By Ankit Panda
Shinzo Abe may address a joint session of U.S. Congress — a first for any Japanese prime minister.
Over the weekend, the Japan Times reported that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could be the first Japanese prime minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. According to the report, Japanese and American diplomats are finalizing preparations for a speech during a scheduled visit by the Japanese prime minister in late April. Despite their deep military alliance, Japanese prime ministers have rarely addressed U.S. lawmakers in Washington. The last Japanese prime minister to speak to a convened portion of Congress was Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda, who addressed the House of Representatives in 1961. Abe’s own grandfather, Nobsuke Kishi, addressed Congress in 1957 when he was prime minister.
Though Japan and the U.S.-Japan alliance has always garnered wide bipartisan support in Washington, Abe’s views on history have provoked some trepidation among U.S. legislators on both sides of the aisle. A group of U.S. legislators who traveled to Japan as recently as last week told reporters that the Japanese prime minister’s views on history could harm the prospects for a close and cooperative U.S.-Japan alliance. “Some of these… issues stemming out of the 70th anniversary of World War II, that could really put some cracks into the relationship,” Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO 1st District) told the Wall Street Journal. “It’s really important that Japan not be seen as backtracking on… the comfort women issue and some of the other issues around the end of the war,” she added. Similarly, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI 5th District) noted that though the U.S. and Japan “had some bumps in the road,” it was time to “smooth those bumps out.” Abe’s “revisionist history” is harming “Japan’s standing with its neighbors,” he told the Journal, adding that this had to “be cooled down.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat