Japan chief cabinet secretary wants no confrontation with Russia

TOKYO (Itar-Tass) - Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary
Yukio Edano said on Sunday that his wish to raise attention of the
Japanese public to the problem of "the northern territories" is not of
confrontational character towards Russia.
"My actions and words had nothing that could provoke a negative
response (from the Russian side)," Edano emphasised.
On Saturday, Edano overviewed the islands of the South Kuril Ridge
from a plane without leaving Japan's air space. "We want to conduct a calm
and constructive dialogue with Russia," the politician noted after the end
of the flight. He said at the same time "attention of the public to the
territorial problem would have increased if Japanese had known how close
the islands are to them."
The Russian Foreign Ministry noted in its response to Edano's words
that "the factual call on the Japanese public 'to speak louder' on the
so-called territorial question runs counter to the previous thesis of Mr.
Edano on a quiet nature of the dialogue".
According to the latest public opinion polls, more than 70 percent of
Japanese residents don't approve the present government's approach to
conducting diplomacy with Russia. One of the polls was conducted by the
nation-wide newspaper Sankei after the scandalous speech by Prime Minister
Naoto Kan who called "unpardonable crudeness" President Medvedev's trip to
the South Kurils.
His speech was followed by noisy demonstrations of ultra-right
organisations in front of the Russian embassy in Tokyo with defamation of
the Russian flag as well as a similar action in front of the Japanese
embassy in Moscow and the talks between Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji
Maehara and Sergei Lavrov, which showed full divergence of the two
countries' stands on the South Kurils.