Readers in Council,
The Japan Times,5-4 Shibaura 4-chome,
Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0023
Japanese government bureaucrats lie just as readily and smoothly as politicians. Maybe more. In the Sept. 15 report, “Japan snubs Peru bid for Fujimori,” a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official is quoted as saying, “Since no extradition treaty exists between the two countries, it is impossible to hand over the former president.”
Of course, it is not at all“impossible” to hand over deposed Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori even in the absence of an extradition treaty. The government just doesn’t want to do it. End of story. God forbid that a Japanese politician or bureaucrat have the imagination to do the right thing even int e absence of prescribed protocol to follow!
I would urge the Foreign Ministry official to reconsider the bounds of possibility. If dispositions such as these are common among all Japanese, it might be said this country deserves neither to have a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council nor to have its candidacy seriously considered.
Published on Wednesday, September 26, 2001 as “Do the right thing with Fujimori.”
Japan’s treatment of former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori reflects first a stupid tribalism, second, a possibly questionable legal position, and third, a certainly condemningly immoral approach. Or, maybe it is amoral, a good adjective for Japan.