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Fukuda seeks warmer Asian ties

Former Japanese foreign minister Taro Aso, left, and former chief Cabinet secretary Yasuo Fukuda, right, meet the public in Tokyo yesterday. Fukuda, a 71-year-old elder of the ruling Liberal Democrat Party, is favored to beat Aso to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. PHOTO: AFP

Yasuo Fukuda, the frontrunner to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said yesterday it was vital to keep a thaw in ties with China on track but also urged Beijing to better explain its ballooning military spending.

Fukuda, 71, an advocate of a less US-centric foreign policy, is widely expected to beat hawkish former foreign minister Taro Aso in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leadership race sparked by Abe's abrupt decision last week to resign.

"The US-Japan alliance is the cornerstone and we must place weight on that. But if there are deficiencies in other areas, we should fix them," Fukuda told public broadcaster NHK.

"Prime Minister Abe visited China and South Korea and relations improved. We must make that trend even firmer," he said.

Fukuda reiterated he would not visit Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine -- seen by many Asian countries as a symbol of Japan's past militarism -- if he were chosen as the nation's new leader.

Sino-Japanese ties chilled under Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi, largely because of the Japanese leader's visits to Yasukuni, but thawed after Abe's visit to Beijing last October.

Fukuda sounded a critical note towards Abe's recent proposal for a "broader Asia" partnership of democracies that would include India, the US and Australia, but not China.

"China is making efforts toward a free economy, so if we say they must change their system completely, that would seem to be rejecting them," Fukuda told private broadcaster Asahi TV.

He also urged China to make its bulging military spending more transparent.

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