Tokyo Grants Fujimori Nationality

T O K Y O, Dec. 12 -- Japan today said that Peru’s disgraced ex-president Alberto Fujimori has Japanese nationality, a status that allows him to stay in the land of his forefathers and probably avoid facing investigators in Peru.

The decision also raises the prospect of a diplomatic row if Lima’s new government asks Tokyo to hand over the formerpresident to face a probe into the scandals that sent himspinning out of office.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda confirmed the decisionon Fujimori’s nationality at a regular news conference.

Asked what Japan would do if Peru sought Fujimori’sextradition, Fukuda said: “I believe the government will deal with the issue in accordance with Japan’s domestic law.”

Japan’s law does not allow the extradition of its nationals.

Fukuda added that even if Fujimori had dual nationality, that would not affect his status as a Japanese national.

Fujimori resigned as president and was then sacked by Peru’s Congress days after entering Japan on a diplomatic visa in November.

Forcing Fujimori to Testify

The leader of a congressional investigation in Peru said onMonday that the Congress was prepared to use all the tools of international justice to force Fujimori to testify over his links to his former spy-chief who is wanted on corruption charges.

“We could ask Interpol to arrest him [Fujimori] and bring him over here,” said David Waisman, head of the congressional commission investigating the fugitive ex-spy chief Vladimir Montesinos.

Justice Ministry officials had previously said that ifFujimori could prove that his parents were Japanese and that his name had been registered in the ancestral koseki, or family record, he could stay in Japan as long as he wants.

An official in the small southwestern Japanese town whereFujimori’s parents were born had earlier said hisname had been entered in the koseki after his parents emigrated to Peru in the early 1930s.