Prime Minister of Japan's Schedule June 4-11

June 4, 2013 (Tues)

AM
08:03 Leave private residence in Tomigaya
08:14 Arrive at office
08:23 Cabinet meeting
08:34 Seko Hiroshige, Chief Cabinet Deputy Secretary
09:52 Leave office
09:54 Arrive at National Diet
09:56 House of Councillors committee meeting room 21
10:00 Opening of House of Councillors Economic and Industry committee meeting
11:35 Leave House of Councillors Economic and Industry committee mid-session
11:36 Leave National Diet
11:38 Arrive at office
11:55 Taro Kimura, aide to the Prime Minister

PM
12:00 Mr. Kimura leaves
12:08 Leave office
12:09 Arrive at official residence. Dine with LDP’s Tatsuo Fukuda and other first term lower house Diet members. Suga Yoshihide, Chief Cabinet Secretary and others attend
12:56 Leave official residence
12:57 Arrive at office
01:26 Akira Amari, Minister of Economic Revitalization; Takashi Matsumoto, Cabinet Office Undersecretary; Takeshi Matsuyama, Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination
01:52 Leave office
02:04 Enter Nippon Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) meeting hall in Otemachi, Tokyo.
02:06 Nippon Keidanren Regular General meeting
02:24 Leave meeting hall
02:36 Arrive at assembly hall in Kasumigaseki, Tokyo
02:40 Raises signboard for the Comprehensive IT Strategy Unit with Ichita Yamamoto, IT Policy Advisor and others
02:43 Leave assembly hall
02:45 Arrive at office
03:11 Kosuke Obata, Society President of Japan Youth Assembly Place
03:45 Tomomi Inada, Administrative Reform Minister
03:26 Leave office
03:29 Arrive at LDP Headquarters. Attend National Party Secretary General Meeting
05:03 Leave LDP Headquarters.
05:05 Arrive at office
05:06 Masako Mori, Minister for the Declining Birthrate. Yasunori Yoshimura, Cabinet Secretariat Advisor attends
05:27 Toshio Oishi, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications’ Deputy Director of Affairs
05:40 Yasuo Otani, Deputy Director-General of Health, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare; Yoshiyuki Kikura, Director General, Health Insurance Bureau.
06:36 Summit meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma
07:21 Leave office
07:22 Arrive at official residence
07:23 Dinner hosted by Prime Minister
07:40 See off President Zuma
07:44 Leave official residence
07:57 Arrive at private residence

June 5, 2013 (Wed)

AM
09:03 Leave private residence
09:21 Arrive at office
09:48 Leave office
09:56 Arrive at Hotel New Otani in Kioicho, Tokyo. Inside hotel’s banquet hall, attend General Meeting of the Japan Association of City Mayors, give address
10:14 Masato Matsuura, Mayor of Hofu in Yamaguchi Prefecture
10:17 Leave hotel
10:25 Arrive at office
10:26 Toshiaki Endo, Chief Secretary of Bipartisan “Diet Members Alliance for 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics Japan Invitation”
10:44 Reconstruction Promotion Committee
11:05 Regulatory Reform Council
11:20 Masahiko Komura, Liberal Democratic Party Vice-President

PM
12:06 Leave office
12:23 Arrive at Grand Prince Hotel in Takanawa, Tokyo. In hotel banquet room attend Research Institute of Japan’s national seminar, gives address
01:13 Leave hotel
01:33 Arrive at official residence. Attend Cabinet Minister Ladies’ meeting.
01:41 Leave official residence
01:42 Arrive at office
01:56 Akira Amari, Minister of Economic Revitalization; Ikuro Sugawara, Manufacturing Industry Director at Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
02:26 Itsunori Onodera, Defense Minister; Masanori Nishi, Defense Ministry Undersecretary; Hideshi Tokuchi, Defense Policy Bureau Director
03:03 Courtesy call from Hiromasa Yonekura, Japanese Chairman of Japan-EU Business Round Table; Ambassador Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, Head of Delegation of the European Union to Japan; and others
03:19 Shigeru Kitamura, Cabinet Information Officer; Hideshi Toguchi; Kenichi Kinomura, Head of Intelligence Headquarters enter
03:28 Hideshi Toguchi and Kenichi Kinomura leave
03:44 Shigeru Kitamura leaves
04:01 Administrative Reform Promotion Council
05:03 Forum for Consultations between the National and Regional Governments
05:11 Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Norihisa Tamura, Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare; Masako Mori, Minister for the Declining Birthrate
05:28 Koichi Hamada, Cabinet Secretariat Advisor
06:14 Industrial Competitiveness Council
07:02 Leave office
07:03 Arrive at official residence. Dine with Keiji Yamada, Kyoto Prefectural Governor, Nation-Wide Prefectural Governor Chairman. Yoshitaka Shindo, Minister for Internal Affairs; Yoshihide Suga, Chief Cabinet Secretary attended
08:30 Leave official residence
08:33 Arrives ANA Intercontinental Hotel Tokyo in Akasaka
08:34 Informal talk with Shungaku Yanai, Chairman, Yamaguchi Prefecture Diet
08:48 Informal talk with Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Science; Koichi Hagiuda, LDP, House of Representatives
09:48 Leave hotel
10:03 Arrive at private residence

June 6, 2013 (Thu)

AM
08:40 Leave private residence
08:59 Arrive at office
09:04 Education Rebuilding Implementation Council
09:58 Akira Amari, Minister in charge of Total Reform of Social Security and Tax; Atsushi Seike, Social Security System Reform National Conference Chairman; Katsunobu Kato, Chief Cabinet Deputy Secretary
10:14 Toru Hashimoto, Japan Restoration Party co-leader; Ichiro Matsui, Chief Secretary; Mikio Shimoji, Representative of Okinawan Political Group “Souzou”
10:52 Ichita Yamamoto, Science and Technology Minister; Takashi Matsumoto, Cabinet Office Vice-Minister
11:10 Teruyuki Katori, Director-General Pension Bureau Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
11:54 Courtesy call from Kishu Plum Society “Plum Girls”

PM
12:03 Luncheon meeting with managers of small to medium companies. Eiichi Hasegawa, Special Advisor to the Prime Minister attends.
01:48 Receive proposal from Akira Banzai, President of Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives
02:04 Itsunori Onodera, Defense Minister; Hideshi Toguchi, Defense Policy Bureau Director
02:46 Michiyoshi Kiuchi, Supreme Court Justice
02:51 Courtesy call from Yuichiro Miura, oldest person to climb Mount Everest
03:15 Minoru Kiuchi, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs; Hisahito Okazaki, Former Ambassador to Thailand
03:26 Akira Amari, Minister of Economic Revitalization; Takashi Matsumoto, Cabinet Office Undersecretary; Takeshi Matsuyama, Cabinet Office Deputy Director-General
04:04 Chikao Kawai, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs; Ichiro Komatsu, Ambassador to France
04:52 Agence France-Press news interview
05:08 Yasuo Otani, Deputy Director-General of Health, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare; Tetsuya Yajima, Health Bureau Director
05:33 Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy
06:38 Council for Science and Technology Policy
07:03 Leave office
07:04 Arrive at official residence. Dines with Council for Science and Technology Policy members. Ichita Yamamoto attends
08:10 Leave official residence
08:15 Arrive at State Guest House in Motoakasaka, Tokyo. Dinner party with French President Francois Hollande and his partner Valerie Trierweiler. Wife Akie attends.
09:42 Leave State Guest House
09:59 Arrive at private residence

Monday in Washington

EIA ENERGY CONFERENCE. 6/17-18, 8:45am. Sponsor: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Keynote Speakers: Ernest Moniz, Energy Secretary; Neelash Nerurkar, State Department Senior Adviser, Bureau of Energy Resources.

WHERE WORLDS MEET: SINGAPORE’S VIEW OF THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION AND US ENGAGEMENT. 6/17, 9:30-11:00am. Sponsor: East-West Center in Washington. Speaker: Ambassador Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, Singapore’s Ambassador to the United States of America.

CYBER AND HARDWARE HACKING SCENARIOS 2023. 6/17, Noon-2:00pm, Arlington, VA. Sponsor: Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, International Center for Terrorism Studies. Speakers: Michael Swetnam, CEO and Chairman, Potomac Institute; David Smith, Senior Fellow, Director, Cyber Center, Potomac Institute; Ben Sheppard, Adjunct Fellow, Potomac Institute; Fred Wright, Deputy Director, Cyber Technologies and Information Security Laboratory, Georgia Tech Research Institute; Ronald Marks, President, Intelligence Enterprises, LLC.

ANALYZING THE IRANIAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. 6/17, 2:00-3:30pm. Sponsor: Stimson Center. Speakers: Hosein Ghazian, Analyst, International Foundation for Electoral Systems; Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, President and CEO, Non-violent Initiative for Democracy, former Deputy of the Iranian Parliament; Cliff Kupchan, Director, Middle East, Eurasia Group; Geneive Abdo, Fellow, Middle East/Southwest Asia Program, Stimson.

POLITICAL OUTLOOK 2014: AN INDEPENDENT PERSPECTIVE OF INDONESIA'S THIRD DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS. 6/17, 2:30-4:00pm. Sponsor: US-Inodnesia Society. Speaker: Wimar Witoelar, Former Presidential Spokesperson, Political Observer, Writer, Media Personality. 

RIVER CONSERVATION AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN CHINA, A DIALOGUE WITH MS. WANG YONGCHEN, AN ENVIRONMENTAL HERO FROM CHINA. 6/17, 3:30-5:00pm. Sponsor: International Fund for China’s Environment and Holland Knight. Speaker: Tad Ferris, Holland+Knight and Wang Yongchen, a senior reporter of China National Radio and founder of Green Earth Volunteers.

PACIFIC DAY. 6/17, 4:00-9:00pm. Sponsor: CSIS Pacific Partners Initiative and the Ambassadors and Representatives of Pacific Island Countries and Territories in Washington, D.C. Features a seminar from 4:00 p.m. to 6:15 p.m. and a reception from 6:15 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. 'Pacific Day' will be held at the Embassy of New Zealand. Admission to the event is by invitation only, but the seminar will be webcast live. 

TWENTY YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE: A BRIEFING BY THE YUGOSLAV TRIBUNAL CHIEF PROSECUTOR. 6/17, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: American Society of International Law; Georgetown University Law Center; Georgetown Center for National Security and Law. Speakers: Serge Brammertz, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; Elizabeth Andersen, Executive Director, American Society of International Law.

THE UNWINDING: AN INNER HISTORY OF NEW AMERICA. 6/17, 7:00-8:30pm. Sponsor: Politics and Prose Bookstore. Speaker: George Packer, Author.

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

Monday in Washington

ONE MILLION BONES. 6/8-10. National Mall. Large-scale social arts practice, combining education, hands-on art making, and public installation to raise awareness of ongoing genocides and mass atrocities in places like Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Burma. 1,000,000 handcrafted bones placed on the Mall to serve as a collaborative site of conscience to honor victims and survivors and as a visual petition against ongoing conflicts and a call for action.

SCALING UP: CHINESE RENEWABLE ENERGY INVESTMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES AND BEYOND. 6/10, 9:00-11:00am. Sponsor: Wilson Center, China Environmental Forum. Speakers: Hu Tao, Senior Associate, International Financial Flows and Environment Project, World Resources Institute (WRI); Yingzhen Zhao, Research Assistant, International Financial Flows and Environment Project, WRI; Todd Foley, Senior Vice President, Policy and Government Relations, American Council On Renewable Energy.

IS JAPAN "BACK"?: AN ASSESSMENT OF ABENOMICS. 6/10, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Japan America Society of Washington. Speaker: Matthew P. Goodman, Simon Chair in Political Economy, CSIS.

THE PRESIDENT'S STEM CALL TO ACTION - A JOINT IMPLEMENTATION RESPONSE TO PCAST'S 'ENGAGE TO EXCEL' REPORT. 6/10, 1:30pm. Sponsor: The Business-Higher Education Forum, National STEM Undergraduate Partnership. Speakers: Navy Secretary Ray Mabus; Thomas Kalil, White House Deputy Director for Technology and Innovation; Reginald Brothers, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research; Susan Singer, Director, Division of Undergraduate Education, National Science Foundation.

IRAN AT A CROSSROADS: THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AND NUCLEAR PROGRAM. 6/10, 2:00pm. Sponsor: Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA). Speakers: Dennis Ross, Co-chairman, JINSA Iran Task Force; Eric Edelman, Co-chairman, JINSA Iran Task Force; Ray Takeyh, Senior Fellow, Middle East Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor-in-chief of U.S. News and World Report, Publisher, New York Daily News; Michael Makovsky, CEO, JINSA.

EXPLORING ECONOMIC POLICY PERCEPTIONS. 6/10, 3:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC), Chamber Foundation. Speakers: Bruce Stokes, Director, Global Economic Program, Pew Research Global Attitudes Project; John Lipsky, former G20 Sherpa, First Deputy Managing Director, IMF; Kalpana Kochhar, Deputy Director, Strategy and Policy Department, IMF; Nuno Mota Pinto, Alternative Director for Portugal, World Bank; Gary Litman, Vice President, International Strategic Initiatives, USCC; John Sullivan, Managing Director, Center for International Private Enterprise; Joel Rogers, Associate Fellow, Royal United Services Institute, United Kingdom, Academic Drector, YouGov; Aniket Shah, Investec Asset Management, South Africa.

TYRANNY OF CONSENSUS. 6/10, 5:00-6:30pm. Sponsor: Stimson Center. Speaker: Janne Nolan, Author, Senior Fellow, Association for Diplomatic Studies.

DRONES AND THE FUTURE OF COUNTERTERRORISM IN PAKISTAN. 6/10, 5:00-6:30pm. Sponsor: Carnegie Endowment (CEIP). Speakers: Samina Ahmed, Senior Asia Adviser, International Crisis Group, Islamabad, Pakistan; Frederic Grare, Director, Senior Associate, South Asia Program, CEIP. 

Spamming the Comfort Women

American legislatures are fast becoming aware of the Comfort Women issue. Two factors appear to be at play. One is a greater awareness and prosecution of human trafficking. The other is the growing political influence of the Asian-American community.  Together they push the Comfort Women tragedy beyond its specific historic period and merge it with contemporary campaigns to combat sexual slavery and other grave violations of human rights.

Resolutions and proclamations honoring the Comfort Women now all urge education on their history as an example of contemporary human trafficking. The original 2007 US House of Representatives resolution, H. Res. 121 (100th Congress, 1st Session) focused on the need for an unequivocal state apology. New legislative activity starts with a discussion of trafficking drawing clear connections between the Comfort Women and modern forms of sexual violence and slavery.

For example, on April 23, Maryland's Montgomery County Council presented a proclamation that emphasizes the problems of human trafficking in the county while honoring the Comfort Women. Presented by Councilmember Valerie Ervin (D), the Proclamation resolved that “the County Council of Montgomery County, Md. hereby extends our profound hope that the crimes against the comfort women of World War II will serve as a lasting reminder to the world that crimes against humanity will not be condoned or tolerated.” The proclamation also recognized the work of Del. Susan C. Lee (D-Dist. 16) of Bethesda to pass state legislation against human trafficking.

As you can see from the video above, the Proclamation was presented to prominent members of the local Asian-American community: State Delegate Susan Lee; Judge Chung Pak; Linda Han, President, Korean American Association of the Washington Metropolitan Area; Christine Choi, President, Washington Coalition for Comfort Women Issues; Christina Shin, President, Korean American Women’s Chamber of Commerce; Young Ha Kim, Montgomery County Korean American Association; and Stan Tsai, Chairman, Chinese Culture and Community Service Center.

On May 23rd, the House of Representatives of the Illinois General Assembly passed its own resolution on Comfort Women. The Resolution, HR0365, "urges Illinois educators to share with students the story of 'comfort women' when discussing World War II history and expresses a commitment to explore ways to develop an Asian American social science and history curriculum for public schools concerning the subject of 'comfort women' and other Asian American experiences."

Introduced by Representative Elaine Nekritz (D), the Resolution also focuses on the contemporary problems of human trafficking. Among the several clauses highlighting the issue, the first  notes "The State of Illinois stands against human trafficking in all its forms, as evidenced by the 2005 formation of the Illinois Rescue and Restore Coalition, a partnership between the Illinois Department of Human Services and the federal government to combat labor and sex trafficking in Illinois."

On June 20th, the New Jersey State Senate will likely approve Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 124. This vote will make the resolution one of the entire state legislature. Unlike the two above, it is narrowly focused and does not generalize the Comfort Women experience. It says: "The General Assembly commemorates and supports comfort women in their fight for proper acknowledgement by the Japanese government of the suffering they endured during their forced internment in military comfort stations and calls upon the Japanese government to accept historical responsibility for the sexual enslavement of comfort women by the Imperial Japanese military and educate future generations about these crimes."

Legislators in all the states mentioned above have been spammed by a coordinated campaign to discredit the Comfort Women and to intimidate lawmakers. The rightwing Nadeshiko Action Japanese Women for Justice and Peace tracks pro-Comfort Women activities in the U.S. and organizes detailed English-language email spam attacks on anyone associated with an identified   American Comfort Women bill or program. Their uniform "emails" claim that the Comfort Women were mere prostitutes and that the issue was created by Koreans to humiliate Japan.

The group also assists Japanese diplomats and businessmen approach American government officials in an effort to dissuade any Comfort Women initiatives. Recently, according to Nadeshiko and Yonhap News, they have had success. A library in suburban Detroit has been "persuaded" to halt plans to erect a Comfort Women memorial.  

In the end, this is all about hate speech and a political agenda that find national pride in another's humiliation. The Internet has given new life to the Right. In the new book, Viral Hate: Containing Its Spread on the Internet, the authors who are leaders in the Anti-Defamation League, find that "haters have embraced the new technologies to spread their lies, to recruit and to mislead. Today, while it is a marvelous medium for education, communication, entertainment and commerce, the ways in which the Internet is being used to disseminate and promote hateful and violent beliefs and attitudes are astounding, varied and continually multiplying."

Other Japanese organizations that coordinate denier history hate campaigns are the Japan Society for History Textbook Reform, Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact, and Nippon Kaigi.

For more about Human Trafficking in Asia see HERE.

Japan as a Tier 2 country

In his February speech in Washington, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said

Last year, Richard Armitage, Joseph Nye, Michael Green and others published a paper about Japan in which they asked if Japan would end up becoming a Tier-two nation. Secretary Armitage, here is my answer to you. Japan is not, and will never be, a Tier two country. That is the core message I am here to make.

However, Japan already is a "Tier 2 country."

Since 2001, Japan has ranked as a Tier 2 country in the U.S. State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.  This means that Japan does not yet fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of human trafficking but is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

The TIP Japan country report for 2012 notes:

During the year, the Japanese government did not develop or enact anti-trafficking legislation that would fill key gaps in facilitating anti-trafficking prosecutions, and the government did not arrest, prosecute, or convict a single forced labor perpetrator in 2011.  

... 

Draft and enact a comprehensive anti-trafficking law prohibiting all forms of trafficking and prescribing sufficiently stringent penalties that are commensurate with other serious crimes; significantly increase efforts to investigate and prosecute forced labor cases, and punish offenders with jail time; increase the enforcement of bans on deposits, punishment agreements, withholding of passports, and other practices that contribute to forced labor in the foreign trainee program; continue to proactively investigate and, where warranted, punish government complicity in trafficking or trafficking-related offenses; further expand and implement formal victim identification procedures to guide officials in the identification of forced labor; continue to ensure victims are not punished for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being in a human trafficking situation; establish protection policies for all victims of trafficking, including male victims and victims of forced labor; ensure that protection services, including medical and legal services, are fully accessible to victims of trafficking regardless of income; and aggressively investigate, prosecute, and punish Japanese nationals who engage in child sex tourism.

Maybe the speechwriter should have written the softer sounding "second tier" country. "Tier 2" is legalese, especially the kind that suggests international accountability and comparison. And for those in the human rights community the designation hones in on Japan's long and unfettered history of human trafficking, especially of women and girls for sexual slavery.

Prime Minister of Japan's Schedule May 27-June 3

May 27, 2013 (Mon)

AM
09:43 Leaves private residence in Tomigaya
09:59 Arrive at Imperial Palace. Report of return home
10:06 Leave Imperial Palace
10:13 Arrive at office
10:15 Hiroshige Seko, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
10:56 Toshio Oishi, Internal Affairs Deputy Director-Generals
11:26 Masanori Nishi, Defense Permanent Secretary; Kenji Hiramatsu, Director General of the Foreign Policy Bureau

PM
12:10 Leave office
12:20 Arrive at Tokyo’s Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery. Attend ceremony and lay flowers
12:41 Leave Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery.
12:51 Arrive at office
01:50 Takuya Miyama, Director General of the Civil Affairs Bureau at the Ministry of Justice; Nobuo Inada, Detective Superintendent
02:31 Motoo Hayashi, Chairman of Liberal Democratic Party Research Commission on Public Safety and Counterterrorism Measures
02:52 Leave office
02:53 Arrive at National Diet
02:55 House of Councilors Chairman Reception Office
02:57 House of Councilors Chamber
03:01 House of Councilors plenary session begins
04:10 Leave House of Councilors plenary mid-session
04:12 Leave National Diet
04:14 Arrive at office
04:22 Ichita Yamamoto, Minister of Technology Policy
04:24 Kouya Nishikawa, member of House of Representatives in the Diet; Satsuki Katayama, member of House of Councillors
04:57 Leave office
04:59 Arrive at National Diet
05:00 Liberal Democratic Party President’s Chambers
05:28 LDP board meeting ends
05:41 Leave National Diet
05:43 Arrive at office
05:44 Akitaka Saiki, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs; Foreign Ministry official Kunio Umeda, Director General of the International Cooperation Bureau
06:38 Leave office
06:39 Arrive at official residence
06:40 Dinner with Yasutoshi Nishimura, Senior Vice Minister of Cabinet Office; Vice Ministers of each ministry. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, Katsunobu Kato, Hiroshige Seko both Cabinet Secretaries attend
08:17 Leave official residence
08:31 Arrive at private residence

May 28, 2013 (Tue)

AM
07:51 Leave home in Tomigaya
08:04 Arrive at office
08:14 Headquarters for Promoting Decentralization Reform
08:26 Ministerial Meeting Concerning Measures Against Crime
08:43 Cabinet Meeting
09:06 Receives proposal from Kaoru Kamata, Chairman of the Education Rebuilding Implementation Council. Hakubun Shimomura, Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in attendance
09:26 Tomomi Inada, Minister of Cool Japan Strategy
09:46 Akira Amari, Minister of Economic Revitalization; Takashi Matsumoto, Cabinet Office Administrative Vice Minister; Takeshi Matsuyama, Vice-Minister for Policy Coordination enter
09:49 Mr. Amari leaves
10:01 Mr. Matsumoto, Mr. Matsuyama depart
10:12 Records video message for “Japan Taiwan Sightseeing Summit”
10:35 Akitaka Saiki, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs; Kunio Umeda, Director General International Cooperation Bureau

PM
12:00 Leave official residence
12:02 Arrive at official residence. Dines with Liberal Democratic Party’s Toru Shiraishi and members of the Diet who have been elected for the first time. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is present
12:49 Leave official residence
12:50 Arrive at official residence
02:01 Meet with experts on establishing a National Security Council
03:01 Mayor Oonishi, Miwa City Assemblyman Meeting Chairman Nagato in Yamaguchi Prefecture
03:29 Courtesy call from Mary Anne Morgan, United States Cherry Blossom Queen
03:41 Keiji Furuya, Minister in charge of the issue of North Korea’s abductions of Japanese nationals
04:03 Mr. Amari; Ikuo Sugawara, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Director manufacturing industry
04:35 Shigeru Kitamura, Cabinet Information Officer; Yuuji Sato Coast Guard Monitor, enter
04:50 Mr. Satou leaves
05:00 Mr. Kitamura leaves
05:01 Mr. Saiki; Takeshi Yagi, Ambassador to India
05:32 Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy
07:07 Office
07:08 Informal talk with Liberal Democratic Party’s Shinjirou Koizumi and Diet members who have been elected twice
08:00 The Prime Minister and his wife Akie meet with Prime Minister of India, Singh, and his wife
08:02 Dinner with Singh and his wife. Mr. Akie, Mr. Saiki attend
09:13 See off Prime Minister Singh with his wife Akie
09:15 Leave official residence
09:33 Home

May 29, 2013 (Wed)

AM
09:33 Leave home in Tomigaya
09:49 Office
09:54 Akira Amari, Minister of Economic Revitalization; George Hara, Chairman of U.S. venture investment specialty company “DEFTA Partners Group”
10:53 TBS interview
11:41 Ichita Yamato, Minister of State for Okinawa and Northern Territories Affairs; Nakaima Hirokazu, Okinawa Prefectural Governor
11:52 Hirokazu Nakaima, Governor of Okinawa Prefecture and others present “Kariyushi Shirt”

PM
12:01 Leave office
12:07 Arrive at Hotel Okura in Toranomon, Tokyo. Attend LDP Ishihara faction’s party in the banquet hall of the hotel
12:15 Leave hotel
12:21 Office
12:54 Tatsuya Ito, Chairman, LDP Small to Medium Enterprise/Small Scale Business Person Policy Investigation Association
01:26 Yoko Kamikawa, LDP Minister of State for Gender Equality and Social Affairs; Masako Mori, Support Representative of Gender Equality and Child Education.
03:25 Yomuri TV interview
04:40 Takashi Onishi, Japan Science Council Chairman; Yamato, Takashi Matsumoto Cabinet Office Administrative Vice Minister
04:55 Kazuhiro Tamaki, President of the NPO Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER) and Ryoki Sugita, Chairman and Chairman of Nikkei Inc.
06:09 Mini summit meeting with Prime Minister Singh of India
06:48 The summit plenary
07:39 Joint statement signing ceremony, joint press conference
08:19 Dinner hosted by the Prime Minister and his wife
09:51 See off Prime Minister Singh
09:57 Leave office
10:10 Home

May 30, 2013 (Thu)

AM
09:20 Home in Tomigaya
09:38 Office
09:56 Ichita Yamamoto, Minister of Science and Technology
10:47 Summit meeting with President Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania
11:19 Send off President Kikwete
11:29 Courtesy call from United Nations Millennium Development Goals Envoy for Africa Yvonne Chaka Chaka

PM
02:04 Parliamentary Secretary of Defense Akira Sato
02:38 Secretary General Kunio Mikuriya of the World Customs Organization (WCO)
02:53 Yuriko Koike, LDP Public Relations Director
03:27 Senator Benjamin Cardin, Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations, Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs; US Ambassador to Japan John Roos
04:06 Takumi Nemoto, Minister for Reconstruction
04:26 Courtesy call from winners of the National Truck Driver Contest. (See Shisaku's thoughtful post - Reflections on the Prime Minister's Award in Truck Driving)
04:35 Mr. Kitamura, Director, Cabinet Intelligence
05:05 Mr. Saiki, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs; Mr. Umeda, Director-General, International Cooperation Bureau, joins
05:10 Mr. Umeda departs
05:11 Mr. Hiramatsu, Director-General, Foreign Policy Bureau, MoFA, joins
05:20 Mr. Hiramatsu departs
05:53 Mr. Saiki departs
06:12 Leave office
06:22 Mita Shared Meeting Room
06:23 Mr. Amari, Minister of Economic Revitalization; Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University
06:48 Welcome Reception for the ESRI International Conference
07:09 Depart
07:18 Dinner with Shotaro Yachi, Cabinet Office Councilor in Japanese Restaurant Yamazato, Hotel Okura Tokyo
08:38 Depart
08:55 Home

May 31, 2013 (Fri)

AM
08:02 Home in Tomigaya
08:16 Office
08:25 Cabinet meeting
09:42 Leave office
10:19 Arrive at Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel. First day of TICAD V morning events
11:00 Meet with Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn
11:25 Meet with President Macky Sall of Senegal
11:54 Begin talks with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia

PM
12:14 Talks with President Sirleaf end. First day of TICAD V afternoon events
12:19 Meet with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud of Somalia
01:37 Meet with President Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan
02:08 Meet with President John Dramani Mahama of Ghana
02:37 Meet with President Armando Guebuza of Mozambique
03:06 Depart from hotel
03:07 Arrive at Pacifico Yokohama, a convention center
03:09 Address Special Conference on Somalia
03:18 Depart
03:19 Arrive at hotel
03:20 Depart hotel
03:23 Arrive at Yokohama Royal Park Hotel
03:38 Attend 2013 AFDP African Leader’s and Business Representatives’ Conference
03:46 Leave hotel
03:50 Arrive at Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel
04:01 Meet with President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire
04:28 Leave hotel
04:30 Arrive at Pacifico Yokohama
04:31 Attend African Fair 2013
04:38 Observe the fair with Governor Yuuji Kuroiwa of Kanagawa Prefecture
04:51 Depart
04:52 Arrive at Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel
05:04 Meet with President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso
05:29 President Bensalah of the Council of the Nation of Algeria
06:35 Depart from hotel
06:37 Arrive at Yokohama Royal Park Hotel
07:00 Host welcome reception with Mayor of Yokohama
07:57 Depart from hotel
07:59 Arrive at Yokohama Grand Intercontinental Hotel

Abe's Nationalist Japan

Australian National University Professor and APP member Rikki Kersten was interviewed on June 2nd byABC News about the consequences of Abe's retrogressive views of Japanese history and society. His interpretations of the past affect not only relations with Japan's Asia neighbors, but also with Western allied nations. As Dr. Kersten points out,

If Japan continues to provoke mistrust in its agenda, if it's nationalism continues to offend ,Japan cannot hope to act effectively economically diplomatically, or even in security terms. It is that simple.

Although there has been a steady stream of articles and speeches trying to refute impressions of new Japanese rightwing revisionism by Abe government supporters, there is evidence to the contrary. He is either founder or a prominent member of many conservative nationalist parliamentary leagues and study groups such as Nippon Kaigi and Sosei Nippon.

Abe is, as noted by Sophia University Koichi Nakano on the video above, a "nationalist by conviction."

Professor Kersten will visit Washington, DC in July to exchange views with American colleagues.

Prime Minister of Japan's Schedule May 20-27

May 20, 2013 (Mon)

AM
09:22 Office
10:32 Ministerial Council on Monthly Economic Report and Other Relative Issues
10:52 Economic Revitalization Minister Amari; Mr. Matsumoto, Administrative Vice Minister of Cabinet Office; and others
11:08 Administrative Vice Foreign Minister Kawai; Deputy Foreign Minister Saiki; and Mr. Ishikawa, Director South Asia Department
11:35 Mr. Satoshi Ishikawa, President of Kyodo News

PM
12:55 Parliament
12:56 Upper House Audit Committee
05:03 LDP Executives meeting
05:31 Office
05:52 Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy
06:56 Deputy PM and Finance Minister Aso
07:09 Akasaka Shimada Osteopathic Clinic; back treatment
08:20 Imperial Hotel; attend the meeting with Western Japan Economic Federation, including Mr. Shousuke Mori, Chair of Kansai Power Company; Mr. Amari and Senior Vice Minister of Cabinet Office Nishimura attend
10:00 Home in Tomigaya

May 21, 2013 (Tue)

AM
07:55 Office
08:02 Ministerial Meeting
08:19 Headquarters on Creating Dynamism through Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Industries and Local Communities
08:37 Information Security Policy Council
09:34 Non-certified Childcare Facilities in Yokohama City
09:35 Ms. Fumiko Hayashi, Mayor of Yokohama City; Exchange opinions with childcare workers
10:24 Certified Childcare Facility in Yokohama
10:27 Mayor Hayashi; and Mr. Makoto Torii, President of Soutetsu Holdings, Owner of the facility
10:52 Press interview
11:39 Office

PM
12:01 Residence
12:02 Lunch with LDP first term members; Mr. Suga; Mr. Katou, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary; Mr. Kimura, Advisor for PM
12:43 Mr. Kouichi Hagyuda, LDP Lower House member
12:50 Office
01:00 Mr. Suga; and Mr. Iijima, Cabinet Office councilor (the official who went to North Korea)
02:33 Mr. Kitamura, Director, Cabinet Intelligence; and Mr. Shimohira, Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center Director
02:43 Mr. Shimohira leaves
02:54 Mr. Kitamura leaves
02:58 Mr. Yoneda, Director-General of the National Police Agency
03:40 Mr. Yonemura, Cabinet Crisis Management Director
04:21 Defense Minister Onodera; Mr. Tokuchi, Defense Policy Bureau Director General; Mr. Kouno, Maritime SDF Chief of Staff; and Mr. Kataoka, Air SDF Chief of Staff
05:02 Administrative Vice Foreign Minister Kawai
05:47 Ambassador Shin Kak-Soo of South Korea
06:01 Justice Minister Tanigaki
06:21 Submission of Proposal by the Public-Private Council for the Promotion of TICAD V
06:29 Ms. Inada, Minister for Administrative Reform
06:48 Deputy Foreign Minister Saiki
06:50 Mr. Sugiyama, Director General of MoFA Asia Oceania Affairs Bureau
07:25 Both leave
07:30 Residence
07:31 Dinner with Mr. Aso
09:23 Home in Tomigaya

May 22, 2013 (Wed)

AM
09:31 Office
09:53 Parliament
10:00 Upper House Plenary Session
10:26 Hibiya Public Hall; Regular General Meeting of the National Association of Chairpersons of City Councils
10:50 Office
11:16 Japan-Singapore Summit Meeting with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong

PM
12:00 Luncheon hosted by Prime Minister
12:56 See off Prime Minister Lee
12:59 Mr. Furuya, Minister in charge of the Abduction Issue
01:27 Education Minister Shimomura; Deputy Education Minister Yamanaka
01:40 Mr. Yamanaka leaves
01:51 Mr. Shimomura leaves
01:52 Mr. Nemonto, Minister for Reconstruction
03:03 Education Rebuilding Implementation Council
03:56 Mr. Kitamura, Director, Cabinet Intelligence
04:51 Foreign Minister Kishida
05:24 Deputy Foreign Minister Saiki and others
05:30 Courtesy Call from the Winners of the Future Shinkansen Contest
05:42 Mr. Yoshio Mochizuki, LDP Administrative Reform Promotion Director
06:03 Industrial Competitiveness Council
07:08 Residence; Dinner with Tsutomu Yamazaki, LDP Upper House Budget Committee member; and Mr. Masaaki Taniai, New Komei Party Upper House member; Mr. Sekou attends
09:07 Home in Tomigaya

May 23, 2013 (Thu)

AM
08:38 Office
08:39 Mr. Koumura, LDP Vice President
09:11 Mr. Sekou, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary
09:32 Request from the Headquarters for the Revitalization of Education of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan
09:54 Parliament
10:00 Upper House Cabinet Committee
11:08 Office
11:34 Japan-Thailand Summit Meeting with Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra

PM
12:11 Luncheon hosted by Prime Minister
01:04 See off Prime Minister Yingluck
01:52 Filipino Foreign Minister Del Rosario
02:20 Gathering of Persons with Disabilities with the Prime Minister
03:05 Press interview
03:09 Mr. Ichiro Aisawa, President of Japan-Africa Federation Friendship Diet Member’s Caucus
03:29 Deputy Foreign Minister Saiki; and Deputy Economy, Trade, and Industry Minister Sasaki
04:24 Mr. Suga, Chief Cabinet Secretary
05:00 Mr. Kurt Campbell, former Assistant Secretary of State; and Mr. David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group
05:42 Tokyo Kaikan hall Rose Room, Celebration of the Japan Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Association
05:55 Office
06:33 Imperial Hotel, Chidori no Ma Room, Meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Thiện Nhân of Vietnam
06:44 Meeting Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister H.E. Keat Chhon of Cambodia
06:55 Meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H.E. Dr. Thongloun Sisoulith
07:10 Reception Hall Kujaku no Ma Room; Banquet of the 19th International Conference on the Future of Asia
08:09 Conversation with Seikei Gakuen Alumni including Mr. Ryouzou Kato, Commissioner of Nippon Professional Baseball and Mr. Atsuyuki Sassa, former Cabinet Office National Security Chief
09:59 Home in Tomigaya

May 24, 2013 (Fri)

AM
08:04 Office
08:10 Strategic Headquarters for the Promotion of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society
08:28 Ministerial meeting
08:40 Ms. Mori, Minister in charge of Declining Birthrate
08:43 Mr .Sekou
09:53 Parliament
10:01 Upper House Plenary Session
11:54 Leave in the middle of the session
11:57 Office
11:58 Courtesy Call from the Iris Princesses and Others; Mr. Fukushirou Nukaga, former

Finance Minister, attends

PM
12:11 Mr. Ishiba, LDP Secretary General
12:30 Ruling Party Leaders meeting with Mr. Yamaguchi, President of New Komei Party; Mr. Ishiba; Mr. Inouye, New Komei’s Secretary General; Mr. Oota, Komei member, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation; and Mr. Suga
12:48 Mr. Oota leaves
01:23 All leave
01:24 Ms. Takaichi, LDP Policy Research Council Chief
02:02 Press Interview
02:24 Haneda Airport
02:49 Leave the airport for Myanmar with Mrs. Abe

Asia in this week's Washington

MANAGING TENSIONS IN THE SOUTH CHINA SEA. 6/5-6, 8:00am-12:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS, Southeast Asia Program. Speakers: Dr. Patrick M. Cronin, Senior Advisor and Director, Asia-Pacific Security Program, Center for New American Security; Alexander Metelitsa, Economist, Energy Information Administration, US Department of Energy; Joseph Y. Yun, Acting Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, US Department of State; Ernest Z. Bower, Senior Advisor and Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, CSIS; Dr. Wu Shicun, President, National Institute for South China Sea Studies; Dr. Tran Truong Thuy, Director, South China Sea Studies Program, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam; Dr. Renato C. De Castro, Professor, De La Salle University; Dr. Yann-Huei Song, Research Fellow, Institute of European American Studies; Murray Hiebert, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, CSIS; Gregory B. Poling, Research Associate, Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, CSIS; Dr. Zhang Xinjun, Associate Professor of Public International Law, Tsinghua University Law School; Henry S. Bensurto, Jr., Secretary General, Commission on Maritime and Ocean Affairs Secretariat, Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippines; Dr. Peter Dutton, Professor and Director, China Maritime Studies Institute, US Naval War College; Dr. Nguyen Dang Thang, Vietnam Lawyer’s Association; Bonnie S. Glaser, Senior Adviser for Asia, Freeman Chair in China Studies, CSIS; Leonardo Bernard, Research Fellow, Centre for International Law, National University of Singapore; Christian Le Miere, Senior Research Fellow for Naval Forces and Maritime Security, Defense and Military Analysis Program, International Institute for Strategic Studies.

CHINA AND THE MIDDLE EAST. 6/6, 9:00am-2:00pm. Sponsor: U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Witnesses: Dawn Murphy, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Princeton-Harvard China in the World Program; Yitzhak Shichor, Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Haifa; Erica Downs, Fellow, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings; Bryant Edwards, Partner, Latham and Watkins LLP (Hong Kong); Jon Alterman, Director, Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies; Joel Wuthnow, Research Analyst, China Studies at CNA; Andrew Erickson, Associate Professor and founding member, U.S. Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute.

FOSTERING U.S.-KOREA-JAPAN PARTNERSHIP FOR THE FUTURE. 6/6, 3:00-8:00pm, reception. Sponsor: International Student Conferences (ISC). Speakers: Ambassador Thomas Hubbard, former US ambassador to South Korea; Ambassador Kathleen Stephens, former US ambassador to South Korea; Glen S. Fukushima, former head of Airbus Japan, and Tami Overby, US Chamber of Commerce, Asia Department; Representatives from U.S. Department of State, Japan and Korea Embassies.

LOOKING EAST: INDIA, THE UNITED STATES, AND THE EVOLVING SECURITY ARCHITECTURE IN EAST ASIA. 6/7, 9:30-11:00am. Sponsor: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Speakers: Hemant Krishan Singh, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, New Delhi; Frederic Grare, Senior Associate, Director, CEIP South Asia Program. 

INDIAN DEMOCRACY’S MID-LIFE CRISES. 6/7, 10:00-11:30am, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Center for Global Development. Speakers: Ramachandra Guha, Historian, Author; Arvind Subramanian, Senior Fellow and Director, Understanding India Initiative, Center for Global Development.