JAPAN CONSIDERING WITHDRAWING COOPERATION ON TIP

S E C R E T TOKYO 002577 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/17/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL JA KTIP SUBJECT: JAPAN CONSIDERING WITHDRAWING COOPERATION ON TIP Classified By: Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (U) Charge James Zumwalt met Deputy Vice-Minister for Foreign Policy Koro Bessho for lunch on Tuesday, September, ¶17. Bessho was accompanied by Akihiko Nakajima, Deputy Director-General for Foreign Policy, Disarmament, and Non-Proliferation, who also handles trafficking-in-persons issues for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Political-Minister Counselor Michael Meserve attended with the Charge. ¶2. (S) DVM Bessho deferred to DDG Nakajima to discuss Japan's reaction to the trafficking-in-persons report and Japanese ranking in tier two. Nakajima, newly delegated to MOFA from the Ministry of Defense, explained he had no background in TIP before meeting with his MOFA staff. He indicated they had told him they were deeply dissatisfied with the TIP process, disagreed with Japan's tier two ranking, and believed Japan would be best served by refusing further cooperation. Nakajima said he had not made a decision, but sympathized with the view that Japan had been held to a higher standard than a number of countries that had been ranked in tier one. Meserve explained Japan should not compare itself with other countries since the rankings are based, in part, on the capacity of countries with greatly different levels of development to respond to the TIP challenge. ¶3. (S) Charge Zumwalt urged Bessho, who had remained silent, and Nakajima not to withhold Japanese government cooperation, pointing out that it would result in increased reliance on NGO reporting and anecdotes which might not present an accurate picture of the TIP situation in Japan. Meserve added that progress had been made in hammering out a work program to address TIP issues in Japan and, as a result, progress had been made in several areas. ¶4. (S) Separately, on the margins of a meeting with Ambassador Schieffer on September 18, Assistant Chief Cabinet Secretary Chikao Kawai told the DCM he had heard that cooperation on TIP may be withheld. Kawai said this deeply concerned him. Kawai explained MOFA staffers are frustrated, but other agency officials are pushing for non-cooperation. SCHIEFFER