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Mir Re-Entry Worries Japanese
Japan's military chief said Tuesday that he will postpone his first meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and stay at home next week in case something goes wrong when Russia scraps the Mir space station.
Defense Agency Chief Toshitsugu Saito said he put off next week's trip to prioritize ``crisis-management concerns'' including Mir's re-entry, agency spokesman Isao Oseto said. Saito had planned to leave Japan on March 18 and meet with Rumsfeld the next day.
The postponement was the latest in a series of high-profile moves by Japanese authorities trying to reassure a jittery public.
With Japan's news media full of what-if scenarios and Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's crisis-management record under attack in Parliament, the government has come under pressure to take every possible precaution.
Earlier this month, the Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to Tokyo to seek reassurances that Japan would receive ``prompt and complete information'' about the splashdown.
The government is still smarting from criticism of its reaction to the accidental sinking of a Japanese trawler by a U.S. submarine near Hawaii, which killed nine people.
Both allies and political enemies criticized Mori for finishing a round of golf after receiving reports that several high school students had gone missing in the accident.
The news over the weekend that Russia has taken out $200 million in insurance policies against Mir-related damages added to the jitters.
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