumb, that's the same as pretending to help someone and pulling the ladder away from under him. Abe's answer to the ASDF officer's concern was: "Oh, you don't have to worry. We know Iraq is not safe, and that's what Prime Minister Koizumi (at the time) also stated in his Diet reply." Indeed, the then prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, stated in the Diet, "We're not in a situation where we can say we will not make any personnel contributions and we have only to give money." ABE meant to say the prime minister is the one who gave the go-ahead to the SDF's "dangerous" mission. Public interest in the SDF's Iraq deployment has rapidly waned off since the GSDF's pullout. The Defense Ministry has not disclosed anything in detail about the ASDF's airlift activities that are still going on in Iraq. The government, showing no point of contention, will extend the Iraq Special Measures Law, which is to expire in July. In this second section of a series, the Tokyo Shimbun will close in on the ASDF's activities unknown to the public. (This series is written by Shigeru Handa, Local News Section.) (7) LDP plays baseball game with US Embassy leisurely on the day after Noto Peninsula quake Express March 28, 2007 TOKYO 00001360 010 OF 010 On the night of March 26, 25 members of the Hachisan Kai, a group of freshman lawmakers of the Liberal Democratic Party, played a baseball game with a US Embassy team at Tokyo Dome. The game reportedly was intended to promote friendly relations between Japan and the US, as well as to promote a charity cause. The game, though, took place on the day after the major earthquake on the Noto Peninsula, when aftershocks were continuing. Some persons were overheard saying, "There should have been many things for the lawmakers to do on a priority basis, such as on-the-spot visits and reconstruction aid." Writer Chiaki Aso lamented the situation: "There was a strong earthquake registering 6, with the aftershocks still continuing. There was indisputably a state of emergency. I wonder it was proper (for lawmakers) to play a baseball game leisurely at such a time. They might be taking the earthquake as one that occurred in a depopulated, remote area. The thinking of politicians is out of line with that of ordinary people." The game was intended to promote friendly relations between Japan and the US and for charity's sake. The match was held between the US Embassy team and the team of members of baseball classes intended for elementary and junior high school students with former professional baseball players as teachers and of members of the LDP "Liberty 83" team. The rental fee for the Tokyo Dome was about one million yen. The costs were split between the Japanese team and the embassy team. The full amount of donations collected from audiences will go to the Ashinaga Scholarship Association. Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa threw the ceremonial first pitch, SIPDIS as he did at the game last year. House of Representatives member Tadami Nagashima, former Yamakoshi Village head, also enjoyed watching the game. Yamakoshi Village also suffered serious damage from the Chuetsu Earthquake in Niigata Prefecture in 2004. The US team took the lead in the initial stages, with Manager Hilman of Nippon Ham Fighters pitching well. With a performance by a glamourous cheerleader prepared by the US side before the start of the third inning, excitement in the stadium rose to a fever pitch. Although the Japanese team played hard until the final moments and pressed the American team hard, Japan was defeated 5-6. All the participants looked satisfied, but some took the view that "it certainly was unwise to play at this time." Lower House member Yoshitami Kameoka, player and manager, collected contributions for the relief of earthquake sufferers. He also disclosed that he cancelled a gathering planned after the game. Even so, Harumi Arima, a political commentator, had this bitter advice: "It is true that the game was already planned and could not be cancelled. But there should be other things that should have been done, such as a visit to the disaster-stricken area." Meanwhile, Lower House member Masatada Tsuchiya, representative and owner of the Japanese team, commented: "Though it is not a matter of whether people died, if more damage had occurred, like the case of the Niigata-Chuetsu Earthquake, we would have cancelled the game. We came here after doing what we had to do. It is not proper to constrain ourselves on everything." SCHIEFFER