DPJ torn over collision video / Balancing act to meet opposition parties' demands, placate China

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Democratic Party of Japan is between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the possible release of a video showing last month's collision between a Chinese trawler and a Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel off the Senkaku Islands.

Opposition parties are boisterously calling for the video to be made public, so a refusal by the DPJ to do so would invite the wrath of their political opponents. However, the DPJ is wary of doing anything that might inflame ties with Beijing.

The government has decided to submit the video footage to the Diet. All eyes are now on whether the Diet will release the footage to the public.

The video recorded by the JCG is still being kept at the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office as evidence. According to government sources, the video leaves no doubt about what happened in the incident.

Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara has been forthright in his opinion on the footage. "[The video shows] the Chinese trawler ramming [the JCG vessel]," he said.

The government has made an abridged version of the footage, just a few minutes long, that shows the moments when the Chinese ship collided with the JCG vessel.

On Oct. 13, the House of Representatives Budget Committee unanimously passed a resolution to submit the video to the Diet.

Since the passage of the resolution, the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party has been clamoring for the footage to be released to the public after its submission to the Diet.

"It's important to inform the public of the facts," LDP Secretary General Nobuteru Ishihara said.

New Komeito leader Natsuo Yamaguchi also wants the footage shown to the public. "The information was obtained by using taxpayers' money," he said at a press conference Wednesday. Your Party shares this view.

Now, the DPJ is walking a tightrope as it deals with this issue.

The DPJ agreed to submit the footage to the Diet in return for opposition parties' cooperation in managing Diet affairs, but releasing the footage could aggravate still strained Japan-China ties.

Senior DPJ leaders will have to balance the potential benefits and fallout of releasing the footage.

"There are differing views on this matter, and there are diplomatic considerations to take into account," said Yoshio Hachiro, chairman of the DPJ Diet Affairs Committee.

The party leadership is lukewarm on the idea of releasing the footage. It wants the video shown only to a select group, such as directors of the lower house Budget Committee, sources said.

However, only partly releasing the video would give opposition parties ammunition to use on the DPJ, they said.

Many DPJ members believe the government may have already blown its chance to make best use of the video.

"It was a mistake [that the government] didn't release the footage shortly after the Chinese captain was arrested," a midranking DPJ lawmaker said. "The government missed an opportunity there."

The Diet has restricted the disclosure of material submitted by the government in the past.

On Sept. 1, 1983, a Korean Airlines Boeing 747 bound for Seoul from New York was shot down by a Soviet fighter near Sakhalin, killing all 269 passengers and crew members, including 27 Japanese.

In March 1985, the lower house Budget Committee had the government submit a video document showing the KAL plane's flight path and other information before it was shot down. The data had been collected by the Self-Defense Forces. The footage was viewed only by Budget Committee directors and families of the victims.

In 1976, a list of "high-ranking government officials suspected of corruption" in the Lockheed bribery scandal was submitted to a lower house committee. Only members of the committee were allowed to see the list at first.

Toru Suzuki, deputy chief prosecutor at the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office, said Wednesday that House of Representatives Speaker Takahiro Yokomichi demanded the office submit the footage of the collisions between the Chinese trawler and the JCG vessel.