Word: fukuda
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...Beijing To Go or Not to Go During the July 7-9 G-8 summit, Nicolas Sarkozy and Yasuo Fukuda became the latest heads of state to agree to attend the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremonies, disappointing Tibet advocates who had called for a boycott. Notable RSVPS...
...reactors to clean steel mills to hybrid cars. And Japan has every incentive to sell that technology to generate new business for its otherwise sluggish economy. That's why the environment was a prominent topic of discussion when China's President Hu Jintao and Japan's Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda met in Tokyo...
...Fukuda's precarious situation makes it especially important that Hu's visit goes smoothly. Since hitting a low point in 2005, when thousands of Chinese staged anti-Japanese protests in major Chinese cities, typically frosty political relations between the two countries have been warming up a bit - and because of China's growing economic power, it's crucial to Tokyo that this trend continues. (China last year surpassed the U.S. as Japan's largest export destination.) Like Abe, Fukuda has avoided angering Beijing by refraining from official visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war dead, including 14 convicted...
...then there are the troublesome T's: Taiwan and Tibet. "Clearly Hu Jintao would like the Japanese to line up and say that they oppose Taiwan's independence, but there's too much opposition to that from within the LDP," says Curtis of Columbia University. Experts expect Fukuda will go no further than stressing the importance of a peaceable resolution. While Fukuda may be able to manage the dialogue on Taiwan, it will be harder to control the Japanese public. A rash of pro-Tibet demonstrations by the country's Buddhists could embarrass Hu, who has been trying to quell...
...summit goes well, though, Fukuda could yet turn around his struggling administration. Abe, his predecessor, was most popular right after his successful visit to Beijing in October 2006. Similar good vibrations could give the current Prime Minister time to reshuffle his Cabinet and survive until July, when the spotlight will be on Japan as it hosts a G-8 summit. That could "slow the erosion of [Fukuda's] support," Curtis says. "That's what he has to do if he's going to stay in office much longer." Says Phil Deans, an international-affairs expert and assistant dean at Temple...