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Mix-Ansicht- Crew missing after Japanese sink 'spy' boat - El Sheik, 24.12.2001, 14:35
- Japan's emperor makes reference to possible roots in Korea - El Sheik, 24.12.2001, 14:54
Japan's emperor makes reference to possible roots in Korea
Japan's emperor makes reference to possible roots in Korea
Japan's Emperor Akihito, in a surprise reference to a seldom mentioned historical record, has said his roots may partly be traced to the Korean peninsula.
"I, on my part, feel a certain kinship with Korea," the emperor said in a news conference held prior to his 68th birthday on Sunday, citing centuries of close interchanges between the two neighbouring countries.
He was replying to a question about his thoughts on Korea as the two countries were preparing to host the football World Cup finals next June.
The possible blood kinship has been long known in academic circles but is rarely mentioned in public, particularly in the light of Japan's aggressive colonial history.
Major Japanese newspapers, except for the influential Asahi Shimbun and the conservative Sankei Shimbun, did not mention the emperor's remarks on the alleged kinship.
"It must be the first time that his majesty the emperor has expounded that the Korea peninsula had something to do with imperial family's roots," Ikuhiko Yasu, professor of history at Nihon University, told Asahi.
Japan's ties with South Korea dipped to a low recently over a Japanese history textbook accused of glossing over Japan's wartime past and a visit last August by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to a Tokyo shrine for the war dead, including war criminals.
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