Japan pledged yesterday to speed up the disposal of hundreds of thousands of chemical weapons its military left in China after World War II, amid a report that Tokyo would devote ?200 billion yen (US$1.9 billion) to the effort.
Japan's army controlled China's northeast for a decade before its World War II defeat, and its army left behind about 700,000 chemical weapons -- a lingering source of resentment for many Chinese.
Under a 1997 international convention, Japan is obliged to finish cleaning them up by 2007. So far, only 37,000 of them have been dug up and treated, officials said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said that the government was committed to speeding up the process.
"This is an extraordinary problem and we are taking responsibility to dispose of these weapons," Hosoda said. "We'll try to resolve the issue as soon as possible."
Cabinet Office officials in charge of the project said yesterday that Tokyo and Beijing have picked a site for a factory to dispose of the weapons in China's northeastern Jilin Province, where most of the abandoned weapons are buried untreated.
Japanese newspaper Nihon Keizai said yesterday that Japan has agreed to shoulder ?200 billion to build the factory.
The newspaper also said Japan and China have agreed to sign a pact that would allow foreign contractors to join the project. An international bid is planned for later this year, the report said.
Officials refused to confirm those details.
"We are trying to estimate the construction cost for the factory and how long it would take to complete the project," said Morikazu Yamada, an official at the Cabinet Office. "We are doing our best to complete the cleanup as soon as possible, but we must admit it would be difficult to meet the 2007 deadline."
The disposal of the weapons is one of many sore points between the two nations.
Last year, two children were injured by a canister leaking poison gas in a river in Dunhua City in Jilin. The canister contained mustard gas, a toxic chemical that can blister the skin and lungs. A similar leak in Heilongjiang Province killed one person and injured 42.
Japan is obligated to dispose of abandoned weapons under a 1997 international convention.
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