- Title: JAPAN: PERUVIAN PRESIDENT ALBERTO FUJIMORI SPEAKS A DAY AFTER HIS RESIGNATION
- Date: 22nd November 2000
- Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (NOVEMBER 21, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. SLV EXTERIOR NEW OTANI HOTEL; MV FORMER PRESIDENT OF PERU ALBERTO FUJIMORI STANDING; SECURITY AND JOURNALISTS (4 SHOTS) 0.17 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FUJIMORI ANSWERING QUESTIONS, SAYING "I feel very much that my resignation was a question for the Republic of Peru and now here in Japan. I feel sorry because of the confusion, uncertainty and even indignation that caused to the Peruvian nation, mainly to my followers. But I have some reasons for not being explicit right now, it's hard and would take, maybe, some time, that the population may understand. But I have the same goals that I have been working for Peru" 1.19 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) FUJIMORI SPEAKING ABOUT HIS FUTURE PLANS 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FUJIMORI SAYING "As the son of Japanese immigrants, as other immigrants from France or Italy or any other foriegn country, in Peru we have being (indistinct) ..in the country, that's probably the situation. That's not a crime, Japanese (ndistinct), my father has that. My nationality as everybody knows, is Peruvian, but probably I have the same (indistinct)." 3.03 6. SV FUJIMORI WALKING AWAY SURROUNDED BY MEDIA SCRUM 3.17 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 7th December 2000 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: TOKYO, JAPAN
- Country: Japan
- Reuters ID: LVAET1FJJQUO1RO3QO3VSXJIKUSW
- Story Text: Speculation was mounting on Tuesday (November 21) that
he would seek to remain in the home of his ancestors after his
resignation. "I am visiting on a diplomatic passport and now I
am no longer a president but a common citizen. I have not
decided yet how long I will stay in Japan," Fujimori told
reporters gathered at his hotel.
Fujimori, faced with a possible corruption investigation
at home, has been holed up in Tokyo's smart New Otani hotel
since arriving in Japan on Friday, ostensibly on a stopover as
he returned to Peru from a meeting of Asia-Pacific leaders in
Brunei.
Fujimori is eligible to remain in Japan because he has
Japanese nationality, said an official in the small
southwestern town where his parents were born.
Many Peruvians believe that Fujimori, out of sight and
guarded by police, has fled Lima and has no plans to return to
avoid being investigated as part of corruption investigations
involving his former spy chief, Vladimiro Montesinos.
"President Fujimori has got Japanese nationality and there
is no problem for him to stay in Japan," said a government
official in his parents' home town of Kawachi, in Kumamoto
prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu.
Fujimori holds Japanese nationality because his name had
been entered into their ancestral family register, or koseki,
even after they emigrated to Peru in the early 1930s.
Even though Fujimori was born in Peru, he has Japanese
nationality under Japanese law because he is listed on the
ancestral register. "Under Japanese law, he can hold two
nationalities if he wants," the official said.
He therefore does not need to go through cumbersome
procedures to apply for residency, government officials said.
There were no signs that he was planning to leave his
hotel, and in the morning an embassy car arrived to deliver
three cartons to his room, including a large box of
tangerines.
Fujimori already has family in Japan. His brother-in-law,
Victor Aritomi Shindo, is Peru's ambassador and his son, Hiro
Fujimori, lives in Japan.
Fujimori's father, Naoichi, first emigrated to Peru and
then returned briefly to Japan in 1934 to seek a bride. The
couple left Yokohama port for Peru in August of that year.
Neither Fujimori's father nor mother returned to Japan
until after the end of World War Two, family members have
said.
Fujimori formally resigned on Monday after 10 years as
president.
"I've come to the conclusion that I should resign ... to
allow an orderly transition," Fujimori said in a letter sent
to Congress after a two-month political crisis sparked by the
corruption allegations against his former spy chief and top
aide.
However, the scandal-plagued president's plans for his
second vice president to replace him were quashed when Ricardo
Marquez said he too would step down.
Fujimori said in another letter to lawmakers that he felt
the need to step aside to keep Peru from spiralling out of
control before April elections. "Without (my resignation), the
country would be committing suicide," he wrote.
The unravelling was a dismal finale for Fujimori, 62, who
won praise in his 10 years in office as a brave, hands-on
leader who beat leftist rebels and curbed hyperinflation but
whose government had one of the region's worst rights records.
Three moving vans entered Peru's presidential palace on
Monday morning in a sign of the government's imminent end.
Japan's Foreign Ministry said Fujimori had not asked for a
Japanese passport or applied for asylum and has said it did
not know when he would leave.
A spokeswoman for the White House National Security
Council, Mary Ellen Countryman, said in Washington that the
Peruvian government had informed the United States that
Fujimori planned to stay in Japan "indefinitely".
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