Asian Americans push back

On June 11, San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim introduced a resolution asking Mayor Ed Lee to urge his Osaka counterpart, Toru Hashimoto to apologize to the Comfort Women victims, retract his demeaning statements regarding the sex slaves of Imperial Japan, and

FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Board of Supervisors calls on President Barack
17 Obama and the U.S. Congress to formally ask the Japanese government to initiate legislation,
18 to be adopted by the Japanese Diet, formally acknowledging the wartime atrocities committed
19 by the Japanese government in countries that it invaded and occupied, apologize for the
20 atrocities committed by its soldiers, and compensate the victims of Japanese aggression,
21 including the survivors of the forced sexual enslavement during World War II, akin to the
22 actions taken by the U.S. Congress in 1988 when it passed legislation acknowledging and
23 apologizing for its unlawful detention of Japanese Americans during World War II and the
24 actions taken by the German government formally acknowledging the atrocities committed by
25 its wartime government and military forces during World War II;

This resolution follows a statement issued by Emily Moto Murase, the Mayor's head of the City's Department on the Status of Women condemning Mayor Hashimoto's view that the Comfort Women were “necessary” to provide relief to soldiers as a "flagrant denial of basic human rights."

She writes that she is joined by other leading organizations in the Japanese American community such as the U.S.-Japan Council, which asserted, “Statements that are demeaning to women or that are historically inaccurate are inappropriate and harm the relationship between Japan and its allies.”

In addition, the San Francisco-Osaka Sister City Association released the following: “Statements that justify controversial wartime abuses and devastating violence against women are damaging to international relations, and contrary to the mission of the association.”

Dr. Murase is also on the board of the Osaka-San Francisco sister-city committee. She noted to a reporter that a visit by Osaka Mayor Hashimoto "would have been very difficult because of what we know as San Francisco values."

With these statements, it is clear that the Japanese American community is not to be separated out from other Asian Americans or any Americans in their rejection of denier history.

All quiet on Abe

Signatories of November 4, 2012 The Facts Ad

Shinzo Abe and the media: Self-censorship

Richard Katz, editor of the Oriental Economist and APP member, published the article below in OE's June 2013 issue (June 7, 2013)

The Japanese media is famous for finding fault with Prime Ministers within a couple months of their taking office. But Shinzo Abe “has been getting an incredible free pass for six months,” said one stunned American political scientist. The media had similarly acted as a cheering squad for Yukio Hatoyama in his first couple months—until his own fecklessness doomed him. In the initial honeymoon, the editor of one journal called the editor of another to complain about an article that, while accurate, made Hatoyama look bad. “Japan needs Hatoyama to succeed to reinforce ‘regime change,’ so we should support him.”

Today, editors and reporters are acting as if Abe’s success is somehow Japan’s last chance to revive. Meanwhile, Abe has carefully cultivated the media, reportedly having dinner with the President of almost every major media organization. Abe and Yomiuri publisher Tsuneo Watanabe reportedly meet frequently. (Click HERE and search for “Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule” “PMJS” in tags)

The dog that didn’t bark
The media stance is sometimes seen in the news that they fail to report. The most egregious case has occurred around Abe’s comments on whether Japan’s actions during World War II and earlier deserve the label “aggression” used in the 1995 apology by Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama. Proclaiming in the Diet that this was an issue for academic historians, it was, in fact, a refusal to reaffirm the Murayama statement.

Abe had promised himself not to let such issues arise before the July Upper House elections, but sometimes he just can’t help himself. The problem is that his beloved grandfather, Noboru Kishi, was directly involved as economic overlord of Manchukuo and a Minister in Hideki Tojo’s cabinet. Abe cannot admit to himself that his hero committed aggression. This is a problem that Abe shares with many other LDP leaders who are descendants of World War II-era leaders.

LDP Policy Affairs Council chair Sanae Takaichi went beyond Abe’s evasions, forthrightly claiming that, “It was understood at that time [before and during the war] that our nation had to fight resolutely in self-defense for its own survival.” Other ministers and party leaders have been forced to resign for far less damaging comments.

With the exception of a few outlets like Asahi, most of the media simply offered brief reports on Abe’s and Takaichi’s words. They provided little analysis and failed to explain the damage these comments did to Japan’s interests overseas, including cooperation with Seoul regarding North Korea. Abe’s views focus Asian attention on Japan’s past acts rather than China’s present ones. The US State Department summoned a senior official from the Japanese Embassy to express its distress.

Kyodo did a very good analysis, but few newspapers printed it. Jiji Press reported as if it were fact a statement from Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga that the Koreans had "misunderstood" Abe’s words. Think tanks whose leaders tend to be supportive of Abe, such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, have tried to convey to Abe in private the impact he has had.

How many ordinary Japanese know that the man who campaigned on restoring US-Japan ties has been losing Washington’s confidence?

Suga tried to put an end to the whole issue by having Abe say that, “I never denied that Japan committed aggression.” Yet, Abe refuses to affirm it either. Nonetheless, the Yomiuri, which one journalist said is “acting like a government newspaper,” reported that Suga had successfully laid the issue to rest. Within Japan perhaps—especially since Toru Hashimoto has diverted attention via his notorious comments on “comfort women.” But not in the nations whose cooperation Japan needs.

Abe, Tamogami, and the “comfort women” ad
Nor has the daily press and TV investigated why so many of Abe’s aides and associates hold revisionist views. Consider Education Minister Hakubun Shimomura, the man in charge of Abe’s desire to make the education curriculum “more patriotic.”

In 2012, Shimomura said that Abe “should declare that the Nanking Massacre did not take place and the issue of comfort women does not exist. He should fully negate the Tokyo Trials historical viewpoint, and should also visit Yasukuni Shrine.” The interview was with Toshio Motoya, a real estate magnate and Abe associate whose magazine in 2008 awarded first prize to a notorious essay by Toshio Tamogami [Was Japan an Aggressor Nation? 2008], who was appointed [Japan] Air [Self Defense] Force Chief of Staff during Abe’s first term.

Tamogami claimed that, “Japan was ensnared in a trap that was very carefully laid by the United States in order to draw Japan into a war.” Though Tamogami was forced to resign, Mindy Kotler of the Washington-based Asia Policy Point, has discovered on Tamogami’s website that Abe appeared publicly at least six times at events sponsored by Tamogami’s Nippon Ganbare organization.*

Abe himself signed a November 4, 2012 advertisement in the New Jersey Star-Ledger denying the Japanese government and military’s role in forcing women into prostitution during World War II. So, did LDP Policy Chief Takaichi. Rather than justify the sex slavery, as Hashimoto did, Abe simply denies it. Abe heads the list of signers from the Liberal Democratic Party. According to Kotler, the signers include ten members of Abe’s current cabinet.** The ad was sponsored by the rightwing “Committee For Historical Facts” [Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact].

Why the media protects Abe 
Why does so much of the media protect Abe? The reason seems to be that Abe gives the impression of being the strong leader that many Japanese feel is needed to get Japan out of its economic morass and to stand up to China and South Korea.

People admire Abe’s leadership capacity and personality far more than his individual policies. For example, in a May 28 poll in Sankei, 72% approved of Abe’s personal character and 67% approved of his leadership qualities. Both are significantly above the 54% who approved of Abe’s stimulus measures, the 47% who approved of his security policies, and the 32% who approved of amending Article 96 of the Constitution. Considering that 75% disapproved of Hashimoto’s comments on comfort women, what would happen to Abe’s approval rate if the press delved deeply into Abe’s views?

People yearn for a reason to hope and don’t want any news about Abe that could dampen their hopes. According to an important leader in Japanese journalism, editors and reporters are not merely unwilling to defy the feelings of their viewers and readers. Many of them share those feelings.

Asia Policy Point adds:
*7 (possibly 8 as one has disappeared from the website since ) 

Watch the Videos: 

November 24, 2012, http://youtu.be/3L9rn92WurI?t=41m21s;

June 30, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu98IK4wyuk;
May 11, 2011, http://youtu.be/61SIP9GdvEI?t=23m36s; 

September 21, 2010, http://youtu.be/nCfWX2--jtw?t=6m59s; 

June 9, 2010, http://youtu.be/FRWSE3ppZjs?t=6m33s; 

February 17, 2010, http://youtu.be/bY0jzrI3k0c?t=7m27s; 

February 2, 2010, http://youtu.be/xSMMjYcCl_U?t=15m37s

**See photo heading this article of "assentors/signatories". Separated out below is the list of Abe Cabinet members who signed "The Facts" ad in the November 4, 2012 New Jersey Start Ledger, which was two days before the US national elections and less than a week after Hurricane Sandy devastated parts of New Jersey.

Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister
Seiichi Eto, Special Advisor to Prime Minister on National Issues
Keiji Furuya, Minister in Charge of Abduction Issue and Nation’s Infrastructure Resilience
Tomomi Inada, Minister of State for Regulatory Reform
Yoshitaka Ito, Parliamentary Secretary of Finance
Shigeo Kitamura, Parliamentary Secretary of Cabinet Office
Hiroshige Seko, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology
Yoshitake Shindo, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications
Hiroyuki Yoshiie, Parliamentary Secretary of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Mayor Hashimoto defends himself

On two consecutive days (May 27 & 28) the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan hosted two press conferences about the controversial remarks of Nippon Ishin No Kai (Japan Restoration Party) Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto. This report from the Shingetsu News Agency shows key highlights.

You can find videos of the entire Hashimoto press conference HERE. Note, it is difficult to figure out the order of the video segments. This ONE is the first segment of the press conference.

Mayor Hashimoto felt that his initial remarks were distorted and that the Comfort Women system was: 1) a government system, 2) a violation of human rights, but the women were not abducted by government forces.

Although there were rumors that Hashimoto would link his remarks to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's very similar views on the Comfort Women, he did not.

Shingo Nishimura, a Japan Restoration Party lawmaker who was forced to resign from the LDP in 1999 for calling for Japan's consideration of nuclear weapons, suggested on May 17 that many ethnic Koreans are engaged in prostitution in Japan. He said "Tell the South Koreans in downtown Osaka streets, 'You're comfort women, right?'". The comment had him expelled from his new party the following day.

Why Noda will continue as PM longer than expected

One could get the impression from that the public is (as usual) ready for change after six months of the same Prime Minister. In a Mainichi Shimbun poll of 3-4 March, approval of the Noda Cabinet fell to 28%. Unsurprisingly, in the same poll, the consumption tax increase remains deeply unpopular with 58% disapproving of the two-stage increase, and with 79% skeptical that such an increase would stabilize pension and other social security policies. Yet Yoshihiko Noda has surprising resources to hold on as Prime Minister at the head of yet another configuration of the diverse groups within its ranks. If the question of raising the consumption tax can be settled—then Noda may have a lot more time as Prime Minister as his predecessors.

The latest whiff of change in Nagata-cho was the “rumored” meeting on February 25 between Prime Minister Noda and the LDP’s President Sadakazu Tanigaki. This set free speculation about the chances for a grand coalition. It is one possible outcome of the struggle to raise the consumption tax, and the one that would make the most sense if political parties were to seek coalition partners on the basis of policy agreements. One putative reason for the grand coalition is the opposition of parts of the DPJ and the LDP to Ichiro Ozawa, over the issue of the consumption tax in particular but over the relationship between parties and the bureaucracy and other deeper positions.

Despite the fireworks over the consumption tax, there is much less to the conflict inside the DPJ over Ozawa than meets the eye. First, Noda’s cabinet relies on senior politicians close to Ozawa to steer important policy, including even fiscal policy. Second, Ozawa’s ongoing problems in the political finance scandal involving his political fundraising organization make the duration of his political career uncertain. Third, Ozawa’s group has quietly folded in every other confrontation including the election of PM Noda in exchange for positions of responsibility. The high likelihood of losing any general election resulting from open revolt in the DPJ make them poor material for forcing a confrontation.

A grand coalition would have the advantage of receiving wide public support. Even in the early 1980s, when the LDP and JSP were 180 degrees apart on key policy issues, the public supported a grand coalition as the most preferred option in several NHK public opinion surveys. The condition of floating voters has also strengthened, if anything, since the advent of DPJ government in 2009.

At the same time, Noda is not focused on public opinion but rather on maintaining elite coalitions. The problem is that that while this shores up Noda’s standing with the various parts of the DPJ, the LDP, and with the Ministry of Finance, and foreign investors, the distance from the public is growing rather than shrinking.

As long as Noda’s pledge of “no side” politics is working in practice as well as a rhetorical device at the elite level, therefore, general public dissatisfaction can be expected to continue all the way up to the next election.

Unfortunately for Noda, this prospect of rising public dissatisfaction also raises the possibility of challengers outside the party system entirely…such as the One Osaka movement of the major of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto. After all, untested leaders from outside of politics-as-usual are the most appealing once all parties have lost their importance to the voters.

Dr. Paul Talcott
Advanced Research Associate
Japan Seminar, Institute of East Asian Studies
Freie Universität Berlin

This essay first appeared in the March 4th issue of APP's Asia Policy Calendar.

What Are The Survival Prospects Of the Noda Cabinet?

Two seemingly unrelated stories dominated Japan’s political news over the last weekend in January. First, Japan’s ruling party, the DPJ, discovered and then tried to hide an estimate that the consumption tax would have to be 17% by 2075 to fulfill commitments. The second is the rise Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru onto the national stage. Tying these two together is that opposition to the rightwing Hashimoto may be the salvation to the DPJ’s repeated bad judgment as exemplified by its obsessing over a distant future scenario.

Consumption tax surprise

The Noda administration has publicly committed itself to raising the consumption tax from 5% to 10% over the next three years. At the same time, the DPJ made its own internal estimates of the amount the consumption tax would need to rise to fund the pension payment promise made in the party’s 2009 Manifesto. This was 7.1% by the year 2075, suggesting that the consumption tax in 2075 would be greater than 17%.

A debate broke out within the party leadership over whether or not to publicly air this estimate. In the face of difficult bargaining with the LDP-New Komeito opposition alliance over the bill raising the tax to 10%, opening up about a situation arising decades hence seemed foolish.

Predictably, the opposition LDP and the New Komeito caught wind of this debate. Just as predictably, their leaders went before the cameras to complain that the DPJ was negotiating in bad faith and trying to cover up the truth about the consumption tax. The DPJ thus gave itself yet another black eye before the public, with the likelihood that the foul-up up was to knock a few more points off the Noda Cabinet’s popularity.

Rise of the Right
However, the usual slide in public approval is not necessarily going to doom Noda Yoshihiko as it has the last four prime ministers. This is because the weekend’s other top political story -- the wholesale rush by rightist and quasi-libertarian politicians to embrace the rising political movement of Osaka City Mayor Hashimoto Toru -- poses an existential threat to the mainstream political order.

Hashimoto’s politics is heady and if not somewhat simplistic. Derisively referred to as “Hashism,” it appeals to a broad spectrum of political elements usually excluded from visible power on the national stage. His unrepentant patriotism and his crusade against the education system makes him a favorite of supporters of the rightwing Sunrise micro-party and Tokyo Governor Ishihara Shintaro.

His bureaucrat-bashing and budget-slashing zeal during his days as Osaka Governor energizes the supporters of Watanabe Yoshimi’s hardline anti-bureaucrat Your Party. His call for the creation of an Osaka Metropolitan District, a mirror image of the Tokyo Metropolitan District, has revived an off-again on-again movement for a major devolution of power to the regions.

“Hashism” is an electoral winner. Hashimoto shellacked his incumbent opponent, the avuncular Hiramatsu Kunio, in the Osaka City election last November. Hashimoto prevailed despite Hiramatsu’s enjoying the support of all major national political parties except for the Your Party. Even the Communist Party, which until now has never cooperated with other parties and has always run a candidate in elections for municipalities, deferred on putting up a candidate of its own in the Osaka election in order to boost Hiramatsu’s numbers.

Hashimoto now is in control of the Osaka governorship, the Osaka prefectural assembly, and the Osaka City government. He is a young man in a hurry who fully embraces that he is a “movement.” He refuses to cooperate with either the DPJ or the LDP. Instead, he wants to establish a training school for 400 novice politicians to run under his direction in the next House of Representatives election.

Defending the Status Quo

This potential army of candidates and Hashimoto’s current popularity has the Tokyo establishment scared. The Yomiuri Shimbun, the de facto party paper of the LDP, recently made an about-face and demanded that the LDP and the New Komeito drop their petulant, automatic “No” to anything the DPJ proposes. Calls for immediate elections, which have been the staple of LDP and New Komeito rhetoric for over a year, have suddenly abated.

For the LDP particularly, collaboration with Noda and the DPJ is now the lesser of two evils. That a new era of peace shall break out in between the DPJ and the LDP-New Komeito alliance may seem a stretch. There remain and will remain serious differences of opinion over particular programs and policies.

However, the Noda government has demonstrated a willingness to include LDP and New Komeito ideas in legislation, or even swallowing LDP-New Komeito draft legislation wholesale (marunomi). The rocket-like rise of Hashimoto into the national political scene seems to be untwisting the “twisted” Diet, raising the hope that the major establishment parties can cooperate, at least in the interim, to pass major pieces of legislation.

The result is that Noda’s poll numbers may not fully reflect the strength of his administration. There are now other factors at play that can prolong his tenure. In the Nagata-cho, opposition to Mayor Hashimoto’s populism is stronger than opposition to Prime Minister Noda.

Michael Thomas Cucek
Research Associate
MIT Center for International Studies
Blog: http://shisaku.blogspot.com/

This essay first appeared in the January 30th issue of the Asia Policy Calendar, which is sent to the members of Asia Policy Point