Enginnering Evil: This Rebukes the prior statement on the compromise with China…
http://engineeringevil.com/2012/10/09/japan-may-acknowledge-chinas-claim-to-islets-to-calm-tension/
The government has taken a lawmaker in the Cabinet to task for making controversial remarks on the Senkaku Islands, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Wednesday.
Eiichiro Washio, a parliamentary secretary in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, told a gathering Tuesday that the uninhabited islets in the East China Sea are Japanese, but added that “who owns them should not matter. The Chinese government could own them” even though the government recently nationalized them.
Fujimura told a news conference that the lawmaker did not mean China, which claims the Senkaku Islands, may be their owner.
“I asked the (farm) minister to tell (Washio) to be careful about what he says,” Fujimura said.
Washio acknowledged Wednesday that his remarks were misleading.
“I strongly agree with the (Japanese) government’s nationalization” of the Senkakus, he told reporters.