Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he was reportedly willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Kishida said he was willing to meet with Kim in an effort to resolve the long-running issue of Japanese nationals getting abducted during the 1960s and 1970s.
According to local media reports, Kishida said on Saturday that he was willing to meet with Kim during a meeting on the issue, adding that he was willing to meet without any “preconditions.” This comes as North Korea admitted in 2002 that it abducted 13 Japanese citizens over the past decades. Five of those who were abducted and their families were able to return to Japan, and said that the others died.
However, the media reported that Tokyo believes that Pyongyang kidnapped 17 Japanese citizens and is still investigating those who were not able to return.
On Friday last week, Tokyo also unveiled its mid-term economic policy framework, including Kishida’s proposed “new capitalism” priorities, such as efforts to address the country’s declining birth rate by increasing spending on childcare. The outline is expected to be finalized in June but did not mention how childcare spending would be funded, which is seen as a point of contention before Kishida may call for a snap election in the coming months.
The draft outline also puts focus on economic security by urging both the public and private sector joint investments to strengthen supply chains and investments in products, including chips, at a time of trade tensions between China and the United States. The draft also called for achieving structural pay increases and boosting investment in human resources, among others.
When it comes to the childcare policy, Kishida has ruled out increasing consumer tax to fund childcare, while some lawmakers under the governing party have suggested issuing bonds.
Also on Friday, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Tokyo would be imposing additional sanctions on Russia following the move by Japan’s fellow G7 countries to ramp up measures to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. Matsuno also condemned Russia’s move on Thursday to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
“As the only country to have suffered atomic bombings during wartime, Japan never accepts Russia’s nuclear menace, let alone its use,” said Matsuno during a press conference.
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