Japan congratulates Obama for winning Nobel Peace Prize

TOKYO, Oct. 9 Kyodo -
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Friday congratulated U.S. President
Barack Obama for winning the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009, saying he is ''really
pleased'' about the news and that he ''wants to congratulate him from the
heart.''
''There is an atmosphere that the world has really started to change following
the birth of the Obama presidency,'' Hatoyama told reporters after arriving in
Beijing for a trilateral summit Saturday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and
South Korean President Lee Myung Bak.
''His leadership, especially his speech in Prague (calling for building) a
nuclear-free world, was wonderful,'' Hatoyama said, referring to a speech by
Obama in the Czech capital in April in which he said Washington will take the
lead in achieving the ambitious vision.
''It's not easy for the president of the United States, the biggest holder of
nuclear (weapons), to call for the creation of a nuclear-free world,'' said
Hatoyama, who met with Obama in New York on the sidelines of U.N. meetings late
last month.
In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano also congratulated Obama for
winning the prize and lauded the president's leadership and efforts for a
nuclear-free world.
''We will share President Obama's goal (for nuclear disarmament) and highly
evaluate his leadership,'' top government spokesman Hirano told reporters
shortly after the Nobel Foundation's announcement on Obama's award.
Although Obama has been in the job for less than a year, Hirano said Obama won
the prize because he ''has sent a strong message'' to the world on nuclear
issues and that ''struck a chord with people around the world.''
''We will work closely with President Obama toward resolving a series of
problems facing the international community,'' he said.
Obama, 48, who took office in January, won the prize ''for his extraordinary
efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people,''
the foundation said on its official website.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has ''attached special importance to Obama's
vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons,'' which he laid out in
his speech in Prague in April, as it ''has powerfully stimulated disarmament
and arms control negotiations,'' it said.
Hirano said Hatoyama will send Obama his congratulations once he returns to
Japan and that the government will offer fresh congratulations when Obama
visits Japan next month.
Obama is scheduled to visit Japan Nov. 12-13 before attending the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum in Singapore.
But the chief Cabinet secretary has said it is unlikely that Obama will be able
to visit the two atomic-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during his
upcoming trip to Japan because of his anticipated tight schedule.
Congratulatory messages were also sent by consumer affairs minister Mizuho
Fukushima, who heads the Social Democratic Party, a coalition partner of
Hatoyama's Democratic Party of Japan, as well as Liberal Democratic Party
leader Sadakazu Tanigaki.
==Kyodo