Agence France Presse / Jitendra Joshi
TOKYO, July 24 (AFP) - Japan's government was forced onto the defensive Monday over the massive sums it lavished on a Group of Eight (G8) summit that supposedly had global poverty relief as a major goal.
The Japanese press were united in declaring that little concrete action to improve the lot of people around the world emerged from the three-day gathering on the southern sub-tropical island of Okinawa.
"As the G8 becomes ever more important, they have to be more conscious about the costs," the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said in an editorial after debt-relief campaigners had blasted the "obscene" Okinawa jamboree.
"This summit was criticised over the issue of debt-forgiveness for poor nations because of the enormous amount spent in holding the summit in Okinawa," the business daily said.
It cost a record 81.4 billion yen (750 million dollars) to put on three G8 meetings culminating in the leaders' summit that ended Sunday.
"Why was it necessary to spend 80 billion yen just for a gathering of leaders?" demanded Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, according to Jiji Press news agency.
The government defended itself against charges of waste, as workers prepared to tear down a two-storey international press centre -- including elevators and a huge dining room -- built exclusively for the Okinawa summit.
"It was the first summit held outside of Tokyo in which leaders, foreign ministers and finance ministers' meetings were held separately," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa told a regular news conference.
"For this, we needed to organise telecommunications infrastructure, related facilities and security costs," he said.
Okinawa residents complained of stifling security as 22,000 Japanese police, including 1,500 local officers, and 2,200 coastguard officers were drafted to protect the leaders.
Nakagawa tackled accusations that the money spent could have erased the debt of Gambia.
"We are making pioneering and utmost efforts on the debt issue in working with nations and institutions concerned," he said.
But campaigners came away disgusted at the G8's limited progress in cancelling money owed by the world's most heavily indebted nations.
"The Japanese government is trying to be very hospitable but the amount of money is obscene," said British charity Oxfam's spokesman, Phil Twyford, after the three-day meeting.
The need to boost the Okinawan economy after years of neglect was a major factor behind the big spending, said UBS Warburg political analyst Shigenori Okazaki.
Former prime minister Keizo Obuchi chose the island, Japan's poorest prefecture, as the G8 venue before he suffered a stroke and died on May 14.
"But one summit won't do any good," said Okazaki.
"They're demolishing the press centre, which tells you a lot. It looks like there won't be many lasting benefits."
But Obuchi's gaffe-prone successor as prime minister, Yoshiro Mori, had reason to be pleased.
"Many including Japanese politicians were concerned that Mori may say something very stupid, so at least on that account the summit was OK," Okazaki said.
The tightly scripted event left Mori little chance to outrage anyone after a series of ill-advised remarks, including one apparently betraying nostalgia for Japan's war-time belief in a divine emperor, said another analyst.
"Every part of the G8 was mapped out by the bureaucrats, and Mori merely followed the script," said Meiji University politics professor Kaoru Okano.
The summit was long on declarations but short on specific commitments from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan and the United States, he added.
"It also cost too much money.":
