Japan to Seek Wider International Role in 2001: Mori

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, in his New Year's address, said that Japan needs to seek out a wider role in UN peacekeeping activities to fulfill what he said are responsibilities suitable for a country of its standing.

"Japan's responsibilities and activities in the area of international security have been insufficient, compared with the position it holds in the international community," Mori told a press conference marking the New Year's Day.

"I believe that Japan should play a (more) appropriate role," Mori said.

Although Mori avoided elaborating on the type of new security roles Japan might play, saying only that they will be within the limits of the country's pacifist constitution, sources close to Mori said he hopes to ease current conditions for the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to be dispatched on United Nations-led peacekeeping missions.

Under a 1992 law, SDF personnel are allowed to perform noncombat duties such as aiding refugees and building bridges when they are sent overseas as part of U.N. peacekeeping activities.

Mori also called the past decade a "gloomy period" for Japan's economy and its society alike.

Mori said that achieving a self-sustaining economic recovery remains a top priority for his government.

"The economy has come to the point where it needs one more push, " Mori said, adding that he will continue to put priority on economic recovery.

The Japanese prime minister repeated his pledge to pursue two major diplomatic goals -- resolving a territorial dispute with Russia to conclude a bilateral peace treaty, and establishing diplomatic ties with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea ( DPRK).

Mori said he hopes to visit Russia in February for talks on the territorial row with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Japan and Russia failed to live up to their 1997 agreement to strive to resolve the dispute and conclude a peace treaty by the end of 2000.

On Japan's ties with the DPRK, Mori said he plans to proceed with negotiations "carefully" on contentious issues.

On domestic issues, Mori said his government will soon map out ways to make it easier for working women to have and rear children as part of its effort to prevent a further erosion of the country' s birthrate.

The average number of babies born to a Japanese woman throughout her lifetime set a new low of 1.34 in 1999, breaking the previous record of 1.38 set the year before, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry.






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