Anti-hate speech bills likely headed for Diet consideration, but is it effective to protect ethnic Koreans.

Last year, the opposition parties submitted the bill for "Hate Speech Regulation Act", but voting was postponed because the diet came to conclusion "the definition of hate speech is unclear". Now, the ruling party (LDP and Komeito coalition) is submitting their own version of bill for "Hate Speech Regulation Act" to the Diet.
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As reported earlier, some cabinet ministers from LDP are befriending with notorious racist organization called "Zaitokukai" (right-wing nationalist).... It is skeptical if the ruling party is serious about protecting ethnic Koreans in Japan, the main target whom "Zaitokukai" attacks.
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Takashi Nagao, a cabinet member of LDP and the member of Japan Conference, explained about this bill at Channel Sakura (a Japanese TV channel and video-sharing website to promote Japanese right-wing and nationalist points of view. It hosted Abe and right wing politicians/intellectuals mainly to discuss topics about positive portrayal of Japanese imperialism, war crime denial, anti-Korean and anti-Chinese sentiments as well as attempting to present a "pure" Japanese cultural image.). The purpose of Nagao's presentation was to ease the fear of "Zaitokukai" like minded rightist supporters of LDP.
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Nagao explained them "no penalty for violating this law", "it is not like Human rights protection bill" and "no third party organization". However, the audience of Channel sakura was still complaining to Nagao thru SNS, "if it is illegal for Japanese to tell "get out" to ethnic Korean, it is dicrimination against Japanese." Nagao tweeted back, "this regulation is applicable if hate speech is meant to drive US soldiers out of Japan".
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The bill submitted by LDP has the provision that the law is applicable for the hate-speech against "foreign-born residents and their descendants in Japan", but the treatment of ethnic Koreans is in gray-zone . The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, often known simply as Zainichi ,who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan. The term "Zainichi Korean" refers only to long-term Korean residents of Japan who trace their roots to Korea under Japanese rule. ("Zainichi Korean" is main target of the attack by "Zaitokukai") Japanese nationality was forced to them under colonial rule. (as Korea was part of Japan at that time, it is vague if their status can be defined as "foreign born".)
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Anti-hate speech bills likely headed for Diet consideration
AJW by Asahi Shimbun : 6 April 2016


Debate over regulating hate speech targeting ethnic minorities in Japan is finally likely to begin soon in the Diet, with the ruling coalition expected to submit its long-awaited draft bill as early as next week.

Katsuei Hirasawa, a Lower House member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who heads a team to address the issue, on April 5 proclaimed the draft as “significant.”

“Although the bill does not come with a provision to punish violators, it is significant that we have shown our attitude against hate speech,” he said.

But it is unclear whether effective legislation will be enacted as many lawmakers acknowledge the difficulty in ensuring freedom of speech while regulating racism. The main opposition Democratic Party and other opposition parties submitted their own anti-hate speech legislation last May.
The opposition's version also does not include penalties for those violating the law.

The push to enact an anti-hate speech law follows a call by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

In a recommendation in August 2014, the committee urged the government to pass and enforce a law regulating hate speech by Zaitokukai and other groups blaring discriminatory and menacing taunts at their street rallies.

Zaitokukai, formed in 2006, is short for the Japanese name of the group that is roughly translated as a group of citizens who oppose privileges for ethnic Korean residents in Japan.

It has been aggressively criticizing ethnic Koreans, staging rallies in front of a Korean school in Kyoto and in neighborhoods that host ethnic Koreans in Tokyo and Osaka.

The LDP moved swiftly to set up a team examining the issue in August 2014, but it has dragged its feet until recently to regulate it.

The proposed legislation by the LDP and its junior coalition partner, Komeito, defines hate speech as “wrongful discriminatory words and deeds that are intended to fuel or encourage a sense of discrimination against so as to incite a movement to exclude (the targets) from a local community” targeting foreign residents and families.

The LDP was initially reluctant to define hate speech in the bill, citing potential gaps, but acceded at the prodding of Komeito.

The bill states in the preamble that “wrongful discriminatory words and deeds will not be permitted.”

The draft calls on the central and local governments to offer counseling services and programs to educate the public against hate speech and racial discrimination.

The opposition parties' draft bill prohibits “insults, harassment and other wrongful discriminatory words based on race and other reasons” and states that “no one should undertake wrongful, discriminatory statements and actions.”

Differing from the ruling coalition’s version, the opposition draft clearly spells out the government's responsibility in addressing the issue.

The opposition calls on a panel tasked with tackling racial discrimination to be set up in the Cabinet Office, probe important matters regarding discrimination and issue warnings to government ministries and agencies over suspected cases.

The opposition bloc seeks to hold talks with ruling coalition lawmakers to explore whether they can integrate the two bills.

Legislators acknowledge that they will have to work more to give teeth to the legislation.
Speaking of the ruling coalition's bill, Toshio Ogawa, the Democratic Party’s director-general in the Upper House and a former judge, said, “The police would have no legal grounds to deny an application for a rally that is aimed at spewing hate speech. And police would not be able to do anything at the site.”

Kiyohiko Toyama, a Komeito member in the Lower House, expressed concerns about the opposition’s legislation, citing possible infringement of freedom of speech.

“In an extreme case, police on the street could clamp down on (demonstrators) if they deem (their actions) as discriminatory,” he said. “It raises questions about the compatibility with freedom of expression.”

The central government, in its first-ever survey, confirmed 1,152 cases of hate speech demonstrations and campaigns between April 2012 and September 2015.

Although such incidences declined somewhat in 2015, the government described the situation as “not quietening down.”

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201604060055.html

Infringing the Freedom to Hate
Shingetsu News Agency : 13 April 2016

SNA (Tokyo) — The global conversation on hate speech has seen a resurgence due to US presidential candidate Donald Trump’s appeals to racism, but hate speech does not exist only within the scope of US presidential elections — in Japan it has been largely unimpeded since the turn of the decade.

On April 8, the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito jointly submitted to the House of Councillors a bill seeking to regulate hate speech targeting Zainichi Koreans (Koreans with permanent resident status in Japan). The opposition parties had already submitted a similar bill last May.


Last year’s opposition-sponsored bill crucially included a ban on racial discrimination — but this is not included in the bill submitted by the ruling coalition this month. Both bills fail to stipulate any specific penalties for engaging in hate speech. Even so, the ruling coalition is worried that the opposition’s approach would have been too heavy-handed, and would have infringed on freedom of expression, a right guaranteed by the Constitution.

Although hate speech is not an issue that receives a great deal of public recognition in Japan, violent and aggressive speech targeting resident Koreans has been prevalent in Japan since around 2012. On March 30, the Ministry of Justice released survey results on hate speech targeting specific races and found that from April 2012 to September 2015, there had been 1,152 demonstrations in 29 prefectures by organizations said to be engaging in hate speech.

Of these organizations, the most prominent is the ultra-nationalist Zaitokukai (Citizens’ Association That Will Not Permit Special Privileges for Resident Koreans).

In July 2014, the Zaitokukai was fined 12 million yen (about US$110,000) in reparations by the Osaka High Court — utilizing UN conventions that Japan had signed — for disturbing classes taking place at the Kyoto Korean School. The Zaitokukai reportedly used loudspeakers to make inflammatory statements such as, “Cockroaches, maggots, go back to the Korean Peninsula.” The Zaitokukai appealed the judgment to the Supreme Court, but this was rejected.

In August 2014, the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, after watching videos of anti-Korean demonstrations taking place in Japan, recommended Japan to ban hate speech. Committee members were reportedly very harsh on the Japanese government, claiming that a ban on hate speech would not infringe freedom of expression.

During this time, when international pressure to ban hate speech was escalating, media sources reported a connection between the Abe Cabinet and the Zaitokukai. In late 2014, a photo of Eriko Yamatani, then the minister overseeing the National Police Agency, posing with Shigeo Masuki, a former official of the Zaitokukai, became a subject of controversy. In a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on September 25, 2014, Yamatani was grilled by journalists on this subject. Yamatani responded that she did not have a relationship with Masuki, despite him saying that he had known her for fifteen years. She also failed to specifically reject the Zaitokukai’s worldview.

During the same time period, photos of Tomomi Inada, the Liberal Democratic Party’s policy chief, and Sanae Takaichi, Minister for Internal Affairs and Communications, posing with a leader of a neo-Nazi organization in Japan, also surfaced on the web.

Many voices within Japan’s ruling party have argued that banning hate speech raises concerns from the perspective of protecting the freedom of expression. Ironically, however, it is the Abe administration itself that is now becoming a focus of international concern regarding its own alleged attempts to intimidate the news media. For example, Minister Sanae Takaichi’s statement this February that the government could shut down “biased” broadcasters sits in an uncomfortable relationship to the view of some ruling party lawmakers that those who engage in hate speech may simply be exercising their free speech rights.

The bill submitted by the ruling coalition does not include a ban on hate speech, and probably does not satisfy the UN’s demands for decisive legislative action.
Nobuaki Masaki is a contributing writer to the Shingetsu News Agency.

http://shingetsunewsagency.com/2016/04/13/infringing-the-freedom-to-hate/

 

 

Lifting the lid on one of the most influential, and secretive, political organisations in Japan

ABC News:  2 Deecember 2015

80 percent of Japanese Cabinet ministers belong to “Nippon Kaigi” or “Shinto Association”, a nationalistic right wing party.
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Nippon Kaigi, or 'Japan Conference', has an impressive list of members and aims to reshape Japanese politics and policies, and Lateline gains rare access to this secretive and ultra-conservative organisation.


TONY JONES, PRESENTER: It's been described as one of the most influential political organisations in Japan. Nippon Kaigi, or Japan Conference, has an impressive list of members and advisors, including the Prime Minister and much of his cabinet. But very little is known about this right-wing nationalist lobby group which aims to reshape Japanese politics and policies and even change the Constitution. It operates mostly out of the public eye, but North Asia correspondent Matthew Carney gained rare access to file this exclusive story for Lateline.

MATTHEW CARNEY, REPORTER: A call has gone out and people from all over Japan have responded. To hear a vision from one of Japan's most powerful political organisations, the Nippon Kaigi. And it's back to the future. Nippon Kaigi want to restore the status of the Emperor, keep women in the home to nurture family and rebuild the might of the armed forces.
To do that, they have to scrap the pacifist constitution that was imposed by the Americans. This is the first step, they say, to shake off the shame of the defeat in World War II and restore pride.

YOSHIKO SAKURAI, JOURNALIST (voiceover translation): We need to ask ourselves: will the current constitution of Japan protect Japan and its people? The answer is no. We need a constitution that reflects the true Japanese identity.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The biggest champion to the cause and the group's specialist advisor is Prime Minister Shinzo Abe himself.

SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (voiceover translation): To create a constitution suitable for the 21st Century, that's where it needs to be spread throughout Japan. I seek your continued support on this. Let's move forward towards changing the Constitution.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The Nippon Kaigi has serious clout. The Deputy Prime Minister is also a member, as well as 80 per cent of the cabinet, as are almost half of all parliamentarians. It's a kind of uber lobby group that uses its 38,000 members to mobilise support.
The Nippon Kaigi has pledged to collect 10 million signatures by next April to change the Constitution. Some say it's a cult-like organisation.

KOICHI NAKANO, SOPHIA UNIVERSITY: I think it is, you know, cultish, in the sense that it's very sectarian. They have a very strong view of us and them. They have a sense of the inner group because they feel victimised, marginalised and they have been subjected to severe injustice, that they need to take back Japan.

MATTHEW CARNEY: But their spokesperson says they are only trying to normalise Japan.

AKIRA MOMOCHI, NIPPON KAIGI, STRATEGIC COMMITTEE (voiceover translation): It is proper for an independent sovereign nation to have an army. There are no sovereign nations without one. Armies are deterrents. They exist to prevent war. We'll keep our pacifist traditions, but we need to respond to the rising threat of China.

MATTHEW CARNEY: The fundamental vision for many in the group is to go back to a time when they say Japan was pure and free from foreign influence, like the Edo Period in the 16th to 18th centuries when outsiders were strictly forbidden and Japanese culture flourished. They believe this beautiful Japan has been lost.

HIDEAKI KASE, NIPPON KAIGI, TOKYO BRANCH: There are two Japan. One is traditional Japan and one is Westernised Japan. And we wish to revert to the traditional Japan.

KOICHI NAKANO: They are romantic, they are irrational, they live in their own world. So they lack strategic thinking in terms of what they are going for and for what reason and how does that serve national interest in realistic terms?

MATTHEW CARNEY: The darker side to the organisation is to deny any wrongdoing in Japan's war-time past. They assert World War II was one of defence, not aggression. They say comfort women were not sex slaves, but well-paid prostitutes and the rape and pillage of Nanjing in China that historians say killed up to 200,000 was a fiction.

HIDEAKI KASE: There was no massacre at all. That is an utterly false accusation.

KOICHI NAKANO: They try to rewrite history in order - and they think that this is fundamental to what they see as Japan's need to restore pride. They think that because the kids and the - you know, the adults of Japan are being brainwashed by self-blame and a sense of shame in their history.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Many in Japan think Nippon Kaigi's ideas are dangerous and have to be countered. Professor Setsu Kobayashi is one of the country's top constitutional experts.

SETSU KOBAYASHI, CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERT (voiceover translation): They're thinking about Asia before the war when Japan was the leader of Asia. They want to repeat that. They openly say that.

MATTHEW CARNEY: On his Friday lunchtime radio spot, he warns against reform of the Constitution, arguing it could lead Japan down the warpath. So far, Prime Minister Abe and Nippon Kaigi have succeeded in passing security bills that let the armed forces fight overseas again. Kobayashi says the move is unconstitutional.

SETSU KOBAYASHI (voiceover translation): The majority of people are not convinced. We have to fight and not give up, otherwise we'll live under a dictatorship. Freedom and democracy will not exist.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Professor Kobayashi was once a member of Nippon Kaigi, but is now one of its biggest critics. He tried to change them from the inside, but couldn't. As a self-described commoner, he says the organisation is one of elites, out of touch with the people. Polls consistently show that the majority of Japanese don't want the country's pacifist constitution to change.

SETSU KOBAYASHI (voiceover translation): They want to achieve the dream that Japan pursued pre-war to be one of the top five military powers in the world. To enable this, our country will go around the world fighting wars alongside the Americans. Mr Abe went to the United Nations and said that Japan will seek aggressive peace; militarism is another name.

MATTHEW CARNEY: Professor Kobayashi now devotes much of his time fighting the Nippon Kaigi and the reform of the Constitution. He believes it's a battle for the very hearts and minds of the Japanese and the outcome will decide the country's future. The Nippon Kaigi say their ambition is to simply protect Japan and its identity.

AKIRA MOMOCHI (voiceover translation): It is a difference of opinion. We want to retain the Japanese traditions, to make Japan as it should be. We have the power to do it.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-02/nippon-kaigi-and-the-rise-of-nationalism-in-japan/6994560

Tamogami's World: Japan's Top Soldier Reignites Conflict Over the Past

Asia Pacific Journal - Japan Focus : 1 November 2008

In 2008, an ex uniformed Self Defence Force officer, General Tamogami Toshio was dismissed from his post in the Defense Ministry, by publishing an essay expressed his opinion as historical revisionist which share the similar value with "Japan Conference".  Even after retirement, he kept expressing the problematic opinions and demagogues with false stories  (but supported by some nationalists), and challenged to become a politician (though failed).  A few days ago, he was investigated for graft scandal at the time of election campaign. In 2008, civilian control still existed so could dismiss Tamogami from his post. However, as I reported earlier, the government tend to weaken civilian control, yet Tamogami's like minded personnel exists in uniformed SDF bureaucrats.
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On October 31, 2008, General Tamogami Toshio, Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force [ASDF] Chief of Staff was abruptly dismissed from his post in the Defense Ministry, but allowed to retire with his full pension rather than be summarily fired. At a press conference several months earlier, Tamogami, who had also been the superintendent of the SDF Joint Staff College, publicly expressed contempt for a ruling by the Nagoya High Court that the Japanese military mission in Iraq was unconstitutional.

On this occasion, the outspoken General, widely known among his peers for provocatively hawkish views, crossed several more lines. He entered and won the top prize of 3 million yen ($30,000) in an essay contest sponsored by a large scandal-marred construction and real estate conglomerate, the APA Group, which required contestants to write on “The True Outlook for Modern and Contemporary History.” APA's President is Motoya Toshio, the author of historical works and a key figure in political organizations supporting the Komatsu Air Base in Ishikawa Prefecture (fronting the Sea of Japan). He has strong ties to former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and other rightist politicians, including Tamogami.  As far as is known, superiors in the Defense Ministry's chain of command did not carefully scrutinize Tamogami’s essay or any of the 94 essays submitted by ASDF soldiers. A notorious Nanjing atrocity denier, Professor Watanabe Shoichi, headed the panel of judges that awarded the prize. And the essays were apparently “solicited for the purpose of ‘steering Japan toward a correct understanding of history as an independent nation.’”

The views the General expressed did more than simply contravene the official positions of his civilian supervisors. By arguing that Japanese colonial rule was humane and legal, and that Japan was not an aggressor in World War II, Tamogami contradicted the constitution and the official government stance of apology to the nation’s that Japan had invaded before and during World War II. At the same time, he placed himself at odds with the political sense of most educated Japanese people. 

The governments of China and South Korea immediately condemned Tamogami’s views, as did Japan’s leading parliamentary opposition parties, who hoped to use the affair to topple the country’s new LDP Prime Minister, Aso Taro. Aso’s own controversial nationalist ideas on history and the constitution are similar to Tamogami’s, but as prime minister he fired the general and refrained from discussing his ideas. An unrepentant Tamogami, however, held his ground and reiterated that the Japanese “people had been misled by erroneous education” into thinking that their country once had a dark past. In his desire to free the Japanese military from constitutional restraints, Tamogami might have encouraged many senior and junior active-duty ASDF officers to join him in entering essays (of unknown content) in the same competition: the number varies from over 50 to as many as 95. The impression conveyed is that these ASDF officers are heir to the “young officers” of an earlier era who exploited ideas of a “Showa restoration” in an effort to accelerate Japanese rearmament and expansion in the 1930s. The difference is that the uniformed officers of today are supposed to be under “civilian (bureaucratic and parliamentary) control,” not in spiritual rebellion against the nation’s peace constitution. It is notable, however, that the civilian bureaucrats in the Defense Ministry, six of whom have also had their knuckles lightly rapped, initially hesitated to discipline Tamogami and his followers.

Writing on the theme, “Was Japan an Aggressor Nation?”, Tamogami argued the following: * Japanese colonial and semi-colonial rule, based on legal treaties, was “very moderate” in nature and beneficial to Koreans, Taiwanese, and Chinese alike. To defend these legally-recognized positions Japan waged justifiable wars.

* It was the Comintern, according to Soviet intelligence sources, and not the Kwantung Army that might have engineered the assassination of the Chinese warlord Zhang Zuolin in 1928, which set the stage for Japan to take over all of Manchuria.

 *Japan never waged an illegal war of aggression in China starting in 1931, or elsewhere in the European and American colonies in Southeast Asia and the Pacific a decade later. * Manchukuo, unlike the Western colonies where racism was the basis of rule, really was a bastion of racial tolerance; so too was imperial Japan.

 * The Comintern and the Chinese Communist Party played an evil role in the Japan-China War, manipulating Chiang Kai-shek to attack Japan.

 * President Franklin D. Roosevelt “very carefully” entrapped Japan into attacking Pearl Harbor after Comintern spies, such as Harry Dexter White in the Treasury Department, wrote the “Hull Note” that helped “manipulate President Roosevelt and draw [Japan] into a war with the United States.”

* “Had Japan “not fought the Greater East Asia War at that time,” it could not “have experienced the world of racial equality that we have today.” Indeed, without the War of Greater East Asia, Japan might have become “a white nation’s colony.”

In sum, Tamogami concluded, “what this country has done is wonderful.” Toward the end of his essay, citing many limitations on Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, he stresses that it should be allowed to exercise the right of collective self-defense—the implication being that it could then assist allies under attack, something that would obviously necessitate constitutional revision.

 

Clearly, true and false are not issues for Tamogami; belief in a “normal” (war-waging) state and more voice for the professional officer class are. The General tampers with facts; he uses evidence selectively; he cherry-picks international law when it suits his purpose; and he omits any mention of figures on Asian or Japanese civilian and military deaths from the wars of the 1930s and early ‘40s. His aim is to forge a body of activist officers who will participate in political combat, promoting the “true” perspective on history, even if it is not factually true for the particular historical period he cares about.

 

But none of his assertions are in any way new. For more than half a century, high ranking civilian and military officials have repeatedly made statements that provoked domestic and international controversy--either for speaking with a forked tongue on issues of war responsibility, or for reiterating, often unconsciously, crudely nationalistic sentiments of the type that Tamogami expressed. Such incidents reflect badly on the intellectual quality of the officials involved. They touch off storms of political debate within Japan and breed distrust of Japan in China, Korea, and other nations that experienced Japanese occupation. But they also serve to heighten popular vigilance against the danger of domestic militarism. Regrettably, comparable effects are seldom produced by policies initiated by Japan’s security alliance partner, the United States, whose endless war crusades and entrenched militarism have distorted national life and undermined international order. 

 

What then are we to make of Tamogami’s views? Put aside his ignorance of history, international law, the September 8 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, and his misinterpretation of sources and documents such as Sec. of State Cordell Hull’s memorandum of November 26, 1941. Is Tamogami motivated by a sense of wounded self-esteem and wrong inflicted by the US and its allies on Japan after its military and ideological defeat in 1945? Is this the reason why he is unable to recognize the many unjust acts and countless crimes committed by Japan in the course of its colonialism and invasion of neighboring states? Consider, for a moment, questions of hypocrisy and double standards in assessing the actions of Japan, the United States, and other nations that went to war throughout the twentieth century.

 

In 1945, the US and the Soviet Union took the lead in establishing the legal nomenclature of war crimes and the principles for adjudicating them and punishing offenders. At the International Military Tribunal (IMT) at Tokyo (1946-8), a small number of Japanese leaders were prosecuted and punished for the crime of aggression and for war crimes in the narrow sense. But the problem of European, American, and Japanese colonialism was ignored. And the war crimes of the Allies, which culminated in the American terrorist bombing of sixty-four Japanese cities and the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, were also never adjudicated. During the IMT, attempts by American and Japanese defense attorneys to raise these issues were rejected out of hand.

Moreover, the United States helped Britain, France, and The Netherlands to restore their respective colonial empires by waging war to destroy the national independence movements of their former colonial subjects. While these colonial powers were professing to be defenders of civilization, sitting in judgment of Japan for pursuing policies of aggression, they themselves were continuing to commit comparable offenses.

 

Some Japanese conservatives can neither forgive nor forget this Western hypocrisy. For them, all distorted (i.e. “official” or “victor propaganda”) versions of Japan’s modern past trace back to the Tokyo trial. They also believe the Japanese defendants at Tokyo were denied a fair hearing. When the occupation ended in 1952 and Japan regained its formal independence, a tiny minority rejected the Tokyo trial because they could see only its negative, not its many positive sides. They  began to commemorate and idealize one of the three dissenting judges on the tribunal, Radhabinod Pal. The Indian nationalist judge had been a partisan sympathizer of the Japanese military. He rejected the charge of aggression against Japan’s wartime leaders and sought their acquittal on all counts. For Pal, the real enemy in Asia was the Western White Man. Ever since that time the castigation of the Tokyo IMT’s findings has been a fixed element in Japanese right-wing thought. This is not to deny that in prosecuting Japanese war criminals the victor nations erred in key respects. One was the issue of colonialism; another was the failure to indict Emperor Hirohito, who, alone among Japan’s leaders, was at the center of events during the whole war-period. Yet Hirohito was never even questioned or made to bear moral responsibility for the war, though several of his most loyal subjects were executed or imprisoned on his account.  

 

Tamogami is not alone in defending Japanese colonial rule and holding other far-right views of early 20^th century Japanese history. But for such ideas to dominate, they must be taught in the nation’s schools and universities, widely disseminated among a majority of voters by Japanese journalists, writers, and other opinion-makers, and overcome a political-culture supportive of the peace constitution. In today’s Japan none of these conditions yet obtain. Editorial comment in the wake of Tamogami’s dismissal from office suggests that truthful views of Japan’s wars of aggression from 1931 to ’45 are widely recognized. Mainstream Japanese political culture rejects the fringe ideas associated with Yasukuni Shrine and its history Museum, and articulated here by the General.

 

Nevertheless, the voting public remains divided on issues of war remembrance. Many politicians in the ruling Liberal-Democratic Party, including Prime Minister Aso, share Tamogami’s shallow nationalistic sentiments, as do writers for Fuji Sankei and its affiliated media outlets. Most of these people, however, refrain from publicly expressing their sentiments on highly contentious issues such as implicitly rejecting the verdicts of the Tokyo trial or calling for Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense in violation of its Constitution.

 

Suppose, however, in the coming decade, powerfully situated individuals with historical consciousness similar to Tamogami’s came to prevail among Japan’s governing elites and their advisers. Could Japan experience the reign of extremist foreign policy ideas comparable to those of the American neo-conservatives and neo-liberals whose ideas developed over a span of three decades before reaching their extreme expression in the policies of the George W. Bush and Barack Obama presidencies? Could something similar happen in Japan?

 

Tamogami says he is uninterested in weakening Japan’s commitment to the US-Japan Security Treaty [AMPO], or Japan’s ties to other Asian countries. He draws an analogy between America, the militaristic superpower that he calls the “parent,” and Japan, its “child.” Japanese staff officers who conform to his way of thinking imagine they can put this “parent-child” relationship on a more equitable basis by jettisoning civilian control, eliminating the Defense Ministry’s “Operational Policy Bureau,” staffed by civilian bureaucrats, and allowing “mostly uniformed officers” to “manage SDF units under the defense minister.”

 

But the real problem with the US-Japan security relationship is that it is a poison injected into the arteries of Japan’s political system, continually weakening Japan’s commitment to its constitutional ideals. As long as this relic of World War II and the Cold War remains, Japan will have difficulty remaining a peace state, dealing with the criminality of its lost war, and developing an omni-directional rather than US-centered foreign policy. To defend Article 9 of the peace constitution without, at the same time, confronting AMPO is to do the work of Tamogami and people who think like him.

 

One final consideration: it is most unlikely that Pentagon officials would really welcome a Japan that undid constitutional restraints on the growth of its militarism, and acquired offensive weapons systems in order to become a “normal” (war-waging) state.  Conversely, it isn’t clear what Japan’s leaders would do if, in the near term, the “parent” escalated its failed colonial-wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pressured Japan to involve itself more deeply in them. Social Democratic Party leader Fukushima Mizuho understood the problem correctly, however, when she linked the SDF’s expanding role in support of America’s wars to the spread of beliefs “within the Defense Ministry that Japan’s wartime acts did not constitute aggression.”

 

http://apjjf.org/-Herbert-P.-Bix/2945/article.html

 

 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Pushes to Remove Constitutional Constraints on Military

Global Research: 15 February 2016

In the lead up to this summer’s parliamentary upper house election, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe intends to make constitutional revision a major feature of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) campaign. The proposed changes would formally remove any barriers to Japan’s ability to wage war to further its strategic and economic interests, as well as deepen the attack on democratic rights at home.

Abe has made explicit calls in recent weeks for the revision of the constitution. On February 3, he stated before a parliamentary budget committee: “There is the view that [Japan should] address the situation in which 70 percent of constitutional scholars suspect the SDF (Self-Defense Forces) is in violation of the Constitution.”

Abe was responding to a question from Tomomi Inada, chairwoman of the LDP’s Policy Research Council and supporter of constitutional change, who claimed that Article 9 of the post-World War II constitution “no longer fits reality at all.” Article 9 declares that “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes.”

Successive post-war governments in Japan have tacitly breached Article 9 and built up a large military under the guise of “self defense,” despite the constitution’s declaration that “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained.” Over the past two decades, the Japanese military has been deployed overseas, including in support of the US-led occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Increasingly, however, the Japanese ruling class wants to cast off the constitutional restraints. Last summer, the LDP-led government, in the face of widespread opposition and protests, rammed through military legislation to allow Tokyo to engage in “collective self-defense,” which in reality means taking part in predatory wars alongside an ally, namely the United States.
The new laws are in clear violation of the constitution, as many constitutional scholars have stated. Far from backtracking from this unconstitutional legislation, Abe is now cynically using the lack of constitutional authority to press forward with the LDP’s long-held plans for a wholesale revision of the constitution.

In the budget committee, Abe continued: “Given the view that we should change this with our own hands, the LDP has announced a draft revised constitution.” The draft, proposed in April 2012, not only alters Article 9, but also makes numerous other changes that limit democratic rights and strengthen the state.

First, the draft would turn the SDF, the official name of Japan’s military, into a “National Defense Force” with the prime minister as commander-in-chief. This force could be deployed abroad under the guise of international peace-keeping operations, as well as domestically to suppress opposition to the government.

The proposal would also impose “duties” on the Japanese population, including to “respect” the national flag, anthem and the new constitution. It further states that “engaging in activities with the purpose of damaging public interest or public order, or associating with others for such purposes, shall not be recognized.” In other words, the freedom to criticize the government would effectively be banned.

The LDP’s draft alters the role of the emperor, making him “head of state,” while removing the emperor’s or a regent’s obligation to respect and uphold the constitution. This would concentrate more power in the anachronistic and backward institution, moving to return the emperor to the position he held before World War II.

The government, however, confronts significant barriers to constitutional revision, which must be approved by two-thirds of both houses of parliament, as well as by a majority of the voting population at a referendum. While the LDP and its ally Komeito hold a two-thirds majority in the Lower House, they have only a simple majority in the Upper House and need 86 additional seats.
Speaking at a New Year’s press conference on January 4, Abe said the LDP “will appeal for [constitutional revision] strongly during the House of Councillors (Upper House) election campaign, just as we have thus far.” Abe claimed there was “unshakeable” support for the SDF in Japan to support his decision.

In reality, there is widespread opposition to remilitarization. Last summer, mass protests took place throughout the country opposing the security legislation to expand the role of the SDF internationally in support of allies like the United States. These protests culminated in an August 30 demonstration of 120,000 people denouncing the bills in front of the parliament building in Tokyo.

In order to obtain the seats needed, the LDP is seeking additional coalition partners. Last month, Abe acknowledged that winning the necessary seats in the upcoming election would be difficult. In response, Nobuyuki Baba, secretary-general of the right-wing Osaka Ishin no Kai, said his party would “cooperate positively” with the LDP and Komeito’s efforts to change the constitution.
Since his February 3 remarks though, Abe has toned down his calls for constitutional revision. While not facing outright opposition, some within the LDP are clearly concerned that anti-war sentiment could result in an unwanted electoral backlash. “An appropriate approach would be to proceed [with the constitutional revision] while winning the understanding of the largest opposition party,” LDP secretary general Sadakazu Tanigaki said.

The main opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), however, is attempting to exploit the anti-war sentiment for electoral purposes. DPJ leader Katsuya Okada said last month: “If the prime minister secures a two-thirds majority, he will surely amend the Constitution. As his deepest wish is to revise Article 9, we must block him from achieving the two-thirds majority by all means.”

While in power from September 2009 to December 2012, the DPJ supported constitutional revision to allow Japan’s military to be used in a far greater capacity, often attaching the necessity of a UN resolution to provide a veneer of legitimacy. A 2012 report from a prime ministerial committee stated: “Related interpretations [of laws] should be changed to allow collective defense in order to uphold proactive pacifism in the long-term.”

Significantly, Abe has seized on “proactive pacifism” as the banner for his accelerating remilitarization of Japan.

Furthermore, the DPJ governments deepened Japan’s aggressive stance toward China. In 2012, under Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, Tokyo provocatively purchased three of the five disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands from their private owner, provoking sharp tensions with China.
For all its posturing as an opponent of Abe’s constitutional change, the DPJ, which also represents the interests of Japanese imperialism, has no principled opposition to removing legal and constitutional restraints on the military.

The original source of this article is World Socialist Web Site

Copyright © Ben McGrath, World Socialist Web Site, 2016

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/japanese-prime-minister-shinzo-abe-pushes-to-remove-constitutional-constraints-on-military/5507965

Japan PM's "stealth" constitution plan raises civil rights fears

Reuters: 1 May 2013

Shinzo Abe makes no secret of wanting to revise Japan's constitution, which was drafted by the United States after World War Two, to formalize the country's right to have a military - but critics say his plans go deeper and could return Japan to its socially conservative, authoritarian past.

Abe, 58, returned to office in December for a second term as prime minister and is enjoying sky-high support on the back of his "Abenomics" recipe for reviving the economy through hyper-easy monetary policy, big spending and structural reform.

Now he is seeking to lower the hurdle for revising the constitution as a prelude to an historic change to its pacifist Article 9 - which, if strictly read, bans any military. That would be a symbolic shift, loosening restrictions on the military's overseas activities, but would have limited impact on defense as the clause has already been stretched to allow Tokyo to build up armed forces that are now bigger than Britain's.

However, sweeping changes proposed by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in a draft constitution would strike at the heart of the charter with an assault on basic civil rights that could muzzle the media, undermine gender equality and generally open the door to an authoritarian state, activists and scholars say.

RESTRICTIONS, RESTRAINTS

"What I find strange is that although the prime minister is not that old, he is trying to revive the mores of his grandfather's era," said Ryo Motoo, the octogenarian head of the Women's Article 9 Association, a group devoted to protecting the constitution.

"I fear this might lead to a society full of restrictions, one that does not recognize diversity of opinions and puts restraints on the freedom of speech as in the past."

Abe's grandfather Nobusuke Kishi was a pre-World War Two cabinet minister who was arrested but never tried as a war criminal. Kishi served as premier from 1957-60, when he resigned due to a furor over a U.S.-Japan Security Treaty.

Riding high in the opinion polls and buoyed by big stock market gains, Abe has grown more outspoken about his conservative agenda, including revising the constitution and being less apologetic about Japan's wartime past - a stance that has frayed already tense relations with China and South Korea, where memories of Tokyo's past militarism run deep.

Many Japanese conservatives see the constitution, unchanged since its adoption in 1947 during the U.S.-led Allied Occupation, as an embodiment of Western-style, individualistic mores they believe eroded Japan's group-oriented traditions.

RIGHTS VS DUTIES

Critics see Abe's plan to ease requirements for revising the charter and then seek to change Article 9 as a "stealth" strategy that keeps his deeper aims off the public radar.

"The real concern is that a couple of years later, we move to a redefinition of a 'new Japan' as an authoritarian, nationalist order," said Yale University law professor Bruce Ackerman.

The LDP draft, approved by the party last year, would negate the basic concept of universal human rights, which Japanese conservatives argue is a Western notion ill-suited to Japan's traditional culture and values, constitutional scholars say.

"The current constitution ... provides protection for a long list of fundamental rights - freedom of expression, freedom of religion," said Meiji University professor Lawrence Repeta. "It's clear the leaders of the LDP and certain other politicians in Japan ... are passionately against a system that protects individual rights to that degree."

The draft deletes a guarantee of basic human rights and prescribes duties, such as submission to an undefined "public interest and public order". The military would be empowered to maintain that "public order."

One proposal would ban anyone from "improperly" acquiring or using information about individuals - a clause experts say could limit freedom of speech. A reference to respect for the "family" as the basic social unit hints, say critics, at a revival of a patriarchal system that gave women few rights.
"The constitution is there to tie the hands of government, not put duties on the people," said Taro Kono, an LDP lawmaker often at odds with his party on policies. "There are some in both houses (of parliament) who don't really understand the role of a modern constitution."

WRITTEN BY HUMANS

Abe and the LDP say easing the revision procedures would allow voters a bigger say in whether to alter the charter.

"The constitution is not something given by God, it was written by human beings. It should not be frightening to change it so I'd like the people to consider trying it once," Yosuke Isozaki, an aide to Abe, told the Nikkei business daily.

Under Article 96, changes to the constitution must be approved by at least two-thirds of both houses of parliament and then a majority of voters in a national referendum. Abe wants to require a simple majority of lawmakers before a public vote.

With Abe's popularity high and the main opposition splintered, the LDP and smaller pro-revision parties appear to have a shot at winning a two-thirds majority in an upper house election in July. They already hold two-thirds of the lower house.

"It's not as easy as it might appear," said Sophia University political science professor Koichi Nakano. "But for the first time, it's a realistic prospect."

Japan celebrates Constitution Day on Friday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-constitution-idUSBRE9400ZT20130501

Abe’s constitutional revision aiming the restoration of pre-war status hopes ride on July election

Abe’s constitutional revision aiming the restoration of pre-war status hopes ride on July election

Wikipedia: /The Japan Times etc.

 

Japan expects to have upper house election in this July. The ruling Party (LDP and Komeito coalition) led by Abe, will try to capture more than two-thirds of the 242-seat chamber in the election, and thus have the seats required to initiate a national referendum to revise the Constitution. The revised plan is similar to pre-war constitution, and Japan Conference (Ultra right political lobby of Shinto extremism) is campaigning very hard to achieve this goal. Their aim is not only to abandon pacifism in current constitution, but also to restore totalitarian state as pre-war status. Constitutionalism is to protect each citizens from the power abuse by authority. Therefore, civil servants, diet members, and royal families are the ones who have legal obligation to keep these laws. However, the revised drafts demand too many obligations to citizens for the sake of state's interest. .

 

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 The below is the provisions regarding the people's rights modified and/or added in the LDP draft. 

(Source: Wikipedia "Constitution of Japan"/I compared and verified the contents with  Japanese Source.)
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Individualism: The LDP draft replaces the word "individuals" with "persons" (Article 13). This change reflects the draft authors' view that "excessive individualism" is an ethically unacceptable thought.
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Human rights and the supremacy of the constitution: The current constitution has Article 97 at the beginning of the "Supreme Law" chapter, which stipulates that the constitution guarantees the basic human rights to the people. The current, prevalent interpretation of Article 97 is that this article describes the essential reason why this constitution is the supreme law, which is the fact that the constitution's spirit is to guarantee human rights. In the LDP draft, this article is deleted and the booklet does not explain any reason for the deletion.
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Freedom of assembly, association, speech and all other forms of expression: The LDP draft adds a new paragraph on Article 21, which enables the State to prohibit the people from performing expressions "for the purpose of interfering public interest and public order". The LDP explain that this change makes it easy for the State to take countermeasures against criminal organizations like Aum Shinrikyo.
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Right to property: The LDP draft adds a new paragraph stating that the State shall define intellectual property rights "for the sake of promotion of the people's intellectual creativity" (Article 29).
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Workers' rights: Workers have the right to participate in a labor union, but currently there is a dispute on whether public officials should be entitled to this right. The LDP draft add a new paragraph to make it clear that public officials shall not enjoy this right or part thereof (Article 28).
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Freedom from torture and cruel punishments: Under the current constitution, torture and cruel punishments are "absolutely forbidden", but the LDP draft deletes the word "absolutely" (Article 36). The reason for this change is not presented in the booklet.
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"New human rights": The LDP draft adds four provisions regarding the concept collectively called "new human rights": protection of privacy (Article 19-2), accountability of the State (Article 21-2), environmental protection (Article 25-2), and rights of crime victims (Article 25-4). However, the draft only requires the State to make a good faith effort to meet the stated goals and does not entitle the people these "rights", as the booklet points out.
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Obligations of the people: The LDP draft can be characterized by its obligation clauses imposed on the people. The current constitution lists three obligations: to work (Article 27), to pay taxes as provided for by law (Article 30), and to have all boys and girls under their protection receive ordinary education as provided for by law (Article 26). The LDP draft adds six more: (1) The people must respect the national anthem and flag (Article 3). (2) The people must be conscious of the fact that there are responsibilities and obligations in compensation for freedom and rights (Article 12). (3) The people must comply with the public interest and public order (Article 12). (4) The people must help one another among the members of a household (Article 24). (5) The people must obey commands from the State or the subordinate offices thereof in a state of emergency (Article 99). (6)The people must uphold the constitution (Article 102).
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Additionally, although defense of the national territory (Article 9-3) and environmental protection (Article 25-2) are literally listed under the LDP draft as obligations of the State, these provisions let the State call for the "cooperation with the people" to meet the goals provided, effectively functioning as obligation clauses on the people's side.Equality: The current constitution guarantees equality to citizens, prohibiting any discrimination based on "race, creed, sex, social status or family origin". The LDP draft adds "handicaps" (Articles 14 and 44) between "sex" and "social status", improving the equality under the law. On the other hand, the sentence "No privilege shall accompany any award of honor, decoration or any distinction" in the current paragraph (2) of Article 14 is deleted in the LDP draft, which means that the State shall be allowed to grant "privilege" as part of national awards. The reason for this change is not presented in the booklet.
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National security: The LDP draft deletes the current provision declaring that armed forces and other war potential shall never be maintained, and adds new Articles 9-2 and 9-3 stating that the "National Defense Force" shall be set up and the Prime Minister shall be its commander-in-chief. According to the paragraph (3) of the new Article 9-2, the National Defense Force not only can defend the territory from a foreign attack and can participate in international peacekeeping operations, but also can operate in order to either maintain domestic public order or to protect individual rights. State of emergency: The LDP draft grants the Prime Minister the authority to declare a "state of emergency" in a national emergency including foreign invasions, domestic rebellions and natural disasters (Article 98). When in a state of emergency, the Cabinet can enact orders that have the effect equivalent to that of the laws passed by the National Diet (Article 99).
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Relaxation of separation of religion and the State: The LDP draft deletes the current clause that prohibits the State from granting "political authority" to a religious organization, and enables the State to perform religious acts itself within the scope of "social protocol or ethno-cultural practices" (Article 20).
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Political control over the courts: Unlike the current constitution, which guarantees that the Supreme Court judges shall not be dismissed unless the "review" procedure stipulated by the constitution, the LDP draft enables the Diet to define this review procedure through a Diet-enacted law, not the constitution (Article 79). The draft also states that salary of a judge —　of both the Supreme Court and inferior courts　— could be decreased in the same manner as any other kinds of public officials (Articles 79 and 80) by the subordinate offices of the State (namely, the National Personnel Authority).
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Further amendments: The LDP draft states that a simple majority in the two Houses shall be adequate for a motion for constitutional amendment (Article 96). An actual amendment shall still require a national referendum, but a simple majority in "the number of valid votes actually cast", as opposed to "the number of a qualified voter" or "the number of votes", shall enact the amendment (Article 96).
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Japan’s ruling party under fire over links to far-right extremists

Calls for LDP politicians to distance themselves from extremists come amid campaign of terror targeting academics
The Guardian: 13 October 2014

In this August, voting for 「Hate Speech Restriction Bill」,proposed by the opposite parties, was postponed in Japan. The Economist article described, "In Tokyo’s Shin-Okubo neighbourhood, home to one of the largest concentrations of Koreans in Japan, many people say the level of anti-foreigner vitriol—on the streets and on the internet—is without modern precedent." 　 I observe hate speech has drama...tically increased in Japan for these years.
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In fact, racists and arrogant nationalists are everywhere in the world (and its counter activists too). However, the problems lie in Japan are, the cabinet is not active to protect victims, and some cabinet members are befriending with the notorious racist organization.
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Japan’s ruling party is under pressure to distance itself from the far right, after senior politicians were linked to groups that promote Nazi ideology and hate crimes towards the country’s ethnic Korean community.

The calls for three members of prime minister Shinzo Abe’s government to distance themselves from extremists come amid a campaign of death threats and intimidation targeting liberal academics, which observers say is a symptom of Japan’s sharp turn to the right.

Eriko Yamatani, who as chairman of the national public safety commission is Japan’s most senior police official, is the third senior Liberal Democratic party (LDP) politician to have been linked to ultra-rightwing groups, after a photograph surfaced of her with Shigeo Masuki, a senior member of the Zaitokukai group.

Yamatani, however, has refused to condemn Zaitokukai, whose members have labelled ethnic Korean residents of Japan “cockroaches” and called for them to be killed.

The 2009 photograph, which Yamatani claims she does not recall being taken, became public soon after two of her LDP colleagues acknowledged that they had been snapped with Kazunari Yamada, the leader of a Japanese neo-Nazi party, in 2011.

Sanae Takaichi, the internal affairs minister, and the LDP’s policy head, Tomomi Inada, claimed they were unaware of Yamada’s extremist views at the time.

When challenged to condemn Zaitokukai, Yamatani said it was not appropriate to comment on the policies of individual groups, “Japan has a long history of placing great value on the idea of harmony and respecting the rights of everyone,” she said. Masuki, who has left Zaitokukai, told Reuters he had known Yamatani for more than a decade through their shared interest in education.

Zaitokukai calls for the end to welfare and other “privileges” afforded to about half a million non-naturalised members of Japan’s ethnic Korean community, many of whom are the descendants of labourers brought over from the Korean peninsula to work in mines and factories before and during the second world war.

Rightwing activists have been emboldened by the Asahi Shimbun’s recent admission that articles it ran in the 1980s and 90s on Japan’s wartime use of sex slaves – so-called comfort women –were false. The liberal newspaper’s articles were based on now-discredited testimony of Seiji Yoshida, a former soldier who claimed he had witnessed the abduction of women from the South Korean island of Jeju.

The Asahi’s erroneous reporting prompted Abe and other senior politicians to accuse it of damaging Japan’s international image, claiming that the foreign media had taken the inaccurate sex slave articles as the cue for their own coverage.

Former Asahi journalists who work in academia have become the target of a campaign of bomb and death threats by the far right designed to hound them out of their jobs.

Activists have posted online the names and photographs of the children of one former Asahi journalist, Takashi Uemura, denouncing them as the offspring of a “traitor” and urging them to kill themselves. Uemura had written articles on the sex slave issue for the Asahi 20 years ago.

“[The government’s] lukewarm attitude towards hate crimes by the revisionist right is in itself a reason why we need to criticise the government’s handling of this [intimidation] issue, even if it isn’t directly orchestrating what is happening,” said Koichi Nakano, a politics professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Hokusei Gakuen University in Sapporo, which employs Uemura as a part-time lecturer, has postponed a decision on whether to rehire him for the 2015 academic year. Another former Asahi reporter declined a position at a university in western Japan after receiving threatening letters.

“Abe and other leaders’ outlook is encouraging the rightwing to conduct even harsher attacks on those who are critical of the history of the Japanese empire,” said Jiro Yamaguchi, a professor at Hosei University in Tokyo.

Abe’s recent cabinet reshuffle has raised fears that Japan is veering sharply to the right amid rising tensions over history and territorial claims with China and South Korea.

Yamatani, Takaichi and Inada are close allies of Abe and share his revisionist views of Japan’s wartime history. They have questioned the consensus that Japan forced tens of thousands of mainly Korean and Chinese women to work in frontline brothels between the late 1920s and Japan’s defeat in 1945.

Fifteen of the 19 members of Abe’s cabinet belong to Nippon Kaigi, a group launched in 1997 to promote patriotic education and end Japan’s “masochistic” view of its wartime campaigns on mainland Asia.

Abe played a prominent role in pressuring the education ministry to remove references to the comfort women from school textbooks.

Yamaguchi said the rightwing campaign had echoes of the 1930s, when militarists carried out purges of liberal academics. “If Hokusei [University] gives in to this pressure [to sack Uemura], that would mean academic freedom and freedom of speech is undermined, even under a democratic constitution,” he said. “This is a watershed moment for Japanese society.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/13/japan-ruling-party-far-right-extremists-liberal-democratic

Spin and substance: A troubling rise in xenophobic vitriol

Spin and substance: A troubling rise in xenophobic vitriol
The Economist: 25 September 2014

IN OSAKA’s strongly Korean Tsuruhashi district, a 14-year-old Japanese girl went out into the streets last year calling through a loudspeaker for a massacre of Koreans. In Tokyo’s Shin-Okubo neighbourhood, home to one of the largest concentrations of Koreans in Japan, many people say the leve...l of anti-foreigner vitriol—on the streets and on the internet—is without modern precedent. Racists chant slogans such as “Get out of our country”, and “Kill, kill, kill Koreans”.
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Perhaps for the first time, this is becoming a problem for Japan’s politicians and spin doctors (to say nothing of the poor Koreans). The clock is counting down to the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, and lawmakers are coming under pressure to rein in the verbal abuse and outright hate speech directed at non-Japanese people, chiefly Koreans.

 Japan has about 500,000 non-naturalised Koreans, some of whom have come in the past couple of decades but many of whose families were part of a diaspora that arrived during Japan’s imperial era in the first half of the 20th century. They have long been targets of hostility. After the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, Tokyo residents launched a pogrom against ethnic Koreans, claiming that they had poisoned the water supply.

So far the abuse has stopped short of violence. There have also been counter-demonstrations by Japanese citizens in defence of those attacked. But the police have been passive in the face of verbal assaults. And there is clearly a danger that one day the attacks will turn violent.

So the government is under pressure to act. In July, the UN’s human-rights committee demanded that Japan add hate speech to legislation banning racial discrimination. Tokyo’s governor, Yoichi Masuzoe, has pressed the prime minister, Shinzo Abe, to pass a law well before the games.
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The courts, too, are beginning to move. In July Osaka’s high court upheld an earlier ruling over racial discrimination that ordered Zaitokukai, an ultra-right group that leads hate-speech rallies across the country, to pay ¥12m ($111,000) for its tirades against a pro-North Korean elementary school in Kyoto. At least one right-wing group, Issuikai, which is anti-American and nostalgic for the imperial past, abhors the anti-Korean racism. Its founder, Kunio Suzuki, says he has never seen such anti-foreign sentiment.

The backdrop to a sharp rise in hate-filled rallies is Japan’s strained relations with South Korea (over the wartime issue of Korean women forced to work as sex slaves for the Japanese army) and North Korea (which abducted Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s). But, says Mr Suzuki of Issuikai, the return of Mr Abe to office in 2012 also has something to do with it. The nationalist prime minister and his allies have been mealy-mouthed in condemning hate speech.
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Even if Mr Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) bows to the need to improve Japan’s image overseas, the message is likely to remain mixed. Earlier in September a photograph emerged of Eriko Yamatani, the new minister for national public safety and the overseer of Japan’s police, posing in 2009 for a photograph with members of Zaitokukai. The government says she did not know that the people she met were connected to the noxious group. Yet Ms Yamatani has form when it comes to disputing the historical basis of the practice of wartime sex slavery.
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Many reasonable people worry that a new hate-speech law, improperly drafted, could harm freedom of expression. But one revisionist politician, Sanae Takaichi, said, shortly before she joined the cabinet in September, that if there were to be a hate-speech law, it should be used to stop those annoying people (invariably well-behaved and often elderly) demonstrating against the government outside the Diet: lawmakers, she added, needed to work “without any fear of criticism”. Ms Takaichi’s office has since been obliged to explain why, with Tomomi Inada, another of Mr Abe’s close allies, she appeared in photographs alongside a leading neo-Nazi. Some of the hate, it seems, may be inspired from the top.
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http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21620252-troubling-rise-xenophobic-vitriol-spin-and-substance?zid=306&ah=1b164dbd43b0cb27ba0d4c3b12a5e227

From Wikipedia:
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Japanese law covers threats and slander, but it "does not apply to hate speech against general groups of people". Japan became a member of the United Nations International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1995. Article 4 of the convention sets forth provisions calling for the criminalization of hate speech. But the Japanese government has suspended the provisions, saying actions to spread or promote the idea of racial discrimination have not been taken in Japan to such an extent that legal action is necessary. The Foreign Ministry says that this assessment remains unchanged.
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In May 2013, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) warned the Japanese government that it needs to take measures to curb hate speech against so-called "comfort women", or Asian women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War II. The committee's recommendation called for the Japanese government to better educate Japanese society on the plight of women who were forced into sexual slavery to prevent stigmatization, and to take necessary measures to repair the lasting effects of exploitation, including addressing their right to compensation.
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In 2013, following demonstrations, parades, and comments posted on the Internet threatening violence against foreign residents of Japan, especially Koreans, there are concerns that hate speech is a growing problem in Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Justice Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki have expressed concerns about the raise in hate speech, saying that it "goes completely against the nation's dignity", but so far have stopped short of proposing any legal action against protesters.

On 22 September 2013 around 2,000 people participated in the "March on Tokyo for Freedom" campaigning against recent hate speech marches. Participants called on the Japanese government to "sincerely adhere" to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Sexual minorities and the disabled also participated in the march.
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On 25 September 2013 a new organization, "An international network overcoming hate speech and racism" (Norikoenet), that is opposed to hate speech against ethnic Koreans and other minorities in Japan was launched.
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On 7 October 2013, in a rare ruling on racial discrimination against ethnic Koreans, a Japanese court ordered an anti-Korean group, Zaitokukai, to stop "hate speech" protests against a Korean school in Kyoto and pay the school 12.26 million yen ($126,400 U.S.) in compensation for protests that took place in 2009 and 2010.
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A United Nations panel urged Japan to ban hate speech.

SoftBank's Son stands up to anti-Korean bigotry in Japan

SoftBank's Son stands up to anti-Korean bigotry in Japan
Nikkei Asian Review: 27 August 2015

TOKYO -- SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son has long been discriminated against by Japanese because he is ethnically Korean.
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Even in his early childhood, he was attacked verbally and physically by Japanese classmates. In kindergarten, he was jeered at for being Korean. Once, another child cut his head open with a stone. Today,... he finds himself the target of malicious comments on the Internet. In a recent interview, Son talked about his experiences and his decision to be open about his background.
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Q: Why did you choose to use your Korean family name instead of your Japanese one?
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A: I used to go by Masayoshi Yasumoto before I went to the U.S. at the age of 16. After I returned from the U.S. and decided to start a business, I had a choice before me -- whether I should go with the Japanese family name Yasumoto, which all my family and relatives use, or the ancestral surname Son.
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It is undoubtedly easier to go by Yasumoto when living in Japanese society. A number of celebrities and professional athletes use Japanese family names in their chosen professions. It is not my intention to criticize such a practice. But I decided to go against the tide and become the first among my relatives to use Son as my family name.
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I won't go into the reasons and the origin of this issue, but if you are born into one of those families of Korean descent, you are subject to groundless discrimination. There are many children who undergo such hardship. When I was in elementary and junior high school, I was in agony over my identity so much that I seriously contemplated taking my own life. I'd say discrimination against people is that tough.
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Then you might ask why I decided to go against all my relatives, including uncles and aunts, and started to use the Korean family name, Son. I wanted to become a role model for ethnic Korean children and show them that a person of Korean descent like me, who publicly uses a Korean surname, can achieve success despite various challenges. If my doing so gives a sense of hope to even just one young person or 100 of them, I believe that is a million times more effective than raising a placard and shouting, "No discrimination."
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Q: Your coming out as an ethnic Korean risked involving the rest of your family, right?
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A: I met with fierce objections from my relatives, who had hidden their real family name to live their lives in a small community. One of my relatives said, "If you come out as a Son from among us, that will expose all of us." People would start saying things like "They are ethnic Koreans" or "Your nephew is a Son, not a Yasumoto. So, you, too, are part of the kimchee clan." That's why they tried to dissuade me. But I told them: "What I will do may disturb you all, uncles and aunties. If so, you don't need to say that I am a relative of yours. Just pretend that I am not related to you."
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Q: I hope there will be more success stories like yours in Japan. What do you think is necessary for that to happen?
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A: Currently, many Japanese companies are losing confidence. They are losing out to competition and have collectively become introverted. In such circumstances, even if we are the only one, SoftBank has risen to the occasion and taken on much bigger rivals in the U.S. And if we survive ... that will create a ripple effect and inspire even one company or 10 companies. I think that's a form of social contribution.
Son speaks before an audience. The slogan in the background says, "Challenge yourself and new horizons will emerge."
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Not just us, but Mr. Tadashi Yanai (chairman and president of Fast Retailing) and Mr. Shigenobu Nagamori (chairman and president of Nidec), and Rakuten, DeNA and other companies are working hard to challenge themselves. If young business leaders can set a couple of successful precedents, that could give a much-needed boost and help revive the Japanese economy.
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While it is important to oppose a move toward widening the wealth gap and put in place a social safety net, I think there is no need to stand in the way of other people's success. It is unnecessary to gang up and lash out at those who are successful. Successful people can serve as a light of hope for others. Personally, I think it is important to create a society where we can praise success and successful people. That will help keep alive Japanese dreams and create Japanese heroes.

 

Right side up

Right side up:  A powerful if little-reported group claims it can restore the pre-war order
The Economist: 16 June 2015

80 percent of Japanese Cabinet ministers belong to “Nippon Kaigi” or “Shinto Association”, a nationalistic right wing party which aims to restore pre-war Japan value. This is why some Japanese are so cautious about Abe government. Issue on Pacifist constitution vs new security bill is not merely a matter of  “change of security environment.”

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IT IS only 18 years old, and its name is innocuous—Nippon Kaigi simply means “Japan Conference”. Yet as one of Japan’s most powerful lobby groups it has a shopping list of nationalist, indeed blatantly revisionist, causes: applaud Japan’s wartime “liberation” of East Asia from Western colonialism; rebuild the armed forces; inculcate patriotism among students brainwashed by left-wing teachers; and revere the emperor as he was worshipped in the good old days before the war. Far from crediting America’s post-war occupation for bringing democracy, Nippon Kaigi’s supporters say that the occupation, and the liberal constitution that sprang from it, has emasculated Japan. Oddly, the group receives little attention from the media in Japan, despite its strong and growing influence at the heart of government.
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Nippon Kaigi has backroom clout, with over 280 local chapters, 38,000 fee-paying members and a network that reaches deep into the political establishment. A former chief justice was its last chairman. About a third of the Diet (parliament) are members of the group’s parliamentary league, as are over half of the 19-strong cabinet of Shinzo Abe, the prime minister. Mr Abe is the group’s “special adviser”.
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Its firepower is dedicated to making Japan a “normal country”, says Yoshiko Sakurai, a leading supporter. Education must water down imported notions of Western rights and stress duties to the state and the emperor. The group says that the nation should rearm, stoutly defend disputed territories against China and scrap the constitution of 1946 which renounces war as a means for settling disputes. It says its aim is to reflect Japan’s “true, original characteristics”.
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Nippon Kaigi has a formidable ability to mobilise. A decade ago it collected 3.6m signatures demanding reforms to the education law making it compulsory to teach children patriotism. Enacting a law with this requirement was one of the few things that Mr Abe accomplished in his first, inglorious term as prime minister from 2006 to 2007. Its members have consistently campaigned against anything that shows Japan’s wartime aggression in a bad light—bombarding exhibitions on war crimes, for example, with petitions and phone calls.
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Most of the group’s current energies are aimed at getting signatories—10m is the target—calling for a national referendum on revising the constitution. It wants the removal of the pacifist section, Article 9, and supposedly traditional family values to be enshrined in it. A draft of a new constitution drawn up by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in 2012 reflects much of Nippon Kaigi’s agenda. Ms Sakurai is one of the campaign’s figureheads. This is a recognition by Nippon Kaigi, says Tomomi Yamaguchi at Montana State University, that changing the attitudes of women, many of whom admire Japan’s long-standing pacifism, will be crucial.
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Nippon Kaigi gives nationalists in China and South Korea an excuse to claim that Japanese militarism is on the rise again. It wants Mr Abe to continue to visit Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, which deifies Japan’s war dead, including those who led the nation to war in 1931-45 with disastrous consequences not just for Asia but for Japan itself. (By the way, common citizen victims of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Tokyo air bombing do not belong to Yasukumi. It only worships spirits of military people including war criminals.) It also rejects what its supporters call Japan’s apology diplomacy. Nippon Kaigi is lobbying for Japan’s admissions of war guilt to be reversed this year, the 70th anniversary of the country’s surrender.
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A closely allied group is the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership. From the late 19th century Shinto, Japan’s oldest religion, was reinvented as a tool of state, serving as an ideology that helped mobilise Japanese to fight wars in the emperor’s name. In 2007 lobbying by the association and Nippon Kaigi helped to persuade the government to make April 29th a national holiday in honour of Hirohito, the emperor of Japan during the war.
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Even opponents are impressed at how reactionaries have quietly transformed the landscape of Japanese politics. Nippon Kaigi members, however, are frustrated over what they see as the slow pace of change. One of their aims in future is to help Japan find support for their causes from abroad and “build friendship with other nations”. It is possible they may achieve the opposite.

 

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21653676-powerful-if-little-reported-group-claims-it-can-restore-pre-war-order-right-side-up

Japan PM Abe's base aims to restore past religious, patriotic values

Japan PM Abe's base aims to restore past religious, patriotic values
Reuters: 11 December 2014

As Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promises voters a bright future for Japan's economy, key parts of his conservative base want him to steer the nation back toward a traditional ethos mixing Shinto myth, patriotism and pride in an ancient imperial line.

Proponents say such changes are needed to revive important aspects of Japanese culture eradicated by the U.S. Occupation after World War Two and to counter modern materialism.

Critics say they mirror the Shinto ideology which mobilized the masses to fight the war in the name of a divine emperor. The legacy of that war still haunts ties with China and South Korea nearly 70 years after its end.

A predicted landslide win by Abe's Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in a general election on Sunday, called as a referendum on his economic growth policies, and prospects Abe may become a rare long-term Japanese leader have given his ardent supporters their best chance in decades of achieving their goals.

"We really have trust in him," said Yutaka Yuzawa, director of the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership (SAS), the political arm of the Association of Shinto Shrines. The group, which counts Abe as a member, is one of a network of overlapping organizations sharing a similar agenda.
"The prime minister's views are extremely close to our way of thinking," Yuzawa told Reuters in an interview.

Among the key elements of the SAS agenda are calls to rewrite Japan's U.S.-drafted, post-war constitution, not only to alter its pacifist Article 9 but to blur the separation of religion and state. Education reform to better nurture "love of country" among youth is another top priority.

"After the war, there was an atmosphere that considered all aspects of the pre-war era bad," Yuzawa said. "Policies were adopted weakening the relationship between the imperial household and the people ... and the most fundamental elements of Japanese history were not taught in the schools."
Similar concerns drive other organizations such as Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference), a broader lobby group for which Abe serves as a "supreme adviser".


TEA PARTY PARALLELS

Experts see parallels between these groups and the U.S. Tea Party movement, with its calls to restore lost American values.

"Nippon Kaigi and the Shinto Association basically believe the Occupation period brought about ... the forced removal of Shinto traditions from public space and public institutions," said University of Auckland professor Mark Mullins.

"For them, this was authentic Japanese identity ... and to be an independent and authentic Japan again those things need to be restored."

Abe has long been close to such groups but they have increased their reach since his first 2006-2007 term as leader.

Membership data show 301 members of parliament, mostly from the LDP, are affiliated with the SAS, including 222 in the 480-seat lower house before the election. A Nippon Kaigi caucus had 295 members, including some opposition MPs.

Members of the groups are central to Abe's administration.

Nippon Kaigi supporters accounted for 84 percent of Abe's cabinet after it was rejigged in September and almost all ministers were affiliated with the SAS. Eighty-four percent also belonged to a separate caucus promoting visits to Yasukuni Shrine, seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past militarism.
Abe's December 2013 visit to Yasukuni sparked outrage in Beijing and Seoul. Far less attention was paid to what some see as his equally symbolic participation in October that year in a ceremony at Ise Shrine, the holiest of Japan's Shinto institutions.

The ritual is held every 20 years, when Ise Shrine is rebuilt and sacred objects representing the emperor's mythical Sun Goddess ancestress are transferred to the new shrine.

Abe became only the second premier to take part in the centuries-old ritual, and the first since World War Two. "Without anyone blinking an eye ... it became a state rite," said John Breen, a professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, commenting on Abe's participation.
The lobby groups are also active at the grassroots.

On Oct. 1, they launched the "People's Council to Write a Beautiful Constitution" to boost support for revising the charter in 2016.

Amending the constitution faces big hurdles even if the LDP succeeds in winning two-thirds of both chambers, since a majority of voters must then approve changes in a referendum.

But other parts of the conservative agenda are moving ahead, such as making "moral education" part of the official school curriculum with government-approved textbooks, a change slated to take effect in 2018.

That follows a revision to a law on education during Abe's first term to make nurturing "love of country" a goal.

"Things related to patriotic education are getting pushed through and institutionalized so they are shaping the next generation, whether parents know or think about it or not," the University of Auckland's Mullins said.