TOKYO - Tokyo may have a chance to realise a long-held dream of becoming a global financial hub if it can attract people fleeing a Chinese clampdown on Hong Kong, according to a senior Japanese ruling party lawmaker.
"What Japan offers that Hong Kong doesn't is freedom," Ms Satsuki Katayama, who heads an LDP panel on foreign labour, said in an interview on Tuesday."If Hong Kong becomes the kind of place where people's Facebook likes are being checked, will they put up with that? I think people want to live somewhere normal."
Ms Katayama raised the idea of seeking to lure Hong Kong's financial professionals in parliament in June, eliciting a favourable response from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. That spurred the LDP to include the issue in a policy proposal last week. Ms Katayama said the party is looking to produce an interim report in the autumn and a fuller report by the end of the year.