Japan opposition calls on Abe to oppose US refugee ban

pulse

February 3, 2017 1:12 PM

Renho, who took the reins of the Democratic Party in September, said Abe's restrained remarks have been "insufficient" for a national leader.

Renho speaks in Tokyo on February 2, 2017

The head of Japans main opposition party has called on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to speak up against President Donald Trumps refugee ban ahead of their summit next week.

Renho, a former TV anchorwoman of mixed Taiwanese-Japanese heritage who took the reins of the Democratic Party in September, said Abe's restrained remarks have been "insufficient" for a national leader.

He "should express his thoughts on Trump's action in terms of human rights", the 49-year-old Renho, who goes by a single name, told AFP in an interview on Thursday at party headquarters.

Japan and the United States share the common value of "making human rights the top priority", she added.

Abe has said little about Trump's temporary ban on all refugees and immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries ahead of his February 10 meeting with the new US president.

Immigration-shy Japan accepts very few refugees -- last year it pledged to receive up to 150 Syrian students over five years from 2017, despite having a population of about 127 million. In 2015 it took in 27 refugees.

During the talks in Washington Abe is expected to propose plans to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the United States, Kyodo News reported this week, citing unnamed Japanese government sources.

Trump has threatened punitive tariffs on imports into the US in a bid to force manufacturers, domestic and foreign, to produce and hire there.

Officials are also arranging for Abe and Trump to continue their discussions the next day at Trump's estate in Florida where they could play golf, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's biggest newspaper, reported.

pulse