Tanigaki eyes doubling number of foreign students by early 2010s

Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki, running in the race to become Japan's next prime minister, on Wednesday proposed doubling the number of foreign students in Japan from the current 120,000 by the early 2010s, a move he said will help improve the nation's relations with China and South Korea.

"With this plan, young people responsible for the future of Asia can learn from each other and deepen their mutual understanding. Japanese universities can also turn themselves into a crucible of intellect, so as to train people to be active parts of an ever diversified world," he said.

However, Tanigaki did not go into details when he unveiled the proposal during a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

Restoring relations with China and South Korea, which he says are currently "abnormal," is one of Tanigaki's key policy planks in his bid to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who will step down next month.

Tanigaki repeated he will not visit Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which China and South Korea see as a symbol of Japan's militarist past, if he becomes premier, and that he proposed establishing a hotline with Chinese and South Korean leaders to discuss bilateral and regional issues.

Koizumi's visits to the Shinto shrine, where 2.5 million war dead along with 14 Class-A war criminals are enshrined, have angered the two neighboring countries, which have refused to hold summit talks with Koizumi.

Tanigaki also said that if he becomes prime minister, he will upgrade Japan's ties with India, an emerging economic power. He also called for maintaining the Japan-U.S. security alliance, saying it is "natural" to craft Japan's defense policy based on it.

Other major contenders in the Sept. 20 presidential election of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party are Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Taro Aso. The winner will become prime minister given the LDP's dominance in the powerful House of Representatives.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060823/kyodo/d8jm02v80.html