The Pressure Builds

With relations between Beijing and Tokyo at their worst for quite some time, one would have thought that Japan would be looking to keep a low profile in the case of this year's Nobel peace prize winner. China's decision to lay blame for the giving of the award to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo at Norway's door has added an international relations dynamic to what is an independently judged honour. As the BBC has reported, Naoto Kan (the Japanese Prime Minister) supposedly told a parliamentary committee in Japan that he welcomed the Nobel committee's decision to recognise Liu's commitment to political reform. He also went on to describe the dissident's release as 'desirable'.

While no formal request for Liu Xiaobo to be freed has emanated from Tokyo, Kan's comments will not be welcomed by the Chinese. Making a comment about Liu's case in a legislature is almost akin to a diplomatic appeal for the same, especially as the Japanese Prime Minister must have known that his words would be picked out and transmitted by the world's media. Of course, Japan is not the only country to have expressed unhappiness with the Nobel winner's detention, with the United States and the European Union urging Beijing to release him.