Who Spends Time with Abe?

Who are the frequent visitors to the Prime Minister's Office

By 北川開, Nikkei Shimbun Reporter

Originally published in Japanese in Nikkei Shimbun (1/29/2017)
[面会多い相手は?安倍首相の４年間、データで解剖  ]
Provisional translation by APP interns for scholarly exchange.

How does Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spend the day as the head of the government? A look at the prime minister’s tightly scheduled meetings throughout the day will give us a picture of where the administration’s priorities lie, as well as Abe’s relationship with people surrounding him. Using data accumulated for the Nikkei Shimbun’s column “Prime Minister’s Office [Shusho Kantei]” that appears daily in the paper’s Politics section, we have done an analysis of Prime Minister Abe’s four years since his return to the premiership.

“Abe’s most frequent visitor” in the past four years has been the cabinet’s top intelligence official, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Shigeru Kitamura. Kitamura reports to Abe on confidential matters ranging from diplomacy and security to elections that the cabinet intelligence and research office compiles. Kitamura is often seen visiting Abe multiple times a day. Occasionally, he carries necessary information to the PM at his vacation home in Yamanashi Prefecture. Kitamura had worked under the first Abe administration as an executive secretary to the prime minister and supported Abe through that challenging period.

At the Center is “2A+S”

A reporter, who is assigned to cover the prime minister’s daily activities, waits at the door to the Prime Minister’s Office [Kantei] and ask everyone who goes through the door whether he/she met with Abe. Kitamura always tells the reporter “yes” but nothing else.

The second most frequent visitor has been the former vice-minister for foreign affairs Akitaka Saiki. Abe has known Saiki well ever since he served as an English-language interpreter for Abe’s father Shintaro Abe when the senior Abe was foreign minister. Saiki, the foreign ministry’s top administrative official, frequently visited the Kantei to keep Abe abreast of events and receive instructions. In this way, the Abe administration emphasizes Abe’s direct control of the foreign ministry. Abe’s weight in negotiations with foreign counterparts has been increasing, and Japanese diplomats, more than ever, cannot take actions without Abe’s instructions.

The third was Secretary General of the National Security Secretariat Shotaro Yachi. He served under the first Abe administration as a foreign vice-minister and is described as Abe’s brain in diplomacy. In the U.S., Russian, and Chinese governments the organization that reports direct to the head of the state wields influence. One example is the U.S. National Security Council. Yachi has acted as the counterpart to these organizations, and has arranged Abe’s summit diplomacy from behind the scenes.

Meetings between Abe, Kitamura, Yachi, and senior officials from the foreign and defense ministries are held regularly, generally twice a month. The highest-ranking uniformed officer of the SDF, Joint Chief of Staff Katsutoshi Kawano has also been a member of that group. The meetings provide a framework for discussing matters significant to the country’s security policy.

Among politicians, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has been the fourth most frequent visitor, followed by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso. Suga is often in attendance when Abe meets with important visitors. Aso comes with senior officials from the finance ministry for reporting, then usually stays behind to talk with the prime minister alone. While the ministry officials are there, the meeting revolves around the government’s financial policy. During their private conversation, Abe and Aso likely discuss and exchange opinions about political decision making.

Abe, Aso, Suga and the former Minister of Economic Revitalization, Economic and Fiscal Policy Akira Amari, the so-called 3A+S, were the core of the Abe administration. Since Amari resigned the ministerial post in 2016 as a result of a political-fund scandal, the “2A+S” has been in charge of running the administration.

The sixth most frequent visitor, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko (former deputy chief cabinet secretary, Upper House) and the eighth, Minister in Charge of Empowerment of All Citizens Katsunobu Kato (former deputy chief cabinet secretary, Lower House) had been regulars at the prime minister’s office during their terms as deputy CCS. On mornings of the day Abe is scheduled to go to the Diet, both houses’ deputy CCSs participate, without fail, in a Diet preparation session for the prime minister.

Unknowable Inner Meetings inside Kantei

News reporters in charge of the prime minister must remain near the entrance to the Kantei when talking to people and are not allowed to go inside rooms. Therefore, if a person who works inside the Kantei meets and talks with the prime minister, that meeting may not appear in the “Prime Minister’s Office.” According to a high-ranking government official, a meeting is held every day between the prime minister, the chief cabinet secretary, deputy chief cabinet secretary, and executive secretary to the prime minister in charge of policies. By meeting every day, the core members of the administration at the Kantei confirm basic policy directions and avoid inconsistent remarks. Even without a particular agenda, just meeting with each other regularly gives a sense of unity.

Abe’s office is on the same floor as Suga’s, increasing the chances they meet much more often than what is reported.

Among agencies, senior officials from the ministry of foreign affairs, the ministry of finance, the ministry of defense, the ministry of economy, trade and industry, and the cabinet office have been the ones frequenting the Kantei. As for annual visits by officials above the level of director-general of each ministry, the number of visits by senior officials of the foreign and defense ministries greatly increased in 2016 compared with the previous three years.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had the highest number by far of visits to the prime minister’s office, due to the many significant diplomatic exchanges that occurred in 2016, including the Ise-Shima G7 Summit in May and the Japan-Russia summit meetings.

If we only look at the Administration’s fourth year, the defense ministry’s Director General for Defense Policy Satoshi Maeda was the fifth most frequent visitor. It reflects the weight the administration placed on managing the threats posed by an escalation of North Korean nuclear missile development and Chinese maritime advancement in the South and the East China Seas.

Meetings held with finance ministry officials have been slightly fewer than in past administrations, according to a source close to the prime minister. Although METI officials did not come to the Kantei as much, Takaya Imai, an executive secretary to the prime minister (policy) and a former METI bureaucrat, has likely been acting as a bridge between Abe and the ministry and helped Abe exert his influence. Meanwhile, the cabinet office is taking the initiative in the policy of the dynamic engagement of all citizens and work-style reform to increase its leadership presence.

Discuss Policy Over Noodles

Lunch and dinner meetings are good for developing friendly relationships. Besides the Kantei visitors, the Nikkei Shimbun looked into the prime minister’s favorite restaurants and dinner partners.

The most frequently used restaurant has been “ORIGAMI”, a restaurant in the Capitol Hotel Tokyu. So far during the second Abe administration, the prime minister has dined at the restaurant a total of 40 times. A majority of his dining partners have been people close to Abe such as executive secretaries and Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga. It seems he uses ORIGAMI when he wants to have a casual dinner meeting.

The prime minister’s favorite choice from the menu is pork rib ramen noodles, priced at 2,730 yen including tax. Last December, former Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto, currently a legal and policy advisor to the Nippon Ishin no Kai, joined Abe for a steak lunch. The hotel has many exits for vehicles, making it easy for a guest to leave without being seen by the press.

Traditional Japanese-style restaurants [ryotei] have generally been chosen for meetings with business leaders. One of the venues is Arisugawa Shimizu, a Japanese restaurant in Minamiazabu, where members of Sakurakai, a high-powered business group, frequently gather. Yoshiyuki Kasai, the chairman emeritus of JR Tokai, and Shigetaka Furumori, the chairman and CEO of Fujifilm Holdings, belong to Sakurakai. The group has been a loyal supporter of Abe since before his first premiership.

Fukudaya, a Japanese restaurant in Kioicho, is where the prime minister regularly meets with Takashi Imai and Hiroshi Okuda, the chairmen emeritus of Keidanren.

When meeting with people from the entertainment industry, the prime minister often chooses more fashionable venues. He and actor Masahiko Tsugawa are friends who celebrate each other’s birthdays. They eat together with other people from the industry at Italian restaurants and the like. Abe is said to enjoy hearing stories from a community with which he has less frequent contact.

Dinner with Tsugawa often can last for hours. On Jan. 5, they talked for as long as three hours and 25 minutes. The prime minister’s dinner meetings generally end within a couple of hours. But when Abe is with close friends and family, the gathering tends to last much longer.

Weekend’s Activities

Before his return to the premiership, Abe has determined to accomplish three things every month--conduct an overseas visit, visit affected areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake and play golf.

Keeping the pace of almost once a month, Abe has conducted totally 50 times overseas visits under the banner of “diplomacy that takes a panoramic perspective of the world map”. As many as 66 countries and regions has been visited. He takes full advantage of the Golden week and summer during the Diet recess.

Weekends are often used for visits to the affected areas of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Abe has visited 31 times in total so far, once in every 48 days after his return to premiership. If the visits to affected areas of Kumamoto Earthquake and typhoons are included, the number adds up to 42 times in total, which means he has visited once in every 36 days. He has mostly achieved his own goal to visit the disaster affected areas “once in a month”.

Concerning his hobby golf, Abe plays it several days in a row during vacations and so far has played 56 times. Though his score of Golf has not been revealed as a state secret, a person who played with him said it was “91”. Chairman of Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), Sadayuki Sakakibara, who often plays with Abe, is said to be better at golf than him. The prime minister has two favorite golf courses, one located in Chiba prefecture and the other in Kanagawa prefecture, and three favorite courses in Yamanashi prefecture, where Abe has his villa.

Abe goes to have hair cut almost once in a month. The prime minister’s favorite beauty salon is “HAIR GUEST” (Tokyo, Shibuya). Originally, “Barber Shop MURAGI” was his favorite, but it is said that he started to commute to “HAIR GUEST” thanks to his wife Akie’s recommendation. Though he had a stylist part his hair on the side at “Barber Shop MURAGI”, he asks a stylist at “HAIR GUEST” to make fluffy hair style.

Spending Year-end and New Year’s holidays at Grand Hyatt Tokyo in Roppongi with his relatives is a standard routine every year. Abe is a regular customer of “Nagomi Spa and Fitness”, and has been there 67 times since his second term. Therefore it is understood that he does his health management there once in 22 days.

Abe never fails to ensure health check. He gets a full medical check in Spring and Autumn every year, and sees a dentist almost once in a month. Mostly he goes to the dentist in the first Congressman Hall of the House of Representatives during the intervals between weekday official duties.

Abe cherishes his friendship with old friends. He frequently participates in the gathering of Keisei Gakuen, which he commuted to from elementary school to university. He frequently meets with friends he made during his study in the U.S. after graduation from university. He tends to relax during mealtime with his family and friends, and sometimes greets reporters, who are assigned to cover the prime minister’s daily activities, by saying “Otsukaresama”.

Beyond the Right to Know

Regarding media coverage of the prime minister’s daily activities such as meeting opponents, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has pointed out “it’s beyond the public’s right to know” when she was a Member of the House of Representatives. The U.S. media don’t seem to have detailed schedules of the President Trump. Also, President Xi Jinping is doing what or where right now is confidential information in China. Reporting the prime minister’s movement with high transparency is significant for monitoring power. We would like to continue to keep track of the prime minister.

Trump and South Korea: It's Awkward

By Dennis P. Halpin, Former Adviser on Asian Issues to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Visiting Scholar at the U.S.-Korea Institute (SAIS), Adviser to the Poblete Analysis Group and APP Senior Fellow

Originally published in the Weekly Standard, February 7, 2017.

President Trump's January 30 phone call to South Korean prime minister (and acting president as of December 9) Hwang Kyo-ahn, reportedly spelling out the U.S. "ironclad" commitment to South Korea, came at a particularly opportune moment. Likewise can be said for the decision of Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis to schedule his first official trip abroad to South Korea (and Japan) last week. The reason: leadership circles in Seoul and Korea-watchers in Washington have had increasing jitters over the fact that South Korea has been largely paralyzed by a domestic political crisis just as the newly arrived Trump Administration undertakes the formulation of its Asia policy. The concern is that a new, four-year policy will be cemented in place in Washington within the next six months while South Korea is still embroiled in political turmoil, with the possible removal of a president to be followed by a 60-day snap election.

The sidelining of South Korean president Park Geun-hye since her impeachment by the National Assembly late last year prohibits her from engaging in any official duties, including meeting with or even contacting other world leaders to advocate for issues of national importance to South Korea. These issues include not only the escalating North Korean nuclear threat but a number of alliance and bread-and-butter matters as well. Until her ultimate fate, including possible removal from office, is determined by South Korea's Constitutional Court, which could take up to six months, she will remain a virtual prisoner within South Korea's presidential mansion, the Blue House. A judicial decision, however, could come as early as March.

In the meantime, Asia's other main actors, including Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe (the first foreign leader to call upon the President-elect at Trump Tower), China (through its energetic advocate Henry Kissinger's renewed shuttle diplomacy between Beijing and Trump Tower) and Taiwan, (through a precedent-changing phone call from its president to then President-elect Trump), will have made their own priorities crystal clear. And while Trump's publicly avowed renewed commitment to Seoul is soothing, a number of outstanding issues indicate potential difficulties ahead for the alliance.

President Trump made the issue of greater cost-sharing for stationed U.S. forces (there are approximately currently 28,500 in South Korea) a central issue of his presidential campaign. During a presidential debate, Trump declared, "We defend Japan. We defend South Korea. We defend Saudi Arabia. We defend countries. They do not pay us what they should be paying us because we are providing a tremendous service and we're losing a fortune." The Diplomat carried an article on January 21 indicating that. "Seoul pays around half of the overall cost of stationing U.S. forces in South Korea, roughly $821 million in 2016."

The next negotiations on the level of cost sharing under the US-ROK Special Measures Agreement (SMA) for the 2019-2023 period are set to begin later in 2017. Seongnam Mayor Lee Jae-myung, a liberal presidential aspirant if a snap election is called, indicated to the Korea Times on January 5 that U.S. pressure for an increased level of cost sharing could become a campaign issue, stating that "South Korea is actually paying more than Japan and Germany," both of which have a U.S. forces presence.

Another area of potential friction in the U.S.-South Korean alliance would involve moves by the Trump Administration to renegotiate some of the terms of the US.-South Korean free trade agreement (KORUS FTA). This trade pact, which took effect in 2012, was hailed as "the second-largest US FTA" (after NAFTA.) Voice of America reported on July 28 of last year that then candidate Trump had referred to KORUS FTA as "a job killing deal." Matt Blunt, the president of the American Automotive Policy Council, was quoted in the same news report as stating that "there is no question the Korean marketplace is one of the most difficult for any automaker to export into, in the world." A particular focus of concern for the Trump administration has been automobile issues, since it was blue-collar voters in the automobile-producing states of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin who propelled the President to victory. These voters, previously largely Democratic party supporters, responded to the campaign promise to stop "the stealing" overseas of American manufacturing jobs. During the KORUS FTA negotiations, automobiles and automotive parts were also key concerns of Members of Congress, including Democratic former Ways and Means Chairman (2010-11) Sander Levin, who represents a district from the metropolitan Detroit area.

President Trump underscored the continued importance of automobiles as a trade and job creation issue during a January 24 White House meeting with the chief executives of the big three American automakers. He urged them to build more cars in the United States, reminding them of his previous threat to impose 35 percent tariffs on imported automobiles, a considerable percentage of which are made in South Korea (although Korean automakers also operate plants within the United States.)

Cooperation between America's main northeast Asian allies, in the meantime, has hit another impasse as the long-smoldering issue of Imperial Japan's wartime sexual enslavement of mainly Korean "Comfort Women" has again emerged as a major controversy. The construction of a "Comfort Women" statue in the port city of Busan near the Japanese Consulate in December (there is already one opposite the Japanese Embassy in Seoul) led to the recall of both the Japanese Ambassador from Seoul and the Japanese Consul General from Busan. In addition, the announcement in mid-January by 34 members of South Korea's Gyeonggi Provincial Council that they will start a fund to build a "Comfort Women" statue on the disputed island territory of Liancourt Rocks/Dokdo/Takeshima by year's end led to a public condemnation by Japanese foreign minister Kishida Fumio. According to the Korea Times, Kishida told reporters on January 17 that "Takeshima is Japanese territory."

Additional fallout from deteriorating South Korean-Japanese relations included Seoul's cancellation of a proposed joint trilateral submarine drill with the U.S. and Japan. The proposed drill was obviously aimed at the growing threat from both North Korean submarines and nuclear weapons.

The December 2015 agreement on the "Comfort Women" issue between the South Korean and Japanese foreign ministers has become yet another heated target of Park's impeachment imbroglio. It is cited as an example by her growing number of critics of her insensitivity and alleged incompetence. President Park, for example, is being verbally criticized for never personally meeting with the "Comfort Women" survivors, as Pope Francis did during a visit to Seoul and as former Taiwan president Ma Ying-jeou did in Taipei. Given the level of importance of this issue to the average Korean voter, the lack of such a meeting is indeed a mystery. The rumor which swirled in Seoul that the 2015 deal included a verbal promise by the Park administration that the "Comfort Women" statue, which has gained a level of symbolic importance for many Koreans akin to the importance of the Statue of Liberty for many Americans, would eventually be removed from the vicinity of the Japanese Embassy led to a decision by South Korean students to provide around-the-clock protection for the statue to prevent its surreptitious removal in the middle of the night.

In the meantime, however, Abe's deft handling of the history issue with the American public, including his December visit to the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, and his scheduled February 10 summit meeting in Washington with President Trump has raised some disquietude in Seoul. The view is that Korean concerns over outstanding Pacific War history issues will be presented to the incoming Administration by Tokyo as mere emotionalism not worthy of the new Administration's serious attention.

A final issue involves South Korea's domestic politics. With the conservative governing party in South Korea suffering badly in last year's parliamentary elections and under a cloud with the presidential impeachment, the likelihood that the new South Korean president will be a progressive in the mold of the late Roh Moo-hyun has greatly increased. This was underlined last week when the strongest conservative contender, former UN chief Ban Ki-moon, unexpectedly dropped out of the race.

If a snap 60-day election is called this spring or summer, due to the Constitutional Court's removal of President Park from office, South Korea could be in the midst of a heated election campaign just as the new Trump Administration finalizes its Asia policies. The temptation of South Korean progressive presidential candidates to play the anti-American card to energize their electoral base over such issues as troop cost-sharing negotiations or the deployment of the U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system may prove strong. This has happened previously. Former House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Henry Hyde had to cancel a large Congressional delegation visit to Seoul during the December 2002 South Korean presidential election campaign due to heated anti-American demonstrations over the death of two school girls in a traffic accident involving U.S. military personnel. President-elect Trump's strong reaction in November to flag-burning by New Hampshire college students indicates that there would be far less tolerance for any South Korean students burning American flags than was displayed by then President George W. Bush in 2002.

With these multiple security, alliance, trade, and historical issues on the table for the new Trump administration, the current political paralysis in Seoul could not have arisen at a more inopportune time. And the fallout from South Korea's current political crisis points to potential rough sailing for the alliance in the months ahead.

Monday in Washington, February 6, 2017

THE MCCAIN INSTITUTE HUMAN TRAFFICKING SYMPOSIUM. 2/6, 8:30am-4:00pm. Sponsor: McCain Institute. Speakers: Molly Gochman, Artist and Creator, Red Sand Project; Ronny Marty, Council Member, U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking; Mary Mazzio, Director, I AM JANE DOE; Cindy McCain, Human Trafficking Advisory Council Chair, McCain Institute; Emanuel Medeiros, CEO, International Center for Sport Security, Europe and Latin America; Bradley Myles, Executive Director and CEO, Polaris Project; Andrea Powell, Founder and Executive Director, FAIRGirls; Malika Saada Saar, Public Policy and Government Relations Senior Counsel-Civil and Human Rights, Google; Shandra Woworuntu; Council Member, U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking.

RENEWING AMERICAN STRENGTH ABROAD. 2/6, 1:30-2:30pm. Sponsor: AEI. Speaker: Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR), Member, Senate Armed Services Committee, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; Moderator: Frederick W. Kagan, AEI.

STRESS AND TRAUMA IN THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMUNITY. 2/6. 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsors: Una Chapman Cox Foundation; International Peace and Security Institute; Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. Speakers: Amb. Charles Ries (Ret.); Beth Payne, Director, Center of Excellence in Foreign Affairs Resilience, Foreign Service Institute; Rachel Karioki, Regional Team leader, office of Transition Initiatives, USAID; Andres Martinez-Garcia, Program Director, International Programs, International Peace and Security Institute.

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AN EXTRAORDINARY TIME: THE END OF THE POSTWAR BOOM AND THE RETURN OF THE ORDINARY ECONOMY. 2/6, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsor: History and Public Policy Program, Woodrow Wilson Center (WWC). Speaker: Marc Levinson, Independent Historian, Economics, Former Editor, Finance and Economist, The Economist, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations.

MISSING OPEC? THE UNWELCOME RETURN OF BOOM-BUST OIL PRICES. 2/6, 5:00-7:30pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: SAIS, Johns Hopkins. Speakers: Author Bob McNally, Crude Volatility - The History and Future of Boom-Bust Oil Prices; Kevin Book, Managing Director, Clearview Energy Partners.

SUBVERSIVE AND DISRUPTIVE CHALLENGES TO U.S. ALLIANCES AND PARTNERSHIPS. 2/6, 6:00-8:00pm. Sponsor: Rethinking Seminar Series, Applied Physics Laboratory, Johns Hopkins. Speaker: Peter Wilson, Senior National Security Analyst, RAND Corporation. 

Return of the Morse Target

Trump Administration

Washington's Movers & Shakers on Japan

THE MORSE TARGET

SAVE THE DATE

Monday, February 13, 2017

WASHINGTON'S MOVERS & SHAKERS 

SHAPING JAPAN POLICY

2017 MORSE TARGET

Who influences Trump Administration Japan and Asia Policy?

Since 1999, Dr. Ronald Morse former director of the Wilson Center's Asia Program has researched and examined the prominent influences on U.S. Japan policy. The result is the famous Morse Target. Individuals and organizations are identified and placed on a "target" that suggests how sympathetic (soft) or not (hard) they are toward Japanese foreign and trade policies.

As the Washington policy community knows, if you ain't on it, you ain't on it.

Dr. Morse will present his first draft of the 2017 Trump Administration Target

Monday, February 13 at the National Press Club at 2:00pm


Commentator

Dennis P. Halpin

Former Adviser on Asian Issues to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, 
Visiting Scholar U.S.-Korea Institute (SAIS), Adviser to the Poblete Analysis Group
and APP Senior Fellow

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All attendees will receive free the Target, its roster, and Dr. Morse's analysis

nonattendees can receive the Target after the event for small handling fee

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REGISTER VIA THIS EMAIL

The Target’s creator is Dr. Ronald A. Morse, who worked in Washington, D.C. for 25 years. His positions between 1974 and 1995 included the Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Energy, director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Special Assistant to the Librarian of Congress and vice president of the Economic Strategy Institute. He spent the latter part of the 1990s in Tokyo and taught at UCLA and the University of Nevada until 2005. He has been living in Las Vegas for the past decade writing about Japanese folklore studies and translating Japanese folk legends. He revised his book The Legends of Tono in 2008 and published a second volume of 300 legends (Folk Legends from Tono) in 2015. For this translation work (the Japanese equivalent of Grimm’s Fairy tales), he was awarded the Tono City Cultural Prize in 2012 and the Tono City Education and Culture Foundation's 42nd Tono Citizen’s Culture Award in 2016. Dr. Morse received advice on the Target from a wide range of Japan-watchers and works closely with Asia Policy Point, a Washington-based nonprofit research center that studies the U.S. policy relationship with Northeast Asia.

The Abe Administration and The Japan Conference

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The Abe Administration is a Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference) Cabinet

By Mr. Yoshifumi Tawara, Director of Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21, Tokyo, Japan

Originally published in Japanese in the Children and Textbooks Japan Network21 News, vol.111 (12/12/2016): 8-9. Translated by APP Senior Fellow William L. Brooks with permission from Textbook 21.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is an ultra-rightwing politician and an historical revisionist. His administration is an ultra-rightwing cabinet. In his third reshuffled cabinet, 16 ministers (80 percent; or 85 percent if Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ishii of the Komeito is excepted) belong to the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarians' Round-Table Conference (A.K.A. the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League), which is linked to the Nippon Kaigi (Full name: Japan Conference for Revising the Constitution and Assisting the Imperial Throne), Japan's largest rightwing organization.

In addition, a prime ministerial assistant and a deputy chief cabinet secretary, as well as 16 state ministers and 16 parliamentary vice ministers are in the same parliamentarian league. Adding up all of these positions from ministers to deputy chief cabinet secretary, Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League members make up 67.5 percent of the Abe Administration.

Establishment of the Nippon Kaigi and the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League

When and how were the Nippon Kaigi and the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League started? The Nippon Kaigi was launched on May 30 ,1997, as Japan's largest rightwing organization for the purpose of revising the Constitution and assisting Imperial Rule [Translator's note: Harking back to the Imperial Rule Assistance Association of the 1940s]. It was formed through the integration of two existing groups: the Nihon o mamoru kai (Society for the Protection of Japan), a rightwing organization founded in 1974, and the Nihon o mamoru kokumin kaigi (People's Conference/National Conference to Protect Japan, a religious rightwing organization founded in 1981).

On May 29, the day before the Nippon Kaigi was launched, the nonpartisan Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League was established for the purpose of completely backing and closely cooperating with the Nippon Kaigi.

The membership list of the Nippon Kaigi is not open to the public, so it is not easy to find out the parliamentarians who are in the Nippon Kaigi League. The author, however, has obtained the list a number of times since 1997. According to it, the Diet members who have joined the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League has continued to increase, from the original 189 members from both chambers at the start to 281 members as of September 2015. The Asahi Shimbun reported in October 2016 that there were 290 members.

Although the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League is nonpartisan, 90 percent are from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The members from the LDP form a formidable force in the Diet (around 40 percent of the total of 717 members of both houses of the Diet). The key members of such a powerful rightwing parliamentarian league have been working behind the scenes to push up Shinzo Abe as LDP president and prime minister during his three administrations. Japan's politics is being shaped by the close cooperation between the Nippon Kaigi and its related parliamentarian league.

Nippon Kaigi and the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League Control Japanese Politics, Society, Education

The Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League is working on three projects: 1) "History, Education, and Family Issues" (chaired by Sanae Takaichi since 2007; others are the same); 2) "Defense, Diplomacy, and Territorial Issues" (chaired by Shinzo Abe); and 3) "Constitution, Imperial Household, and Yasukuni Issues" (chaired by Yoshitada Konoike). The project teams engage in discussions with the Nippon Kaigi through joint meetings of officials and other formats, and they carry out activities that bring requests and proposals of Nippon Kaigi to the government.

In addition, the Nippon Kaigi has held study group sessions bringing in such lecturers as journalist Yoshiko Sakurai, who is a key member of the Nippon Kaigi and lectures on such themes as the Constitution, defense, bases, territorial issues, the Imperial System, and crisis management. Other lecturers include Akira Momochi (professor, Nippon University), Osamu Nishi (professor emeritus, Komazawa University), Kazuhiro Nagao (professor emeritus, Chuo University), Michiko Hasegawa (professor emeritus, Saitama University}, Yasuo Ohara (professor emeritus, Kokugakuin University) , and Shiro Takahashi (professor, Meisei University).The lecturers actively pursued theoretical arguments armed with theoretical backing, as well as unity of purpose.

In addition to such activities, the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarians' League established two project teams, one on the Imperial System (June 2014), chaired by Seiichi Eta) and another on Constitutional Revision (chaired by Keiji Furuya). The two project teams carry out study sessions and policy-making.

The Nippon Kaigi and the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarian League meet on a regular basis with each other, and through such means as joint meetings of officials , share views of situations and policy courses. On October 7, 2007, the two organizations held a joint convention to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their founding. Through the close cooperation of the two rightwing organizations, they are able to have a profound influence on Japanese politics, society, and the educational system. More than just extending its influence, the Nippon Kaigi, through the activities of the parliamentarian league, is able to realize its policies and it can get the government to withdraw its own policies.

The Organization and Movements of the Nippon Kaigi and Its Accomplishments

Nippon Kaigi commands a force of 38,000 members across the country . There is a headquarters for the 47 prefectures and a total of 250 local branches. The Nippon Kaigi has developed a grassroots rightwing movement via the Nippon Kaigi League of Local Assembly Members, consisting of over 1,600 local assembly members, as well as via such organizations as the Nippon Kaigi-affiliated Japan Women's Association and the Japan Youth Conference. Centered on the local assembly leagues and other grassroots organizations, the Nippon Kaigi has promoted a people's movement, elevating itself to a frontline organization on specific topics. As a result, if its period as the Nihon wo Mamoru Kokumin Kaigi is included, the Nippon Kaigi has accomplished results that have greatly influenced Japanese politics, society and education .

The following lists the main achievements:

• Enactment of the Era Name Law 
• Realization of government-sponsored celebratory events by the Emperor 
• Halting a planned change in the Imperial Household Law that would have allowed women to ascend the Imperial Throne 
• Enactment of national flag and anthem legislation 
• Expunging passages about "comfort women" from middle school textbooks 
• Revision of the Basic Education Law 
• Stopping a bill that would have allowed women to choose a name different from their husband's family name 
• Stopping a bill to allow foreigners to have the right to participate in regional politics 
• Revising the textbook screening system and strengthening the controls on textbooks 
• Bringing about the study of morality (dotoku) in schools 
• Broadening the movement to pay homage annually on August 15 at Yasukuni Shrine 
• Realizing the citation of government views in school textbooks about the widening xenophobia toward the territorial issue, and the choosing of a textbook published by lkuhosha. 

If one looks at it this way , it is clear that a fearsome plan has been revealed whereby the requests and tasks laid out by the rightwing organization Nippon Kaigi have been realized by the moves of members of the Diet and local assemblies in cooperation with the members of the Nippon Kaigi, local branches, and such other organizations as the Japan Women's Association.

Current State of the Constitution-Revision Movement by the Abe Administration and Nippon Kaigi

The Nippon Kaigi, looking toward realizing its long-cherished goal (which is also that of Prime Minister Abe) of revising the Constitution, formed in October 2014 the "People's Association to Create a Constitution for a Beautiful Japan" (Kokumin no Kai). It then put in every effort to build a grassroots movement to revise the Constitution that would bring about a "war-making country." The officers of the Kokumin no Kai are co-head Yoshiko Sakurai (who also heads the Minkan Kenpo Rincho (Private Ad Hoc Council on the Constitution), Tadae Takubo (chairman of the Nippon Kaigi) , Toru Miyoshi (honorary chairman of the Nippon Kaigi) director Yuzo Kabashima, and secretary general Akira Momochi.

Kokumin no Kai is aiming to gather 10 million signatures approving constitutional revision, and it is developing a grassroots movement calling for constitutional revision for the Nippon Kaigi.

The form of Nippon Kaigi activities are the same as when it was the Nihon wo Mamoru Kokumin Kaigi, that is to say, "replacing the leftwing movement with a rightwing movement." It does so by covering the country from the regions to the center, by such activities as gathering signatures, pleading for support to the Diet members in each district, obtaining resolutions by local assemblies, sponsoring gatherings in each locality and large rallies in Tokyo, caravans across the country, and placing newspaper ads.

In the House of Councillors’ election in July 2016, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito gained seats, and when the seats not up for reelection are added, reached more than the two-thirds majority needed for amending the Constitution. Prime Minister Abe asserted, “We seem to have built a bridge (to revising the Constitution).” (From the Nippon Kaigi’s official magazine “Nihon no Ibuki (Breath of Japan)”, September 2016 issue)

Thus, the impetus toward constitutional revision is growing rapidly. The Nippon Kaigi, too, seeing this as the ideal chance for changing the Constitution, is strengthening even more its grassroots movement to do so.

With the ruling coalition’s win in the Upper House election, Yuzo Kabashima, the chairman of the Nihon Seinen Kyogikai (Japan Youth Conference), as well as the secretary general of the Nippon Kaigi, wrote the following in a September 30, 2016, “confidential” bulletin, “Japan’s Pride” News:

“With the ruling coalition obtaining the two-thirds majority in the Upper House election that is needed for revising the Constitution, I strongly feel the significant fact is that the world has changed on July 10. We are living in a completely new world.”

“It is close to a miracle that at the same time a situation allowing constitutional reform has emerged in both chambers of the Diet. And the G7 leaders all formally visited Ise Shrine.”

“Since the election was soon after that, it is only natural to think that it was a miracle. I am thankful for this situation having come about, and I would like to carry out our responsibility.”

At that working-level meeting, Kabashima touched on expanding the movement to gather 10 million signatures to support revising the Constitution, as well the movement to persuade local assemblies to adopt position papers seeking constitutional revision. The Nippon Kaigi announced that as of October 31, 2016, local assembly resolutions were passed in 35 prefectures, 56 towns or cities, and that the drive to reach 10 million signatures had reached 7.54 million as of July 31, 2016. It asserts that signatures will reach the 10 million mark by the end of the year. [Editor: it is unknown if this goal was attained.]

For additional details about the Nippon Kaigi and the Nippon Kaigi Parliamentarians’ League, please refer to my book, “The Whole Story about the Nippon Kaigi – The Actual Situation about that Unknown Giant Organization [Nippon Kaigi no Zenbo – Shirarezaru Kyodai Soshiki no Jittai] published by Kadensha.

Monday in Washington, January 30, 2017

COOPERATION IN A TIME OF BACKLASH: THE FUTURE OF INTERNATIONAL JOINT DEVELOPMENT. 1/30, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Andrew Philip Hunter, Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group and Senior Fellow, International Security Program, CSIS; Gregory Sanders, Deputy Director and Fellow, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group.
HONG KONG AT A CRITICAL JUNCTURE. 1/30. Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: US-Asia Institute. Speakers: Alejandro Reyes, Visiting Associate Professor, University of Hong Kong.

DOES THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL HELP OR HARM US INTERESTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST? 1/30, Noon. Sponsor: Future of Iran Initiative, Iran Project, Atlantic Council. Speakers: Mark Dubowitz, Executive Director, Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD); Ellen Laipson, Distinguished Fellow, President Emeritus, Stimson; Boris Ruge, Minister, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Germany; Jim Walsh, Senior Research Associate, Security Studies Program, MIT; Senator Chris Murphy, Junior US Senate for Connecticut; Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad, Counselor, CSIS, President, CEO, Gryphon Partners, Board Director, Atlantic Council; Amb. Marcelle M. Wahba, President, Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington (AGSIW); Amb. Daniel Kurtzer, S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University; Amb. William H. Luers, Director, Iran Project, Adjunct Professor, Columbia University; Barbara Slavin, Acting Director, Future of Iran Initiative, Atlantic Council. 

DEFENDING LIBERAL DEMOCRACY IN EMERGING MARKETS: THE ROLE OF FREE MARKETS AND RULE OF LAW. 1/30, 2:00-4:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsors: Center for International Private Enterprise; National Endowment for Democracy; Free Enterprise and Democracy Network. Speakers: Aurelio Concheso, President, Aspen Consulting S.A., Chairman, Fedecámaras’ Labor and Social Security Committee, Director, Treasurer ,Transparency Venezuela; Güray Karacar, Member, Turkish Businessmen and Industrialists Association (TUSIAD), Corporate Governance Committee, International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN); Selima Ahmad, Founder, President, Bangladesh Women’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI); Moderator: Karen Kerrigan, President, CEO, Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council; Carl Gershman, President, National Endowment for Democracy; Greg Lebedev, Chair, Center for International Private Enterprise. Location: US Chamber of Commerce, 1615 H St., NW, Briefing Center.

THE AFTERLIFE OF DIVISION: RECONSIDERING THE POST-SUMMIT REUNIONS OF KOREAN FAMILIES SEPARATED BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH. 1/30, 2:30-4:30pm. Sponsor: Institute for Korean Studies, GWU. Speaker: Nan Kim, Associate Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

COMBATING CORRUPTION IN ASIA. 1/30, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsors: International Republican Institute (IRI); Open Government Partnership, Center for International Private Enterprise. Speakers: John Morrell, Asia Director, Center for International Private Enterprise; Ashleigh Whelan, Mongolia Director, IRI; Stephen Leach, Indonesia Director, IRI; Tinatin Ninua, Research Manager, Open Government Partnership. 

ATROCITY SPEECH LAW 1/30, 4:00pm. Sponsor: International and Comparative Law Program, George Washington University Law School. Speaker: Author Greg Gordon, Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong.    

UNDERSTANDING TRUMP AND TRUMPISM: PART SIX. 1/30, 5:00-6:00pm. Sponsor: Heritage. Speaker: Hon. Newt Gingrich, 50th Speaker of the House of Representatives; Moderator: Thomas A. Saunders III, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Heritage. 

AMERICA'S PLACE IN THE WORLD - A CONVERSATION WITH FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT. 1/30, 5:30-6:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Madeleine Albright, Former Secretary of State; Kathleen H. Hicks, Senior Vice President; Henry A. Kissinger Chair; Director, International Security Program, CSIS; Nina Easton, Senior Associate (Non-resident), CSIS.

DOES TRUMP NEED THE NEWS MEDIA? 1/30, 6:30pm. Sponsor: School of Media & Public Affairs, GWU. Speakers: Sean Spicer, Press Secretary, White House; Jim Acosta, Senior White House Correspondent, CNN; Ari Fleischer, Former Press Secretary, White House, George W. Bush; Hadas Gold, Media Reporter, Politico; Carol Lee, White House Correspondent, Wall Street Journal; Jeff Mason, President, White House Correspondents’ Association, White House Correspondent, Reuters. Moderator: Frank Sesno. Webcast only.

Know your Abe Administration: A Guide

THE ABE ADMINISTRATION: ITS TOP 100 MEMBERS

$36 for Non-APP members

Free for APP members

On January 24, 2017, Asia Policy Point issued its 91-page directory of biographical and background information on all top 100 members of the current Abe Administration: 20 Cabinet Ministers and top appointed government officials. Seventy-four are Dietmembers and 26 are non-politicians such as academics and bureaucrats.

The officials are organized by government ministry and by last name. All known social media accounts are included. Automatic Google Translate can be very helpful in looking at these Japanese-language resources.

Each member’s known affiliations with 20 prominent conservative nationalist parliamentary leagues, caucuses, and issue groups are also identified. 

Included is a chapter describing these groups followed by a chapter of charts and graphs for you to visualize the strength and depth of these ideological memberships in the Abe Administration.

For perspective, a Japanese conservative nationalist is different from an American conservative in a number of critical ways. A Japanese conservative nationalist advocates big government; defends social welfare; is wary of individual rights and freedoms; believes in a central government headed by the Emperor under the Shinto religion; aspires to Japan’s independent defense, and rejects that Imperial Japan committed war crimes or started WWII.

The Power of Nippon Kaigi

Limited Influence over Politics [?]

[says Nikkei's headline, but the article text contradicts this conclusion]

Nikkei Shimbun, October 16, 2016. (in Japanese) Provisional translation for scholarly discussion by Asia Policy Point

Nippon Kaigi [Japan Conference] proposes constitutional revision, visits to Yasukuni Shrine, and the introduction of an education system that better reflects the intrinsic values of Japan to conservative politicians inside the Liberal Democratic Party, the Democratic Party and other political parties. It hopes to attract like-minded lawmakers. It calls for support for conservative politicians and backs them. In this way it maintains its influence.

“This gathering became my first step toward a career in politics,” said Defense Minister Tomomi Inada when as LDP policy affairs chief she attended an annual national convention for the commemoration of war dead that the Japan Conference co-hosted with other groups last year at Yasukuni Shrine.

At this year’s event, Yoshitaka Shindo, the minister of internal affairs and communications in the second Abe cabinet, was present and called for support for the Japan Conference’s activities. Inada and Shindo are two of the core members of the group’s bipartisan parliamentary league, Nippon Kaigi Kokkai Giin Kondai Kai (the Japan Conference Diet members’ council).

Participation Is Merely “Adding Names to the Roster”
This parliamentarians’ group convenes a general meeting once a year. At the meeting held in March, over 30 Diet members attended and decided on policies on such matters as how to lobby for holding a national referendum on constitutional revision.

Speculation that the Japan Conference has a greater say in the government’s policymaking is sparked by the fact that many incumbent cabinet ministers belong to the group. Though the roster of the latest membership is not made public, Prime Minister Abe and 15 of 19 cabinet ministers belong, according to a source familiar with the matter.

But [asked about their membership,] the offices of several cabinet ministers replied they “have never attended gatherings of the league.” One office staffer said, “We are not aware that we belong to the group.” Though it has a membership of about 290 politicians, only a handful of them – mainly senior old-guard politicians – are active.

Then how much influence does the Japan Conference actually wield over elections? A person with the Japan Conference says that it acts as a “node” of various conservative forces and consolidates them into a single organism. This becomes the source of its influence.

The Japan Conference maintains its influence by closely working with the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership (Shindo Seiji Renmei, or Shinseiren), which comprises religious groups, such as the Association of Shinto Shrines (Jinja Honcho). With the help of the Shinto community, it has been rolling out a campaign to collect 10 million signatures to revise the Constitution.

But the Japan Conference has a membership of about 38,000 people. While Nichiiren (Federation of Japanese Doctors), the political arm of the Japan Medical Association, delivers about 200,000 votes to the LDP every election, the Japan Conference has an extremely small organizational base and is not in the position to field its own candidates. Its activities are mainly funded by membership fees and it cannot afford to make political donations to conservative members.

With the Abe government shifting to a realistic approach, how to maintain the national momentum of conservative movements will become one issue that the Japan Conference needs to tackle down the road.

The key is how the Japan Conference will keep facilitating discussions on constitutional revision. Within the LDP, there has been talk of extending Abe’s time in office as the party’s president. On the surface, it stands to gain if Abe, who it backs, stays in power for a longer period of time, but matters are not as simple as that.

“Rather, we are concerned that there is a developing mood wherein constitutional revision needs not to be done quickly if there is an extension of the length of time the LDP president can remain in office,” said a policymaking committee member in the Japan Conference. There are fears the momentum of its national campaign for constitutional revision may slow.

Another worrisome issue is that its activities are not attracting wide support from the public. Birei Kin, a conservative critic and supporter of the Japan Conference, points out that “the same people always participate in its events” and deplores that its campaigns do not reach many.

The Abduction Issue Potentially Starting a New Fire

Now, the emperor, who is the greatest centripetal force of the Nippon Kaigi, also poses a new challenge for the organization. After the Emperor hinted that he would like to step down while alive, nervousness that the current emperor system (in which the Emperor plays a symbolic role) might change fundamentally is simmering inside the Nippon Kaigi. Although the organization on the surface follows the direction that “we must realize it if that is the Emperor’s will,” among the members opposition and push back are strong. For the Nippon Kaigi, the issue might start a new fire.

In recent years, new members recruited through the Internet, especially among the young, are increasing. That said, the trend of non-partisan groups’ conservatism is the real source of the growing attention paid to the Nippon Kaigi. If in the future the non-partisan groups’ preferences change, the possibility of the Nippon Kaigi losing influence certainly exists.

Monday in Washington, January 23, 2017

INTERNATIONAL LAW IN THE TRUMP ERA: EXPECTATIONS,HOPES, AND FEARS. 1/23, 8:30am-2:00pm. Sponsor: Federalist Society's Practice Group and Student Divisions and the American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA). Speakers: Prof. Timothy J. Keeler, Former Chief of Staff, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR); Prof. John O. McGinnis, Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice; Mr. Jeff Pavlak, Legislative Representative at Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO; Prof. Alvaro Santos, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; Moderator: Mr. Matthew R. A. Heiman, Former Attorney Advisor, U.S. Department of Justice for the National Security Division; Hon. Brian H. Hook, Former Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations; Hon. Lawrence Korb, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense; Amb. Kristen Silverberg, Former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union; Moderator: Prof. Jamil N. Jaffer, Former Chief Counsel and Senior Advisor, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; Hon. John B. Bellinger, III, former Legal Adviser, U.S. Department of State and the National Security Council; Prof. Rosa Brooks, Associate Dean, Graduate Programs & Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center; Moderator: Prof. David Stewart, President, American Branch of the International Law Association (ABILA). 

PROSPECTS FOR THE DEFENSE BUDGET IN THE NEW ADMINISTRATION. 1/23, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Mackenzie Eaglen,Resident Fellow at the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies, American Enterprise Institute; Richard Kogan, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; Mark F. Cancian, Senior Adviser, International Security Program, CSIS; Todd Harrison, Director, Defense Budget Analysis, Director, Aerospace Security Project and Senior Fellow, International Security Program, CSIS; Andrew Philip Hunter, Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group and Senior Fellow, International Security Program, CSIS.

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UNDERSTANDING TRUMP AND TRUMPISM: PART FOUR. 1/23, 11:00-Noon. Sponsor: Heritage. Speakers: The Honorable Newt Gingrich, 50th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; James Wallner Group Vice President, Heritage.


ASIAN IR: A NEW MORAL IMAGINATION FOR WORLD POLITICS. 1/23, 12:30-1:30pm. Speaker: L.H.M. Ling, Professor of International Affairs, The New School, Author, Imagining World Politics: Sihar & Shenya, A Fable for Our Times. Location: Georgetown University, Mortara Building, 3600 N St., NW, Conference Room. Contact:

THE WASHINGTON EU-U.S. CONFERENCE. 1/23-25, Lunch, Reception. Sponsor: Delegation of the European Union to the United States, Le Monde Diplomatique Debates, American University (AU) School of International Service (SIS). Speakers: James Barbour, Spokesperson of the Delegation of the European Union to the United States; Romuald Sciora, Head, Le Monde Diplomatique Debates; Moderator: James Goldgeier, Dean, SIS, AU; Klaus Botzet, Head of the Political, Security and Development Section, EU Delegation to the U.S.; J.D. Gordon, Senior Fellow, Center for a Secure, Free Society (SFS), former Pentagon Spokesman and former Director, National Security Advisory Committee, Trump Campaign; Jeff Lightfoot, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, Atlantic Council; Dr. Garret Martin, Professorial Lecturer, AU SIS, Editor at Large, European Institute; Jeffrey Rathke, Senior Fellow and Deputy Director, Europe Program, CSIS; Dr. Randall Henning, Professor, SIS, AU; Frédéric Lefebvre, French Member of Parliament, former State Secretary of Trade and SMEs; Damien Levie, Head of the Trade and Agriculture Section, EU Delegation to the U.S.; Dr. Harvey Feigenbaum, Professor, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University (GWU); James Barbour, Spokesperson, Head of the Press and Public Diplomacy Section, EU Delegation to the U.S.; Lorenzo Morris, Professor, Howard University; Dr. Kimberly Morgan, Professor, Elliott School of International Affairs, GWU; Anne-Cecile Robert, Director of International Editions, Le Monde Diplomatique; Moderator: Michelle Breslauer, Deputy Director of Programs, Institute for Economics and Peace; Steve Clemons, Editor at Large, The Atlantic; Dr. James Goldgeier, Dean, SIS, AU; Anne-Cécile Robert, Director of International Editions, Le Monde Diplomatique; Caroline Vicini, Deputy-Head of Delegation, EU Delegation to the U.S.; Dr. Kate McNamara, Professor, Georgetown University; David O'Sullivan, EU Ambassador to the U.S.

RECONCILIATION AT WATER'S EDGE

How Defense Minister Inada's Yasukuni undermined reconciliation

By Mindy Kotler, APP Director

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s tour of Pearl Harbor highlighted reconciliation and putting an end to Pacific War history. However, Abe’s Cabinet officials were of a different mind. While Abe was in the air returning from Pearl Harbor, his Reconstruction Minister and good friend, Masahiro Imamura, paid homage to the war deities at the Yasukuni Shrine.

Shortly after returning to Japan, Defense Minister Tomomi INADA, who had accompanied the Prime Minister to Pearl Harbor, also visited the Yasukuni Shrine. She is said to be Mr. Abe’s preferred successor. When she was the LDP’s policy chief, she initiated a reevaluation the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. She now administers this on-going investigation. Reportedly, she once said “Yasukuni is not a place to pledge not to repeat the horror of war again. It is a place to promise that 'we will follow in your footsteps if a contingency occurs in our homeland.'"

Yasukuni is not Arlington, nor is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific that Prime Minister Abe visited in Hawaii. Yasukuni visits have been used in recent decades by Japanese politicians to be naughty. It is a cost-free way to demonstrate independence from the US. The irony is that the visits so antagonize the Chinese that the US is compelled to reaffirm its defense of Japan soon after, drawing Japan closer to the US.

The Meiji Emperor created Yasukuni to militarize a religion (Shinto) in service of the state and to de-legitimatize his enemies (they cannot be enshrined there). It is not a cemetery and it represents only one religion. There are no bodies buried on the grounds. It is for the spirits of the military dead who died fighting for the Emperor who can be identified (the unidentified have their ashes at a non-religious site not far from Yasukuni) and who are not from the under-classes.

Those approved are apostatized--they become gods, one with the Emperor. There are many convicted and otherwise war criminals turned into gods at the Shrine. The Shrine is also only for the Imperial era, which ended August 15, 1945. No one after that date is enshrined. The park surrounding the Shrine has many small memorials to military units that served in the Pacific War, including the Kempeitai (SS-like military police).

The Ministers’ appearance at the Yasukuni Shrine does lessen the impact of PM Abe’s visit to Pearl Harbor. It undermines through deed, his words at Hickam Field, barely 12 hours before. That PM Abe did not fire Inada—who visited Yasukuni as Defense Minister not in her personal capacity—suggests that he condoned her actions.

Abe’s tortured prose lingered on expressions of gratitude toward US treatment of defeated Japan. He interpreted reconciliation as American “tolerance” and posed Japan as being passive in its appreciation. It is as if a thesaurus was consulted for a politically acceptable word meaning compassion, mercy, and humanity.

Unsaid, and maybe unintended, was the contrast of American “tolerance” toward its conquered people to Japan’s own conduct of its war in China and the Pacific. Imperial Japan’s conquests were impressive military victories. They were, however, followed by unjustified and horrific violence against noncombatants, POWs, laborers, and the dead.

Condolences are what Mr. Abe gave to those military dead who died in combat at Pearl Harbor. He did not apologize or justify. The visit was framed as if he was going to Yasukuni to honor and pacify the spirits of warriors.

Standing tall at the water's edge does not turn Pearl Harbor into a symbol of reconciliation. It is not a tolerance for an enemies soldiers and sailors. Reconciliation is how today’s Japan answers to Imperial Japan’s wartime atrocities committed against the unarmed. It is no surprise that the trauma of these cruelties is intergenerational.

As Abe ended his remarks, he acknowledged this by promising to continue to make his “wish a reality.” It is something that still needs work. And something that is a responsibility of the Trump White House.