Monday Asia Events March 11, 2024

 GUARANTEES FOR CLIMATE FINANCE IN THE WORLD BANK-IMF AGENDA. 3/11, 10:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: TBD.

HOW TO WIN AN INFORMATION WAR: THE PROPAGANDIST WHO OUTWITTED HITLER. 3/11, Noon-1:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: New America. Speaker: author Peter Pomerantsev, Senior Fellow, SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

A CONVERSATION WITH THE AUKUS ARMY CHIEFS ON LAND POWER’S CONTRIBUTION TO AUKUS PILLAR 2. 3/11, 4:00-5:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: General Randy A. George, Chief of Staff of the Army, U.S Army; General Sir Patrick Sanders, Chief of the General Staff, British Army; Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, Chief of Army, Australian Army; Charles Edel, Senior Adviser and Australia Chair; Seth G. Jones, Senior Vice President; Harold Brown, Chair and Director, International Security Program.

THE WAR BELOW WITH AUTHOR ERNEST SCHEYDER. 3/11, 4:00-6:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Ernest Scheyder, Senior Correspondent, Reuters; Joseph Majkut, Director, Energy Security and Climate Change Program; Baskaran Gracelin Baskaran, Research Director and Senior Fellow, Energy Security and Climate Change Program. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/49PcUbw

*INNOVATION AND GROWTH PROSPECTS FOR A COMPETITIVE JAPAN. 3/11, 7:00-8:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: Izumi Devalier, Managing Director and Head of Japan Economics, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Robert Feldman, Senior Advisor, Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities; Kenji Kushida, Senior Fellow, Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Monday Asia Events December 5, 2021

2021 GLOBAL FORUM ON COMPETITION. 12/6, 6:00-10:00am (EST), Noon-4:00pm (CET), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Speakers Include: Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, IMF; Mathias Cormann, Secretary-General, OECD; Frédéric Jenny, Chair, OECD Competition Committee; Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General, WTO; Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General, UNCTAD; Joseph E. Stiglitz, Professor, Columbia University.  

JOINING DEMOCRACY AND PEACE: HARNESSING THE INEXTRICABLE LINK BETWEEN THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS AND PEACEBUILDING. 12/6, 9:30-11:00am (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: U.S. Institute of Peace Institute (USIP). Speakers: Uzra Zeya, Under Secretary of State for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, U.S.; Farhad Alaaldin, Chair, Iraq Advisory Council, Iraq; Maria Jimena Duzan, Host, “A Fondo” Podcast, Colombia; Glenda Gloria, Executive Editor, Rappler, Philippines; Idayat Hassan, Director, Centre for Democracy and Development, Nigeria; Oleksandra Matviychuk, Chair, Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine; Moderator: Lise Grande, President and CEO, USIP. 

ADVOCATES FOR DEMOCRACY IN CLOSED SPACES. 12/6, 10:00-11:30am (EST), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers Include: Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), Chairman, Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations; Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Ranking Member, House Foreign Affairs Committee; Amb. Isobel Coleman, Deputy Administrator for Policy and Programming, USAID; Anna Dobrovolskaya, Executive Director, Memorial Human Rights Center; Glacier Kwong, Political and Digital Rights Activist, Hong Kong; Sopheap Chak, Executive Director, Cambodian Center for Human Rights; Luciano Garcia, President, Hagamos Democracia.   

STEPHEN HABER ON THE BATTLE OVER PATENTS: HISTORY AND POLITICS OF INNOVATION. 12/6, 10:00-11:00am (PST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Hoover. Speakers: Stephen Haber, Author, Senior Fellow, Hoover; Alexander Galetovic, Research Fellow, Hoover; Gerardo Con Diaz, Former William C. Bark National Fellow, Hoover. PURCHASE BOOK: https://amzn.to/3E8AtfR

FORTIFYING THE FUTURE: BUILDING RESILIENCE IN THE AGE OF DISINFORMATION SESSION 2. 12/6, 10:00-11:00am (EST), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: National Committee on American Foreign Policy. Speakers: Benjamin Haddad, Senior Director, Europe Center, Atlantic Council; Dominika Hajdu, Policy Director, Centre for Democracy and Reslience, GLOBSEC Policy Institute; Jakub Janda, Director, European Values Center for Security Policy; James Pamment, Associate Professor, Lund University; Moderator: Nicholas Thompson, CEO, The Atlantic. 

REBOOTING THE EU-U.S. DEFENSE RELATIONSHIP. 12/6, 11:00am-Noon (EST), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS), Johns Hopkins. Speaker: Sophia Besch, Research Fellow, AICGS, Johns Hopkins. 

VICIOUS CYCLE OF ELECTORAL VOLATILITY IN KYRGYZSTAN. 12/6, 11:00am-Noon (EST), LIVESTREAM. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Dr. Aijan Sharshenova, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, OSCE Academy; Bruce Pannier, Senior Correspondent for Central Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Amb. Kadyr Toktogulov, former Kyrgyzstan Ambassador to the U.S.; Paul Stronski, Senior Fellow, Russia and Eurasia Program, Carnegie. 

PROGRESS AT THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION AND US TRADE POLICY IN THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION. 12/6, 11:00am-12:30pm (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Speakers Include: Angela Ellard, Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organization; Joshua P. Meltzer, Senior Fellow, Brookings; Jennifer A. Hillman, Professor, GU; Moderators: Neena Shenai, Nonresident Fellow, AEI.

2021 HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON AWARDS: WOMEN'S RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS. 12/6, 11:00am-Noon, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Speakers: H.E. Hillary Rodham Clinton, 67th Secretary of State, U.S.; H.E. Madeleine K. Albright, 64th Secretary of State, U.S.; Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC); Dr. Marina Pisklakova, Founder & Chair, ANNA – National Center for the Prevention of Violence; Guo Jianmei, Founder, Center for Women’s Law Studies and Legal Services; Dr. Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, African Union Goodwill Ambassador on Ending Child Marriage; Palwasha Hassan, Director, Afghan Women’s Educational Center. Location: Gaston Hall, Georgetown University, 3700 O Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20007.

CONGRESS AND WAR: RECLAIMING ARTICLE I POWERS. 12/6, Noon-1:00pm (EST), LIVESTREAM. Sponsor: Cato. Speakers: Chris Murphy, Senator for Connecticut, United States Senate; Jordan Cohen, Policy Analyst, Cato; Gene Healy, Senior Vice President for Policy, Cato; Moderator: Eric Gomez, Director of Defense Policy Studies, Cato. 

HOW CAN CARBON MINERALIZATION HELP FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE? 12/6, Noon-1:30pm (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University. Speakers: Dr. S. Julio Friedmann, Senior Research Scholar, Center on Global Energy Policy, Columbia University; Dr. Peter Kelemen, Arthur D. Storke Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University; Sasha Wilson, Associate Professor, Faculty of Science, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences Administrator, University of Alberta. 

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS MEETING. 12/6, Noon-1:30pm (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Gold Institute for International Strategy (GIIS). Speakers: Monica Crowley, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury; David P. Goldman, President, Macrostrategy LLC, Asia Times, Economist, WSJ; Ambassador Hisham ElNakib, Advisor to Egyptian Mission to U.N.; Marc Black, Senior Law Enforcement Fellow, GIIS; Adam Lovinger, Vice President of Strategic Affairs, GIIS.

CHINA’S POWER: UP FOR DEBATE 2021 - DEBATE 2: BEIJING’S CRACKDOWN WILL STIFLE CHINESE TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION. 12/6, 4:00-5:15pm (EST), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Rui Ma, China Tech Analyst, Main Writer and Co-Host, Tech Buzz China; Matt Sheehan, Fellow, Asia Program, Carnegie; Moderator: Bonny Lin, Director, China Power Project, CSIS. 

NATIONAL READINESS FOR GREAT POWER COMPETITION. 12/6, 5:00-6:00pm (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Institute of World Politics. Speaker: General Joseph L. Votel (Ret.), Commander, U.S. Central Command. 

SPECIAL SCREENING OF UK DOCUMENTARY “JAPAN’S WARTIME SEX SLAVES” AND PANEL DISCUSSION. 12/6, 7:30pm (GMT), 2:30pm (EST), IN PERSON (University of Oxford) and VIRTUAL. Sponsors: Institute of Digital Archaeology (IDA); Comfort Women Action for Redress and Education (CARE). Speakers: Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Journalist, Unreported World; Dr. Maki Kimura, Lecturer in Gender and Politics, University College London; Christina Lamb, Journalist, Sunday Times; Moderator: Dr. Alexis Dudden, Professor, University of Connecticut. Location: Magdalen College Auditorium, University of Oxford. Request link from info@digitalarchaeology.org.uk; https://digitalarchaeology.org.uk/
https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20211129120700075 [article about Japanese rightwing harassment]

duplicate? SPECIAL INTERVIEW OF UK DOCUMENTARY “JAPAN’S WARTIME SEX SLAVES” COMFORT WOMAN SURVIVOR YONG-SOO LEE. 12/6, 10:00am (GMT), 5:00am (EST), ZOOM WEBINAR. Sponsors: Institute of Digital Archaeology (IDA); Comfort Women Action for Redress and Education (CARE). Speaker: Yong-soo Lee. Request link from info@digitalarchaeology.org.uk. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZyYyXKG51s&t=105s]

SHEDDING TAIWAN'S 'INVISIBILITY CLOAK': GLOBAL AND REGIONAL PROSPECTS. 12/6, 8:00-9:00pm (EST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Sigur Center, Elliot School, GW. Speakers: Liang-Yu Wang, Deputy Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S.; Pasha L. Hsieh, Associate Professor and the Associate Dean (Faculty Matters & Research), Singapore Management University Yong Pung How School of Law; Michael Mazza, Nonresident Fellow, Global Taiwan Institute and German Marshall Fund of the United States; Moderator: Deepa Ollapally, Associate Director, Sigur Center, Elliot School, GW. 

TOWARDS POST-COVID-19 FISCAL POLICY AND DIGITALIZATION IN ASIA. 12/6, 10:00pm-12:00am (EST), 12/7, Noon-2:00pm (JST), WEBINAR. Sponsor: Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI). Speakers Include: Odd-Per Brekk, Deputy Director, Asia and Pacific Department, IMF; Paolo Mauro, Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF; Ruud De Mooij, Assistant Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF; Dharitri Panda, Finance Ministry, India; Sangwook Nam, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Republic of Korea; John Beirne, Research Fellow, ADBI.

Foreign Influence and Academic Integrity - the Comfort Women

 

Foreign Influence and Academic Integrity By Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Emeritus Professor in the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University, and a past President of the Asian Studies Association of Australia, April 22, 2021, Australian Institute of International Affairs.

The risks of improper foreign influence on academic research have become a topic of growing concern in many parts of the world over the past year or so. Much of this concern has focused on efforts by China to restrict the freedom of expression of academics and students abroad as well as at home, or to obtain access to research findings. Anxiety about the role of China is very well-founded, but this issue clearly goes further than any one country. Many national governments or overseas interest groups seek in one way or another to exert their influence on research being carried out beyond the boundaries of their own nation.

Professor Morris-Suzuki uses as an example the Government of Japan's activities to influence the discussion and academic work on the Comfort Women--sex slaves to Imperial Japan's military and colonial administrators. Most of these women and girls were forced into this service. The government currently contends that no official Japanese participated in coercing anyone. This is contrary to fact.

Japan's government and its supporters have cultivated a network of history denialist groups that want to change the history narrative of aggressive industrialization and imperialism to one of innovative opportunity cut short by the victimization of the West. The war was forced upon Japan and war crimes were inventions of the Allies.

Morris-Suzuki focuses on the flawed Mark Ramseyer journal article that claims the Comfort Women were simply commercial prostitutes. She points out how this Harvard Law School professor ignored traditional scholarship and current documentation. It is alarming that he is promoted and defended by the Japanese government and well-known rightists as an example of the assault on free speech. As a result, she believes this is the "worst crisis of academic integrity" in her lifetime.

Japan's "weaponization of research" is a model followed by many. Scholars are not necessarily being paid to say something, but support is forthcoming to those who are already sympathetic. Money amplifies denier history, that she likens to Holocaust denial. What was once ignored backwater arguments are now promoted above rigorous scholarship and historical truth.

Morris-Suzuki was asked for specific examples of Japanese pressure. She could not cite any other than to say that implicit pressure is exerted by Japan. A good example of this, however, was the title and description of her presentation by the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Nowhere is there mention of Japan or Comfort Women or Ramseyer. AIIA protected itself by simply giving an anodyne title of foreign influence suggesting the talk is about China. 

Only those who attended the event would know, and they were few.

Monday in Washington October 16, 2017

HISTORY AND FUTURE OF THE GLOBAL HIV/AIDS RESPONSE. 10/16, 10:00am-11:30am. Sponsor: Global Health Policy Center, CSIS. Speakers: Dr. Michael Merson, Wolfgang Joklik Professor of Global Health, Vice President and Vice Provost for Global Strategy and Programs, Duke University; Dr. Stephen Inrig, Associate Professor, Mount Saint Mary’s University; Moderator: Sara M. Allinder, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Global Health Policy Center, CSIS.

HONG KONG: A SNAPSHOT TWENTY YEARS AFTER HANDOVER. 10/16, 10:30an-2:30pm, Lunch. Sponsors: Carnegie; Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office. Speakers: Paul Chan, Financial Secretary, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Governent; Clement Leung, Hong Kong Commissioner, Economic and Trade Affairs to the United States; Douglas H. Paal, Vice President, Carnegie. Richard C. Bush, Senior Fellow, Brookings. Peter J. Levesque, CEO, Modern Terminals Limited; James V. Feinerman, Professor, Asian Legal Studies, Georgetown University; Helen Chan, Government Economist, Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. By invitation.

TERROR, PROPAGANDA AND THE BIRTH OF THE “NEW MAN”: EXPERIENCES FROM CUBA, NORTH KOREA, AND THE SOVIET UNION. 10/16, 11:00am-12:30pm, Lunch. Sponsor: CATO. Speakers: Andrei Lankov, Professor, Kookmin University, Republic of Korea; Yuri Pérez, Latin America expert, Freedom House; Andrei Illarionov, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute; moderated by Marian L. Tupy, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, Cato Institute. 

INITIATIVE FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY POLICY (ISEP). 10/16, 12:30-2:00pm. Sponsor: ISEP, SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Speaker: Rachel Kyte, CEO, Sustainable Energy for All, Special Representative, UN Secretary-General; Moderator: Johannes Urpelainen, Professor, Energy, Resources and Environment, SAIS, Johns Hopkins. 

Politics of promoting Japanese "culture"

JAPAN HAS MADE CULTURE A POLITICAL TOOL

BY Taku Tamaki, Lecturer in International Relations, Loughborough University, UK, Newsweek, 4/29/17

Much has been made of Japan’s recent turn away from pacifism and growing military muscle, but Tokyo is also extending its global reach in more subtle ways. Japan is especially serious about increasing its soft power, the ability to win over global partners with cultural and diplomatic affinity rather than coercion and sheer heft.

Tokyo has long busied itself building a national “brand”, an image that combines the supposed uniqueness of Japanese language, cuisine, and traditional hospitality with its postwar pacifism and reputation for technological prowess. The latest iteration of this project is the Cool Japan initiative, which capitalises on the international popularity of manga and anime to project the Japanese brand around the world.

But while this might all sound like very 21st-century stuff, the idea of packaging national culture into a political brand is a familiar one, and Japan has been doing it for decades—albeit in very different ways.

Before World War II, imperial Japan presented itself as the “liberator” of Asia, the only modernised Asian state to have escaped Western colonialism. This myth already contained the core elements of Cool Japan, depicting Japan as neither Asian nor Western but an exotic hybrid of Western modernity and Asian tradition. This deft act of national branding won it the 1940 Olympics—but as the country’s expansionist offensives in Asia ramped up in the late 1930s, the games were abandoned.

Yet remarkably, this myth of Japanese cultural uniqueness survived the devastating and humiliating defeat of August 1945. On the contrary, it was reinforced by Japan’s postwar pacifism and rapid reconstruction that began in the mid-1950s. Over the next few decades, Japan became the second-largest economy in the world, once again suggesting that it was a trailblazing standout in an otherwise backward Asia.

That approach paid off with the successful bid for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, which this time actually happened.

The organisation that most actively promotes this mission today is the Japan Foundation, Japan’s answer to the British Council and a potential rival to China’s Confucius Institute. The foundation’s job is to promote Japanese language and culture, principally by engaging in international cultural exchange programmes and encouraging language learning.

Indeed, the Foundation, has been active in hosting Japanese language speech contests outside Japan, as well as conducting Japanese Language Proficiency Tests whereby learners can gain a certificate of Japanese language fluency. Furthermore, the Japan Foundation promotes cultural and academic exchanges between Japan and the outside world. And as the Japanese Foreign Ministry itself suggests, cultural exchanges help to lubricate diplomatic relations in general.

Abe Power
On the face of it, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s much-touted economic revitalisation programme, known as Abenomics, has little to do with soft power. In its first incarnation as the Beautiful Country programme, the hallmark of Abe’s first term in 2006-7, this was a thoroughly domestic agenda of constitutional amendments, fiscal restructuring and economic deregulation.

But this wasn’t just an economic programme; it was also a nationalistic one, designed to turn domestic economic regeneration into an international display of supposedly distinctive Japanese attributes, not least diligence and resilience.

With patriotic education at home and cultural outreach abroad, Abe is turning the old myth of Japanese uniqueness into a different kind of nationalism. To be sure, he clearly believes that economic revitalisation and a renewed military are crucial prerequisites for rebuilding Japan’s self confidence. But he also knows that to truly win over the rest of the world, it has to win the hearts and minds of global consumers.

And so the Abe government is advancing a carefully calibrated image of a beautiful, vibrant Japan, simultaneously traditional and modern. Perhaps the ultimate expression of this was Abe’s in-person appearance as Super Mario at the closing ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics, heralding Toyko’s turn in 2020. It might have looked trivial, but in reality, it was the apex of a calculated, long-term propaganda exercise that will project Japanese influence as far as possible.

So the next time you pick up a manga comic from your local bookshop or grab a sushi roll off a conveyor belt, remember that you’re not just treating yourself – you’re also playing your part in a long and very considered political project.

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

Abenomics Explained

The catchy, clever phrase "Abenomics" is being marketed hard by the Abe team. The new Japanese Administration is trying to position its economic policy as something new and distintive; as more of a catch phrase than a fragile complex of monetary maneuvers. They want it to be a "movement" where the voters feel invested in Abe's success in handling the economy.

Thus, it is no surprise that the economic program is being boiled down for the masses through various popular culture mediums. The new J-pop, girl band Machikado keiki Japan [“Street Corner Conditions JAPAN”] is a prominent part of this trend. The girls raise and lower their skirts along with the stock market--the objective appears to be underwear.

They have just released their first single Abeno☆MIX where they literally sign the praises of Abenomics. The music video is above. You can follow the girls at their website that has the links to their Facebook and Twitter.

These new pop idols are another brainchild of the Alice Project. One needs to ask now what are the politics of the owners of the Alice Project.