Japan remains ambiguous over China-proposed AIIB

TOKYO  - Japan seems still ambiguous over whether or not to join the China-proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and eyes to discuss the issue with the United States in an upcoming summit between the two allies later this month.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Barack Obama would cover the AIIB issue during their summit on April 28 in efforts to reaffirm their requirement to ensure the new developmental bank's fair governance and transparency, local report said Friday, citing unnamed diplomatic sources here Thursday.

Japan and the United States decided to stay out of China's initiative by the March 31 deadline as both countries worry that the AIIB may pose a challenge to the Japan-led Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the US-dominated World Bank.

However, China has underlined that the AIIB will take an open and inclusive attitude and be complementary to existing development banks and it will strengthen the region's communication, social and economic development, according Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during his recent meeting with ADB President Takehiko Nakao in Beijing.

Abe said by the March 31 deadline "there is no need to participate (in AIIB) hastily" and "the United States now knows that Japan is trustworthy," referring to other major European countries in the Group of Seven (G7) that already applied for the membership of the AIIB.

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida also mulls to urge his G7 counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the United States that the AIIB should be managed in line with international standards, said Japan's Kyodo News on Friday.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yushihide Suga reiterated a day earlier that Japan remains "cautious" about the AIIB and declined to comment on a government draft released by Kyodo News that Japan envisages a possible up to $1.5 billion contribution to the AIIB in the event that Japan joins.

"I refrain from commenting on every news report," the top government spokesman said in a press briefing Thursday.

"The government is conducting various studies, but our country maintains a cautious stance about participation in the AIIB," he said.

Meanwhile, Kiyoyuki Seguchi, research director of the Canon Institute for Global Studies, questioned the draft as the amount of the contribution is too small for Japan to play an important role in the AIIB if it decides to join and urged Japan to participate in the new regional developmental bank.