Gov't holds 1st meeting of summit headquarters

Japan Policy & Politics, July 26, 1999

TOKYO, July 21 Kyodo

The government held the first meeting of the preparatory headquarters for the 2000 summit of the Group of Eight (G-8) nations Wednesday, after formalizing the decision to hold the summit in Okinawa Prefecture earlier in the day. The headquarters, headed by Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Teijiro Furukawa, reaffirmed the central government's determination to host the summit successfully by closely cooperating with related local governments, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Mitsuhiro Uesugi told a news conference. Officials from 14 ministries including the Foreign Ministry and the Okinawa Development Agency gathered for the meeting held at the prime minister's official residence, government officials said. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi's cabinet formalized the decision to hold the summit in Okinawa, and decided to hold the meeting of foreign ministers in the city of Miyazaki and that of finance ministers in the city of Fukuoka. "We have decided to hold the next summit...in Nago, Okinawa Prefecture" on July 21-23, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka said in a statement after the cabinet meeting. The top government spokesman said the government will also "begin coordinating with other G-8 nations" on the timing of the ministerial meetings, which are held prior to the summit to prepare the agenda for the top leaders. The dates of the ministerial meetings will be decided next year shortly before they take place, government sources said. In April, Obuchi selected Nago as the city to host the 2000 G-8 summit, and Miyazaki and Fukuoka to host the meetings of foreign and finance ministers, but had postponed the decision on which city would host which ministerial meeting. Obuchi later told reporters at his official residence he made the decision by "taking into consideration various conditions." The Foreign Ministry on Wednesday also launched a preparatory secretariat with a staff of 15-29 people. Yoshiyuki Motomura was appointed head of the secretariat. The number of staff will be increased ahead of the 2000 summit, the first G-8 summit hosted by Japan outside of Tokyo. Nago is 700 kilometers southwest of Fukuoka, which is in northern Kyushu, while Miyazaki is 200 km southeast of Fukuoka, in southern Kyushu. The government decided to hold the finance ministers' meeting in Fukuoka because it is the center of the economy of the Kyushu region, and because it previously hosted a meeting of the Asian Development Bank in 1997, government sources said. Miyazaki had vigorously campaigned to host the foreign ministers' meeting. It hosted a symposium for the Asia-Europe Meeting in 1997. The choice of Okinawa as the summit venue is symbolic for Tokyo and Washington, which have been working to reduce the concentration of U.S. military forces stationed in the southernmost island prefecture. About three-quarters of all U.S. military facilities in Japan are in Okinawa, which accounts for only 0.6% of the country's total land area. The G-7 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States. The G-8 also includes Russia, which became a member of the major-power group at the 1996 Denver summit, hosted by the U.S.