Japan says may cut UNESCO funds

Japan’s government said on Tuesday that it is considering cutting funding for UNESCO after the United Nations world heritage body included documents on the World War II Nanjing Massacre in its Memory of the World register that Tokyo criticized as biased.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, the government’s chief spokesman, told reporters that UNESCO’s decision reflected only China’s views over the 1937 assault on the Chinese city, when Japanese troops massacred between 40,000 and 300,000 Chinese civilians in what has become known as the Nanjing Massacre. Chinese and Japanese estimates vary regarding how many people died in the massacre, viewed as one of the worst atrocities of the World War II era.

“There is a big discrepancy of views between Japan and China, and the decision reflecting a unilateral view turns the issue into a political problem,” Suga said. “We are considering all measures (of protest), including suspension of our funding contributions” to UNESCO.

“The <g data-gr-id="21">decision making</g> process lacked transparency,” he said. “We were not even allowed access to the contents of the Chinese documents.” 

According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Japan contributed 3.72 billion yen (about $31 million) to UNESCO in 2014, or 10.8 per cent of its budget assessed for the UN.

UNESCO’s budget for the two-year 2014-2015 period is USD 653 million. Japan has also set up various trust funds to support work on world and cultural heritage efforts.