Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will not attend a military parade in China next week to commemorate the end of World War II, the government’s top spokesman said Monday.
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Although Suga cited Abe’s schedule, an anti-Japanese theme of the parade could also be a reason. The United Nations General Assembly meeting is set to be held in New York next month and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in the Philippines in November.
More than 10,000 troops – mostly Chinese but with contingents from Russian Federation, Mongolia and a few other countries – will march through central Beijing on September 3 in a parade that will be the highlight of events marking the war’s end.
On September 2, 1945, Japan formally surrendered to the Allied powers at a signing ceremony on the U.S. battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
Recent Japanese media reports said that Abe might skip the parade but still visit China next week to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in a bid to warm up frosty bilateral relations.
China released the first two lists of facilities, sites, fallen soldiers and heroic groups to commemorate the country’s victory in the war in September of previous year.
Consumer inflation has ground to a halt mainly due to the effect of slumping oil prices, keeping the BOJ under pressure to do more to meet its pledge – made in April 2013 – to accelerate inflation to 2 percent in roughly two years.
The invitation of Abe came following a landmark meeting among the Japanese, Chinese and South Korean foreign ministers that focused on territorial and historical issues, after which the ruling parties of Japan and China officially agreed to restart conference exchanges that had been suspended in 2009.
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Japan’s aggression during World War II continues to overshadow ties with China, its biggest trading partner, and South Korea, 70 years after the conflict ended.
