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CNN Live At Daybreak
Reporter Debrief: Focus Japan
Aired October 08, 2002 - 06:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq, the economy -- two of the issues we want to discuss with our Tokyo bureau chief, Rebecca MacKinnon. She joins us live in the studio.
And you're back from there, and welcome to DAYBREAK...
REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN TOKYO BUREAU CHIEF: Thank you very much. I'm learning...
COSTELLO: ... in person, live and in person -- good morning.
MACKINNON: Good to be here.
COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about Japan's reaction to the situation in Iraq.
MACKINNON: Well, the reaction so far has been largely supportive and positive. Japan has been emphasizing now for the past month or so that it's very important to Japan, as a U.S. ally, that the United States obtain the support of the U.N. Security Council.
And so, the fact that President Bush did emphasize in his speech that it's still important for the United States to have that resolution is very important to Japan.
Now, the Japanese public is still very leery about the idea of an attack against Iraq. In the last opinion poll taken in Japan, 77 percent of the public was against the idea of a U.S. attack against Iraq. And the majority of people oppose the idea of Japan supporting such an attack, particularly if there is no support from the United Nations.
So, that's something they're looking at.
COSTELLO: Understand. And of course, the Japanese have other worries. The economy there is just so terrible.
MACKINNON: That's right. They're in a decade-long economic slump. The stock market on Monday hit a new 19-year low. There's a great deal of debate in Japan on how to bring their economy out of this slump. They're hovering back on the edge of another recession right now.
One of the big problems is a tremendous amount of debt in the banking system. Now, Japan has the largest national debt in the industrialized world. And in the financial system itself, you have the situation where there are a tremendous number of companies that, in the United States and other countries, would have gone bankrupt a long time ago. Their banks would have called in their loans. But the banking system is allowing a lot of these companies to survive, and that's really...
COSTELLO: And that's putting more pressure on the banks.
MACKINNON: That's right, and that's really hurting the stock market as well.
COSTELLO: You know, there's something else. Remember, back in the '80s, everybody thought Japan's economy was just -- it was just going bonkers. The Japanese were buying up properties in the United States, and things looked so great for them. They were the model of the world...
MACKINNON: That's right. That's right.
COSTELLO: ... as far as business was concerned. And now, things are so different.
Tell us why Americans should care so much about Japan's failing economy now.
MACKINNON: Well, Japan is the second-largest economy in the world, still. And so, if Japan's stock market is not healthy, if Japan's economy is not healthy, that's definitely a drag on any potential U.S. recovery, because it makes it less likely that Japanese companies would invest in the United States, trade with the United States. And Japan becomes less of a market, of course, for U.S. goods. And so, that is definitely a drag here on the recovery.
COSTELLO: Definitely so.
Let's talk a little bit about North Korea and Japan, and the tragedy that the Japanese have discovered, because of this relationship between the two countries.
MACKINNON: That's right. Now, Japan's Prime Minister Koizumi went to North Korea on a really surprise visit last month. And one of Japan's conditions for improving its relations with North Korea was that Japan needed information from the North Korean government about at least 11 Japanese nationals who had been abducted by North Korean agents to North Korea in the '70s and '80s.
Now, it turns out several of those people, some of them quite young, died in North Korea. Their families, of course, were very upset.
COSTELLO: And why did North Korea abduct these people?
MACKINNON: Well, North Korean leader Kim Jung-il actually admitted that they had been abducted by agents, basically to help train North Korean spies in Japanese language, so that they could assume Japanese identities and thus travel around the world much more easily.
So, it's something out of a very strange spy novel, and a lot of people in Japan...
COSTELLO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and most of these people...
MACKINNON: ... are quite freaked out about it.
COSTELLO: Most of these people they think have died now, and their families back in Japan will never see them again, or even know where their graves are.
MACKINNON: That's right. There's a lot of soul-searching going on. The families of the people who were confirmed dead want to see DNA proof that their loved ones really did die, that perhaps they're not being hidden somewhere. They don't really know what to believe at this point.
And so, this is a really gut-wrenching issue for the entire Japanese public.
COSTELLO: Wow! So, when do you head back?
MACKINNON: I'm heading back this weekend actually. So, I'll be back there and reporting on the latest.
COSTELLO: OK, well, have fun in Atlanta. We appreciate you joining us on DAYBREAK, Rebecca MacKinnon.
MACKINNON: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
Aired October 8, 2002 - 06:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Iraq, the economy -- two of the issues we want to discuss with our Tokyo bureau chief, Rebecca MacKinnon. She joins us live in the studio.
And you're back from there, and welcome to DAYBREAK...
REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN TOKYO BUREAU CHIEF: Thank you very much. I'm learning...
COSTELLO: ... in person, live and in person -- good morning.
MACKINNON: Good to be here.
COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about Japan's reaction to the situation in Iraq.
MACKINNON: Well, the reaction so far has been largely supportive and positive. Japan has been emphasizing now for the past month or so that it's very important to Japan, as a U.S. ally, that the United States obtain the support of the U.N. Security Council.
And so, the fact that President Bush did emphasize in his speech that it's still important for the United States to have that resolution is very important to Japan.
Now, the Japanese public is still very leery about the idea of an attack against Iraq. In the last opinion poll taken in Japan, 77 percent of the public was against the idea of a U.S. attack against Iraq. And the majority of people oppose the idea of Japan supporting such an attack, particularly if there is no support from the United Nations.
So, that's something they're looking at.
COSTELLO: Understand. And of course, the Japanese have other worries. The economy there is just so terrible.
MACKINNON: That's right. They're in a decade-long economic slump. The stock market on Monday hit a new 19-year low. There's a great deal of debate in Japan on how to bring their economy out of this slump. They're hovering back on the edge of another recession right now.
One of the big problems is a tremendous amount of debt in the banking system. Now, Japan has the largest national debt in the industrialized world. And in the financial system itself, you have the situation where there are a tremendous number of companies that, in the United States and other countries, would have gone bankrupt a long time ago. Their banks would have called in their loans. But the banking system is allowing a lot of these companies to survive, and that's really...
COSTELLO: And that's putting more pressure on the banks.
MACKINNON: That's right, and that's really hurting the stock market as well.
COSTELLO: You know, there's something else. Remember, back in the '80s, everybody thought Japan's economy was just -- it was just going bonkers. The Japanese were buying up properties in the United States, and things looked so great for them. They were the model of the world...
MACKINNON: That's right. That's right.
COSTELLO: ... as far as business was concerned. And now, things are so different.
Tell us why Americans should care so much about Japan's failing economy now.
MACKINNON: Well, Japan is the second-largest economy in the world, still. And so, if Japan's stock market is not healthy, if Japan's economy is not healthy, that's definitely a drag on any potential U.S. recovery, because it makes it less likely that Japanese companies would invest in the United States, trade with the United States. And Japan becomes less of a market, of course, for U.S. goods. And so, that is definitely a drag here on the recovery.
COSTELLO: Definitely so.
Let's talk a little bit about North Korea and Japan, and the tragedy that the Japanese have discovered, because of this relationship between the two countries.
MACKINNON: That's right. Now, Japan's Prime Minister Koizumi went to North Korea on a really surprise visit last month. And one of Japan's conditions for improving its relations with North Korea was that Japan needed information from the North Korean government about at least 11 Japanese nationals who had been abducted by North Korean agents to North Korea in the '70s and '80s.
Now, it turns out several of those people, some of them quite young, died in North Korea. Their families, of course, were very upset.
COSTELLO: And why did North Korea abduct these people?
MACKINNON: Well, North Korean leader Kim Jung-il actually admitted that they had been abducted by agents, basically to help train North Korean spies in Japanese language, so that they could assume Japanese identities and thus travel around the world much more easily.
So, it's something out of a very strange spy novel, and a lot of people in Japan...
COSTELLO: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and most of these people...
MACKINNON: ... are quite freaked out about it.
COSTELLO: Most of these people they think have died now, and their families back in Japan will never see them again, or even know where their graves are.
MACKINNON: That's right. There's a lot of soul-searching going on. The families of the people who were confirmed dead want to see DNA proof that their loved ones really did die, that perhaps they're not being hidden somewhere. They don't really know what to believe at this point.
And so, this is a really gut-wrenching issue for the entire Japanese public.
COSTELLO: Wow! So, when do you head back?
MACKINNON: I'm heading back this weekend actually. So, I'll be back there and reporting on the latest.
COSTELLO: OK, well, have fun in Atlanta. We appreciate you joining us on DAYBREAK, Rebecca MacKinnon.
MACKINNON: Thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.