Japan

2014
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DECEMBER 2014

• A Small Island Trying to Block Obama’s “Asian Pivot”
  by Christine Ahn On December 10 — International Human Rights Day — Takeshi Onaga began his term as the new governor of Okinawa. Last month, the citizens of Okinawa delivered a landslide victory to Onaga, who ran on a platform opposing the construction of a new U.S. Marine Corps base in northern Okinawa. Using the campaign slogan “All Okinawa,” Onaga pledged “to stop construction using every means at my disposal” and to remove Marine Osprey helicopters, which he called the “biggest obstacles to Okinawan development.” Onaga’s win — in which he secured the backing of two-thirds of the electorate — constitutes a referendum by the Okinawan people against Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s deepening alliance with Washington to further militarize the island. Heavy American Footprint in Okinawa I traveled to Okinawa in early December to attend a women and peacebuilding conference, and to hear from Okinawans about what they think of Washington’s plans to transfer the unpopular Futenma Marine Corps Air Station from the center of Ginowan city to the ecologically pristine Henoko Bay. As I transited at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport to the gate to board a flight to Naha, it was quite clear that I was traveling to an American base. U.S. servicemen in civilian clothing and camouflage, along with their families, dominated the boarding area. [Okinawa] [Bases] [China confrontation]
• U.S. wine industry toasts decline in Japan’s sake sales
  By Rob Hotakainen McClatchy Washington Bureau//December 22, 2014// Updated 15 hours ago // A Yen for Trade This is the fourth in a weekly series examining the trade relationship between the US and Japan. TOKYO — Standing next to the wine display at the Nissin World Delicatessen in Tokyo, Masahiro Ino eyed a $99 bottle of Silver Oak cabernet sauvignon imported from California. “I do prefer wine over sake,” said Ino, 24. “Wine is becoming very trendy. It’s becoming mainstream nowadays.” With more younger consumers rejecting the alcoholic drink of their ancestors, sake sales have steadily tanked in Japan, another victim of globalization. Forty years ago, Japan had 4,000 sake breweries, but only 1,500 remain. “I feel sad, a little sad,” said Shunsuke Kohiyama, export adviser for the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association. “But is there anyone who wears Japanese clothing? Everybody wears Western clothing. Rarely there’s a kimono.” For the U.S. wine industry, the sake decline is a reason to raise a glass, especially California growers, who provided 90 percent of the nation’s exported wine in 2013, amid a year of record sales in foreign countries. “If you’re in Napa and you need to sell high-end wine, you need to feed the fish where the fish can jump, right?” said Russell Weis, the general manager of Silverado Vineyards in Napa, Calif. “And that makes Japan extremely interesting.” [Wine]
• With Election Win Under His Belt, Abe Pledges Constitution Rewrite
  AFP – Jiji – Japan Times December 16, 2014 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday vowed he would try to persuade a skeptical public of the need to revise Japan’s pacifist Constitution, the day after his ruling bloc scored a strong election victory. Abe, who was re-elected to the Lower House in Sunday’s poll and whose Liberal Democratic Party scored a strong win, pledged to pursue his nationalist agenda while promising to follow through on much-needed economic reforms. “Revising the Constitution … has always been an objective since the Liberal Democratic Party was launched,” Abe told reporters. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• A ‘beautiful’ Japan in the eye of the media beholder
  17 December 2014 Author: Chris Perkins, University of Edinburgh The Japanese media has been set alight by the debate on Japan’s use of ‘comfort women’ — a euphemism referring to the women used for sex by the Japanese Army in World War II. The furore began in August when Asahi Shimbun, Japan’s premier liberal newspaper, admitted that a source used in a number of articles it published on comfort women had fabricated his story. That source was Seiji Yoshida, a soldier who claimed to have been involved in the capture of 200 women in South Korea during the war. Yoshida’s testimony had long been questioned, most prominently by the historian Ikuhiko Hata and the right-wing newspaper Sankei Shimbun. [Comfort women] [Japanese colonialism]
• An ugly win for Mr. Abe
  By Brad Glosserman Dec 16, 2014 Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) have their election victory. As forecast, they crushed the opposition in Sunday’s vote and consolidated their hold on the Diet. It was not a pretty sight, however; this was a problematic win, one that bodes ill for Japan if the results are interpreted as a vote for the status quo. At first glance, the vote went as anticipated. The LDP and its coalition partner New Komei won 326 seats, increasing their representation in the Diet by one seat from the Parliament that was just dissolved. That well exceeds the 317-seat threshold required for a two-thirds "super-majority" that gives the government control of all committee chairs, a majority in every legislative committee, and allows the Lower House to override Upper House vetoes of legislation. Dig a little deeper, however and the celebrations should quickly be muted. While the ruling coalition gained a seat, the LDP lost four seats, dropping from 295 to 291. Ouch. Turnout was a record postwar low of 53.3 percent, 6 percentage points below the 2012 general election. Ugly.
  One of the big winners in the election was the Japan Communist Party, which increased its parliamentary representation from 8 seats to 21. A vote for the communist party in Japan is the ultimate protest vote. Ugly. [Abe Shinzo]
• The Committee of the Historical Science Society of Japan's Critique of the Japanese Government's Stance on the Wartime “Comfort Women” Issue
  Dec. 16, 2014 Asia-Pacific Journal Feature Introduction The Historical Science Society of Japan’s (HSSJ) on December 7, 2014 issued a public statement on the wartime comfort women controversy that has gone viral in recent months in Japan and internationally. The text, made available at its website one week prior to Japan’s snap election, is an English translation of the group’s statement made in the fall of 2014. For more than half a century, the JSSJ has been a progressive voice for historians on social, cultural, and political issues of contemporary Japan. Now it is speaking out at a time when the media and government are mobilizing to silence independent and critical voices. In the summer of 2014, the Asahi Shimbun acknowledged that its early report on the comfort women, published in the 1990s, contained erroneous information based on interviews with Yoshida Seiji, whose testimony has long been discredited not only by neonationalist commentators and scholars but also by progressive historians. It remains something of a “mystery” why the Asahi Shimbun decided to publicly acknowledge its “false report” this year—or, indeed, why it did not admit it much earlier. In any case, Japan’s rightwing had a field day, not only attacking the integrity of the Asahi (whose sales have fallen as a result), but also ratcheting up a campaign against the Kono Statement of 1993 in which the Japanese government admitted that the Imperial Japanese Forces were directly and indirectly involved in the establishment and administration of comfort facilities. Neonationalist efforts to whitewash Japan’s wartime misdeeds, from the comfort women to the Nanjing Massacre to forced labor and the medical, biological and chemical warfare atrocities of Unit 731, are hardly new. Indeed, they have been a constant since the 1970s; now, however, the rightwing has its champion in Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. Worse, the sentiment of the Japanese public over the issue of comfort women appears to have moved toward Abe’s side since the late 1990s, despite the fact that the majority of Japanese still oppose many of his policies, including the attempt to undermine Article 9 of the Constitution, a new secrecy law, and a higher sales tax.[1] Though Abe remains cautious about renouncing the Kono Statement apologizing for Japan’s comfort women system, a statement which was not based on Yoshida’s testimony but rather on the direct testimony of victims, he vows to attack what he insists are groundless aspersions of Japan as a nation involved in “sexual slavery.” The HSSJ’s public statement criticizes the Abe administration’s efforts for the revision of wartime history, clarifying the points of contention and pointing out flaws in the arguments made by the administration and its neonationalist allies. [Comfort women] [Japanese colonialism] [Abe Shinzo]
• Abe coalition secures big Japan election win with record low turnout
  Mon Dec 15, 2014 3:38am * Low turnout mars victory for ruling LDP party * Abe vows to stay course on reflationary policies * Doubts simmer about "Third Arrow" reforms * Abe says will pursue constitutional changes (Adds comment from China's foreign ministry) By Linda Sieg and Tetsushi Kajimoto TOKYO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, brushing aside suggestions that a low turnout tarnished his coalition's election win, vowed on Monday to stick to his reflationary economic policies, tackle painful structural reforms and pursue his muscular security stance. But doubts persist as to whether Abe, who now has a shot to become a rare long-lasting leader in Japan, can engineer sustainable growth with his "Abenomics" recipe of hyper-easy monetary policy, government spending and promises of deregulation. "We heard the voice of the people saying 'Move forward with Abenomics'," Abe told a news conference at his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) headquarters, adorned with giant posters of the premier and his campaign slogan "This is the only path". "I want to boldly implement the 'Three Arrows'," Abe said, adding he would compile stimulus steps before the year's end and ask business leaders to boost wages, which have not kept pace with rises in consumer prices. [Abe Shinzo]
• WCC general secretary expresses concern over Article 9 of the Japanese constitution
  WCC general secretary expresses concern over Article 9 of the Japanese constitution WCC general secretary Olav Fykse Tveit at the 4th Global Inter-religious Conference on Article 9 of the Japanese Peace Constitution in Japan. © WCC/Young-Cheol Cheon 04 December 2014 At the 4th Global Inter-religious Conference in Tokyo, Japan, the World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit expressed grave concern at the Japanese government’s initiative to reinterpret or change Article 9 of the Japanese constitution. Adopted as part of the constitution in 1947, following the Second World War, the clause outlaws war as a means for Japan to resolve international disputes. “We expect Japan to follow Article Nine. We are convinced of the power of Japan’s positive example to influence the conduct of other states,” Tveit said in his presentation titled “Article Nine of the Japanese Constitution – A Pillar for Peace in Northeast Asia and Beyond” delivered on 3 December at the Tokyo conference, which focused on Article 9 of the Japanese Peace Constitution. [Article 9] [Religion]
• US-Japan defense cooperation guidelines review: US wise to take a patient approach
  By David Fouse Dec 9, 2014 The catalyst for a review of the US-Japan Defense Cooperation Guidelines came largely as a result of increasing tensions between Japan and neighboring countries, including a serious intensification of the dispute between Japan and China over islands in the East China Sea. As tensions heightened between Asia’s two greatest powers, questions were raised (on both sides of the alliance) regarding what the US role would be should conflict break out. After a year of intensive dialogues the US and Japan issued an interim report on revised guidelines in October of this year and appeared to be on track for finalizing the process by the end of 2014. Within a month of the release of the interim report, however, media reports began to indicate that the completion of the review would likely be postponed due to “political developments.” The key reason for postponing the review is to allow Japan time to pass legislation delimiting the exercise of the right to collective self-defense. In July, the Abe government announced a landmark reinterpretation of Japan’s constitution to allow the country the right to exercise collective self-defense (CSD) under certain circumstances. These circumstances were debated with its coalition partner, the New Komeito Party, resulting in an agreement that Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) could act only when its leaders felt an attack on a friendly nation, or that country’s armed forces, would pose a clear danger to Japan. To allow for these changes, Japan will have to revise laws to spell out in more detail how the right of CSD can be exercised. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Abe Shinzo]
• The End of the Postwar? The Abe Government, Okinawa, and Yonaguni Island
  Gavan McCormack 1 Framing the Problem(s) *16 November 2014: Okinawa prefecture elects as new Governor Onaga Takeshi, who campaigned on the core policy of stopping construction of a base for the US Marine Corps in Northern Okinawa *17 November 2014: Yonaguni Island town assembly votes to hold a referendum on the national government’s project to construct a base for the Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces *18 November 2014: Prime Minister Abe Shinzo announces his intention to dissolve the Lower House and conduct general elections on 14 December Few if any commentators link these three consecutive events, different as they are in character and scale. Yet this paper suggests that all – from one small Okinawan island to the Japanese nation state and the US-Japan relationship – may profitably be considered within a single frame. It rests on the premise that it is profoundly mistaken to think in terms of the “Okinawa Problem” (and “Yonaguni problem”) as distinct, self-contained and therefore relatively minor in significance. The three superficially distinct events of November 2014 all involve the democratic process, and may be seen as manifestations of a complex struggle whose nature is best perceived at the periphery, in Okinawa and Yonaguni, but which is deeply rooted in the nature of the Japanese state in Tokyo. Through their prism, much is to be learned of Japan itself – state, democracy, law, constitution, and diplomacy. This paper addresses first the “Japan problem,” then the “Okinawa problem,” and finally the “Yonaguni problem.” 2. The Japan Problem When Prime Minster Abe announced his decision to dissolve the Lower House and call a general election, he offered as his reason the wish to secure the electorate’s approval of his decision to postpone for 18 months the raising of the consumption tax from 8 to 10 per cent. Almost nobody believed that, however, and virtually all commentators agreed that his real motive was to entrench himself in power before support for his government, already commencing significant decline, reached critical levels. Re-elected, he would stand a reasonable chance of remaining in office until 2018. That would allow him to fulfil his grand plan, which is nothing less than the remaking of the Japanese state. [Abe Shinzo]
• The Battle of Okinawa
  The Ryukyu Shimpo, Ota Masahide, Mark Ealey and Alastair McLauchlan Foreword The last engagement between the armies of Japan and the United States, the Battle of Okinawa, was fought in the final stages of the Pacific War, predominantly on the main island of Okinawa, but also on other small islands in the vicinity. The battle is generally defined as beginning on 1 April 1945 and ending nearly three months later on 23 June. While most American sources and textbooks used at schools in Japan frame the period of the battle this way, this is incorrect for two reasons. The first is that while 1 April is the date on which the main body of US forces landed on the main island of Okinawa, on 26 March U.S troops landed on the Kerama Islands just off Okinawa but within the prefecture. The awful tragedy that occurred there in which more than 700 local residents were either directly or indirectly driven by the Japanese military to take their own lives is a compelling reason why we should neither exclude nor place less emphasis on the landing and battle in the Keramas. Not only did the events that occurred there serve as a prelude to the devastation that the people of Okinawa would experience in the next three to four months of 1945, but they undeniably marked the first military action of the Okinawa campaign. [1945] [Okinawa]
• Historian dispels inaccuracies
  Cover of "Our History that We Have Never Learned from Textbooks" by Shim Baek-kang Books based on Japanese data reflect colonialism, distort Korean history By Lee Min-hyung Historian Shim Baek-kang It is no exaggeration to say that Korea's history education favors Japanese colonialism, which has destroyed Koreans' spirits, according to a historian. In his new book, "Our History that We Have Never Learned from Textbooks," Shim Baek-kang, 58, tries to set the record straight about ancient Korean history by presenting a significant amount of evidence collected over more than a decade. As part of its colonization, Japan tried to show that Koreans were inferior, Shim said on Tuesday at an event celebrating publication of the book. Shim is president of the Korea National Culture Research Center in Seoul. "There is nothing more serious than destroying the spirits of Koreans by letting them study their history using textbooks with inaccurate facts," he said. "I wrote this book to provide readers with correct historical facts." He argued that ancient Korea, called Gojoseon (2333 BC-108 BC), stretched into China's Yoseo region, but most Korean history textbooks say Gojoseon was near the Taedong River in North Korea, a much narrower region. "The best feature of this book is that all the information is based on historical sources written by ancient people from different countries, not Koreans, which makes the sources credible," Shim said. "The older the sources are, the greater their value. Most of the sources used in the book are about 1,000 to 1,500 years old, so they are more reliable than any other sources." The distorted history goes on about how after Gojoseon fell, three powers rose on the Korean Peninsula. The period of the three states, Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla - better known as the Three-Kingdom Era (57 BC-668) - has also been distorted by Japan's colonization, according to the historian. [Japanese colonialism] [History] [Koguryo]

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NOVEMBER 2014

• Remembrance, reconciliation and the East Asian memory wars 19 November 2014
  Author: Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ANU ‘The past’, as William Faulkner once wrote, ‘is not dead, it isn’t even past’. Nowhere is this more true than in today’s East Asia. The recent ‘memory wars’ between the countries of the region — particularly (though not exclusively) between Japan and its neighbours China and Korea — are eloquent testimony to the power of the past to haunt the present and influence the course of domestic and international politics. As Cold War tensions in East Asia diminished from the 1980s onwards and as the events of the Asia-Pacific War receded, it might have been assumed that memories of war and colonialism would also fade. Instead, the opposite has happened. Unresolved issues of historical justice and restitution have smouldered and, fanned by the winds of rising nationalisms, emerged as sparks which threaten to ignite new regional antagonisms. [Japanese colonialism]
• Extremists Flourish in Abe's Japan
  Nov. 20, 2014 Jeff Kingston The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 44, No. 2, November 10,2014. Many Japanese and long-time Japan observers have expressed dismay about the recrudescence of self-righteous nationalism under PM Abe Shinzo who has emboldened rightwing extremists now threatening democratic institutions, civil liberties and Japan’s relations with its neighbors. Nakano Koichi, a professor of political science at Sophia University, comments, “The revisionist right in Japan with the active encouragement, if not involvement, of the Abe government has succeeded in controlling NHK news, intimidating Asahi Shimbun, and now academia.” Abe has presided over the mainstreaming of reactionary extremism in his quest to rewrite and rehabilitate Japan’s dishonorable wartime past in Asia and in doing so instigates widespread international criticism. Any other national leader who did the same for their nation’s egregious history would merit a similar reaction. [Abe Shinzo] [Japanese colonialism]
• In Tokyo’s sake bars the mood turns grim as weary workers brace for more pain
  Grilled chicken and beer fail to raise the spirits of poorly paid and part-time workers who see little sense in yet another costly election Drinkers in Tokyo Drinkers in Tokyo: distrustful of claims that a poll was needed to keep economic plans on track. Photograph: 642956/Getty Images/AWL Images RM Justin McCurry in Tokyo Sunday 23 November 2014 00.30 GMT The neon flickers into action, bathing the central district of Shinbashi in light. Giant screens blare out ads for electronic gadgets and energy drinks. High above street level, trains arrive every couple of minutes and deposit hordes of office workers on to Shinbashi’s narrow back streets in search of grilled chicken skewers and beer, and the chance to take stock of an extraordinary week for the world’s third-biggest economy. If the buzz of activity in Shinbashi – packed with offices, bars and restaurants – is any indication, this does not look like a country in recession. But the Friday evening feelgood factor is at odds with the hard data. Last Monday Japan’s government caught almost everyone off guard when it announced that, after a second consecutive contraction in quarterly GDP, the economy was officially back in recession for the first time since 2012. Put simply, Japan’s consumers have stopped spending. Exhibiting the same caution that consigned their economy to more than two decades of stagnation, their thrift threatens to derail prime minister Shinzo Abe’s inflation-led mission to revive the economy. [Abe Shinzo] [Japanese remilitarisation] [Public opinion]
• [Column] In Okinawa, hints at a new future for South Korea
  Posted on : Nov.22,2014 15:35 KST Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent Ignoring oppression of the vulnerable in the name of national progress hasn’t made South Korea a happier place “Gil Yun-hyung, do you know what the weakest link is in the campaign against the US military base on Okinawa?” It was the night of Nov. 15, the day before the gubernatorial election in Okinawa, and I was at an izakaya in Naha, the capital of the Japanese island. Sitting across from me was Masahiro Tomiyama, 60, head of Okinawa Popular Solidarity. The first time I met Tomiyama was probably in 2006. At the time, Hankyoreh 21 a weekly magazine published by the Hankyoreh, was running a year-long series of articles about Daechu Village in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, whose residents were opposed to the proposed expansion of a US military base for relocation of troops from the Seoul and DMZ areas. At the time, I was in my fifth year working as a reporter. Every week, I would go down to Daechu Village to write another entry in a series titled “The Fields Weep.” In these articles, I recorded the experiences of the helpless locals, worn out from their daily exposure to state-authorized violence. The once-peaceful village was torn by dissension about whether or not to support the expansion of the base, and the residents who were unwilling to give up their homes and their farmland were determined to fight until the bitter end. As an advocate for the people of Okinawa, who face a similar struggle, Tomiyama had visited Daechu village on two occasions to offer his support. “What is it?” I asked as I filled his glass with awamori, the traditional alcohol of Okinawa. But I hadn’t expected his answer. “It’s our solidarity with people from ‘Yamato,’ the Japanese mainland. We have trouble communicating with them. It’s hard for us to trust them. Considering we’re all Japanese, you probably don’t understand. But that’s how it is.” When I thought it over, I could see what he meant. Everyone on Okinawa was talking about the controversial election that was underway. The big issue in the election was whether US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, the location of the MV-SS Ospreys, should be relocated to Henoko. But the big Japanese newspapers based in Tokyo could not have cared less about the story. [Okinawa] [Bases] [Client]
• Expert: to North Korea, the South isn’t an economic partner anymore
  Posted on : Nov.21,2014 16:36 KST Modified on : Nov.21,2014 16:38 KST Mitsuhiro Mimura says at the Hankyoreh-Busan International Symposium that Pyongyang has to look elsewhere for capital “You do hear people in South Korea talking about a railway connecting with continental Asia through North Korea, but North Korea is obviously going to see that as a very South Korea-centered plan.” Mitsuhiro Mimura, a researcher at Japan’s Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (ERINA), argued on Nov. 20 that North Korea no longer views the South as a partner in economic cooperation. Mimura, who has visited North Korea and interacted with academics there nearly 30 times over the past two decades, was in Busan this week to participate in the Hankyoreh-Busan International Symposium. “If you look at things from North Korea’s perspective, any kind of long-term economic cooperation program is basically impossible because the South’s North Korea policies change every five years [with the change of governments in South Korea],” he said. “Things like support have been left out of the basic components in South Korea’s economic development plans,” Mimura added. “People basically see it as something they can get if South Korea decides to do it.” The situation with Seoul stands in stark contrast to Pyongyang’s relationship with Tokyo, Mimura added. “Leaving aside the matter of South Korea being part of a ‘regime competition,’ North Korea sees Japan as the only capitalist power in Asia that it can depend on for technology and capital,” he explained. But Mimura also predicted it would take time for North Korea to open its economy to the outside. “North Korea is at the point now where it’s concerned mainly with addressing survival issues and supplying enough daily essentials,” he said. “For the next three years, we can expect its policies to be focused on things like encouraging domestic agricultural production and trade with China.” “If it’s successful, then it’s going to need to trade and interact with other countries while it’s trying to figure out which industries to develop,” he added. “In the long term, it’s going to focus on openness over ten to twenty years.” [Japan NK]
• Recession in Japan Sends Shares Tumbling
  by Mike Whitney Japanese stocks suffered their biggest one-day plunge in more than four months following an announcement that the world’s third biggest economy had slipped back into recession. The two consecutive quarters of negative growth were triggered by an increase in the sales tax that was implemented by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in April. The VAT tax was designed to put more of the costs of running the government on working people who have been forced to reduce their personal spending due to higher taxes, 23 consecutive months of falling wages, steadily shrinking incomes, and a sharp decline in full-time employment. At present, 38 percent of Japan’s labor-force work at part-time jobs that pay less than fulltime positions, and that provide no benefits, security or retirement. (Note: the economy contracted at a 1.6 percent annual pace in the July-September quarter, preceded by a 7.1 percent drop the quarter before.) In Japan, consumer spending accounts for more than 60 percent of GDP. Thus, when the government raises taxes, spending declines, deflationary pressures build, and the economy goes into a slump. Quantitative Easing– which involves the purchasing of government bonds by the Central Bank– has negligible impact on the real economy. The Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) extraordinary monetary easing–which includes the buying of ETFs and J-REITs as well as Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs)–has helped to buoy stock prices and lift corporate profits to record highs, but has had a damaging effect on the economy. The weaker yen has lifted import fees on oil and other essentials making it more expensive for working people and retirees to scrape by. Even so, Abe pushed ahead with his tax increase determined to prove his loyalty to his constituency of financial speculators, fatcat corporatists and other wealthy elites, all of who have made out like bandits due to zero rates and QE. [Crisis]
• No Need to Ask Tokyo if USFJ Help Korea
  Washington has reminded Seoul that it will automatically dispatch the U.S. Forces Japan to the Korean Peninsula in case of an emergency like a war with North Korea. Washington's thrust was that Tokyo would not have a say in the matter because the USFJ is under regional American command. The announcement was an apparent rebuff to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who recently called for more input from his government in the moves of the USFJ. A Defense Ministry official said on Monday, "The U.S. clarified that the bilateral defense treaty with Korea takes priority when it comes to North Korean matters and it would not need to discuss contingency plans with Japan." Military experts claimed that the U.S. military base in Japan effectively serves as the UN Command's rear-area headquarters and thus there is no basis for Japan to meddle. [US dominance]
• US backs Seoul over Japan in military contingency plan
  By Jun Ji-hye The government welcomed U.S. clarification Monday that its forces stationed in Japan would automatically intervene in a conflict on the Korean Peninsula, dismissing Japan's stance that any such move required prior consultation with it because they are stationed on its territory. "We believe the ROK-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty takes priority in the case of North Korean provocations and the U.S. government backs our position," a defense ministry official said. The U.S. State Department made clear that Washington would not discuss contingency plans with Japan, and was prepared to carry out all obligations under its bilateral security treaty and joint operational plans with South Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in July that U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) needed to have prior consultation with Tokyo and seek its understanding before sending troops to Korea. Some experts, such as Jeffrey Hornung of the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, have supported Abe's remarks. Hornung wrote on the Center for Strategic and International Studies website on Nov. 10, "What Abe said is legally accurate … Abe's statement is important in reminding South Koreans about Japan's significance for South Korea's security." [US dominance] [Bases]
• Japan continues its search for routes into North Korea
  Vladimir Terehov In the mosaic of events that are shaping the political situation in North-East Asia (NEA) an event occurred at the end of October which at first glance does not appear to be worthy of any special attention. But in fact, not only does it illustrate the peculiarities of this situation, it is also a significant action contributing to its formation. In particular, it sheds light on the important nuances in the system of relations linking all three leading regional players, i.e. the USA, China and Japan. We are talking about the visit to Pyongyang on 28-29 October this year by a delegation of the Japanese government, headed by the Director General of the Asian and Oceania Affairs Bureau, Junichi Ihara, of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. [Japan NK] [US Japan alliance] [Japan SK]
• Opponent of U.S. Marine Base Wins Okinawa Vote in Blow to Abe
  By Isabel Reynolds and Takashi Hirokawa Nov 17, 2014 4:00 AM GMT+1300 A politician who wants a U.S. Marine base moved out of Okinawa won election as governor of the southern Japanese island chain, public broadcaster NHK said. Takeshi Onaga was set to win a sweeping victory after exit polls late yesterday indicated he had almost twice as many votes as Hirokazu Nakaima, incumbent and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s favored candidate. Onaga, 64, is seeking to reduce the military burden on Okinawa, which hosts about three quarters of the U.S. bases in Japan, while boasting only 0.6 percent of the nation’s land area. Nakaima, 75, last December agreed to allow the Futenma U.S. Marine base to be shifted to a less densely populated area of the prefecture -- a move that appeared to end nearly two decades of wrangling over the issue. “Based on this victory, I will go to the government, the U.S. government and even the United Nations to tell them the people are against it,” Onaga said yesterday in a televised interview broadcast after the exit polls were published. Nakaima’s decision had “sent the wrong message,” he said. [Okinawa] [Bases]
• Joseph Nye: Revising Kono Statement will Hurt Japan’s Interests
  October 31, 2014 By Taketsugu Sato – Asahi Shimbun Joseph Nye, a former U.S. assistant secretary of defense, warned that any move by Tokyo to revise the 1993 Kono statement of apology to former “comfort women” will only undermine Japan’s national interests. The Harvard University professor, who is well-versed in issues related to Japan, told a symposium in Tokyo on Oct. 30 that the government’s questioning of details of the statement would give countries such as China and South Korea an opportunity to condemn Japan. The 1993 statement, issued under the name of then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, offers Japan’s apology to the wartime comfort women, mostly Koreans, who were sent to frontline brothels for Japanese troops. Some politicians have taken issue with the statement, particularly the word “coercion” and the mention of the Japanese military’s involvement in recruiting the women. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeatedly said that his government will uphold the Kono statement. But he plans to issue a new prime minister’s statement next year, marking the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. During the symposium, titled “Reshuffled Abe Cabinet and the New Development in the Japan-U.S. Alliance,” Nye said Japan should place importance on its relations with South Korea to deal with North Korea’s belligerence rather than focusing on the past. “The idea that Japan should look back 80 years, when it was in war, is the big mistake for Japan,” Nye said. Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, who also attended the symposium, echoed Nye’s sentiments. [Japanese colonialism] [Alliance]
• Kansai’s Fears of New Law No State Secret
  By Eric Johnston – Japan Times October 26, 2014 With less than two months to go until the new designated state secrets law comes into force, how, exactly, it will work in practice is the subject of extensive debate and concern. Much of the commentary focuses on how the fundamental rights of individuals will be affected. But municipal and prefectural governments, especially in Kansai, are also concerned about what the new law might mean for local autonomy and access to central government information, and whether that will have repercussions for their residents. Nationwide, nearly 200 local cities and towns have passed statements condemning the new law. As of September, at least a half dozen assemblies in Kyoto, Nara and Osaka prefectures had voiced their opposition. One of the largest bodies in Kansai to oppose the new law was Ikoma, in Nara. Ikoma is the main city in the electoral district of Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi, a close ally of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. [Repression] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Democracy’s Porous Borders: Espionage, Smuggling and the Making of Japan’s Transwar Regime (Part 1)
  Tessa Morris-Suzuki The House on the Hill Close to the lotus-filled expanse of Shinobazu Pond in Tokyo’s Ueno Park, a narrow back street leads into a driveway that curves between mossy walls to the top of a small hill. At the summit stands an imposing mansion whose neo-Jacobean facade, fronted by tall palm trees, would look more at home in the streets of a nineteenth century European spa town than in the midst of twenty-first century Tokyo. This building was designed by the British architect Josiah Conder in the 1890s, and was for many years the home of the Iwasaki family, who founded and owned the Mitsubishi Zaibatsu. Still known as the Former Iwasaki Residence [Kyu-Iwasaki Tei], it is now open to the public. Its rooms, refurbished in the style of the late Meiji Era, are adorned with information boards which give insights into the historical transformations through which this mansion has passed over the past century or more. But there is a strange silence surrounding one of the most fascinating and disturbing episodes in the building’s history - its role in the US occupation of Japan. [Espionage] [1945] [US Japan]
• Scrapping Japan’s Pacifist Constitution? Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Ongoing Militarization Campaign
  By Saul Takahashi Global Research, October 31, 2014 The efforts of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to change Japan’s pacifist Constitution has received much attention overseas. This attention is very justified, and one hopes it will continue. However, most foreign media outlets fail to convey just how dramatically, and how rapidly, the public debate in Japan is heading in the wrong direction. Abe has essentially declared war on all aspects of Japan’s pacifism, and the results can only be disastrous – for the country and for the world. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Abe Shinzo] [Constitution] [Public opinion]

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OCTOBER 2014

• Japan-DPRK abduction talks end with no details revealed
  Xinhua, October 29, 2014 Closed-door talks between Japan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on the kidnapping of Japanese nationals during the 1970s and 1980s ended Wednesday with no details provided by either side. Junichi Ihara, head of the Japanese delegation, told a briefing that Japan has made clear its stand that the abduction issue was its top priority. The Japanese delegation, he said, was briefed on the status quo of the ongoing DPRK investigation. The DPRK's chief investigator, So Tae Ha, attended the concluding meeting Wednesday afternoon, during which the Japanese side urged Pyongyang to deliver an investigation report as soon as possible, said Ihara, an official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry. However, Ihara refused to disclose details of the meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, or whether a new round of negotiations will be held in the near future. Ihara also declined to say whether the purpose of the visit had been achieved, saying the visit was not aimed to get a report on the case but to seek to understand the current situation. Neither did he disclose the DPRK's responses during the two-day talks. A special investigation committee headed by So started talks Tuesday morning with the Japanese delegation for an update of its work.
• Protest Art in 1950s Japan: The Forgotten Reportage Painters
  The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 43, No. 1, October 27, 2014. Linda Hoaglund with an introduction by John W. Dower The following article is a reprint of a unit developed by MIT Visualizing Cultures, a project focused on image-driven scholarship. Click here to view the essay in its original, visually-rich layout. And see the complete image galleries here. In the coming months the Asia-Pacific Journal will reprint a number of articles on the theme of social protest in Japan originally posted at MIT VC, together with an introduction by John W. Dower to the series. These are the first in a continuing series of collaborations between APJ and VC designed to highlight the visual possibilities of the historical and contemporary Asia-Pacific, particularly for classroom applications. Between 2002 and 2013, the Visualizing Cultures (VC) project at M.I.T. produced a number of “image-driven” online units addressing Japan and China in the modern world. Co-directed by John Dower and Shigeru Miyagawa, VC tapped a wide range of hitherto largely inaccessible visual resources of an historical nature. Each topical treatment—which can run from one to as many as four separate units—formats and analyzes these graphics in ways that, ideally, open new windows of understanding for scholars, teachers, and students. VC endorses the “creative commons” ideal, meaning that everything on the site, including all images, can be downloaded and reproduced for educational (but not commercial) uses. Funding and staffing for VC formally ended in 2013, with around eight topical treatments still in the pipes. These will eventually go online. Overall, including the treatments to come, the project includes a total of fifty-five individual units covering twenty-six different subjects. The China-Japan division will be roughly equitable when everything is in place. (There will also be a two-part treatment of the U.S. and the Philippines between 1898 and 1912.) The full VC menu can be accessed at visualizingcultures.mit.edu. VC is closing shop for the production of new units at a moment when it was just reaching a “critical mass” of subjects that invite crisscrossing among separate topical treatments. Western imperialist expansion beginning with the Canton trade system, first Opium War, and Commodore Matthew Perry’s “opening” of Japan is potentially one such subject; comparing and contrasting Japanese and Chinese engagements with “the West” is another. The VC units draw vivid attention to political, cultural, and technological transformation in East Asia between the mid-19th and mid-20th century. Many of them highlight graphic expressions of militarism, nationalism, racism, and anti-foreignism. Because the visual resources tapped for these units range from high art to popular culture, and are especially strong in the latter, it is now possible to tap the site to explore the emergence of consumer cultures and mass audiences in Japan and China. This, in turn, calls attention to popular cultures and grassroots activities in general. One example of the insights to be gained by approaching the VC menu with this comparative perspective in mind is the subject of popular protest in Japan. That is the common thrust of the four separate VC units introduced here. This is, of course, a pertinent subject today, when the mass media in the Anglophone world tends to portray Japan as a fundamentally homogeneous, consensual, harmonious, conflict-averse and risk-averse “culture” (a familiar rendering, for example, in the venerable New York Times)……… The 1950s have become something of a lost decade in historical recollections of postwar Japan. It is not difficult to understand why. The “‘50s” were overshadowed by the dramatic U.S. occupation that followed the country’s defeat in World War II, lasting until 1952. And they were eclipsed by what followed: the “income doubling” policies initiated in 1960 that, for the first time, drew international attention to Japan’s economic reconstruction. In fact, this was a tortured and tumultuous decade. Bitter memories of the recent war that ended in Hiroshima and Nagasaki folded into the spectacle of a cold-war nuclear arms race and a hot war next door in Korea (extending from 1950 to 1953). The continued post-occupation presence of a massive network of U.S. military bases provoked enormous controversy, as did the conservative government’s commitment to rearm Japan under the U.S. military aegis. Former leaders of Japan’s recent aggression returned to the political helm—symbolized most dramatically by the 1957 elevation to the premiership of Kishi Nobusuke, an accused (but never indicted) war criminal.
• Democracy's Porous Borders: Espionage, Smuggling and the Making of Japan's Transwar Regime (Part 2)
  Tessa Morris-Suzuki The Deck-Hand's Story Itagaki Kozo was an orphan of empire. At the end of the Asia-Pacific War, then aged fifteen, he was stranded in the former Japanese colony of Karafuto (Sakhalin). His father, a coal miner, had died in a mining accident when Itagaki was a child, and his mother had been killed in the brief but fierce fighting that erupted as Soviet forces swept into the southern half of Sakhalin following the USSR's declaration of war on Japan on 8 August 1945.1 Just as many young men in Japan sought survival after the surrender by taking jobs with the occupying American forces, Itagaki survived by becoming a "houseboy" to a Soviet officer, and his employer, Maxim Tarkin, appears to have been connected to the GPU (the forerunner of the KGB). In 1949, Tarkin left for Moscow via China, and allowed Itagaki to accompany him from Sakhalin as far as Shenyang in northern China, from where Itagaki hoped to be able to find a way to the Japanese homeland he had never seen.2 From Shenyang, Itagaki crossed the porous border into North Korea, made his way alone down the coast of the Korean Peninsula as far as the port of Wonsan, and found a berth on a smuggling boat going to Japan. The boat, just one of many thousands crossing the seas surrounding Japan in the immediate postwar years, entered Tokyo Bay without detection, and dropped Itagaki off in the port-side district of Shibaura. But Itagaki Kozo had no job, no home and no immediate family in Japan, so after a few days wandering around the capital, he took up an offer made by one of the smugglers, who had told him that if he decided not to stay in Japan, he should go to the quayside on a certain day, when a second smuggling boat, the Kohoku Maru, would put into port. Itagaki boarded the Kohoku Maru, and worked as a deck hand on this smuggling boat for almost two years, as it quietly plied the seas between Japan and various destinations in Okinawa, North and South Korea, China, Taiwan and Far Eastern Russia.3 It is very possible that the Kohoku Maru was engaged, not only in illicit trade, but also in espionage or other political activities, but Itagaki was apparently kept in the dark about its more sensitive missions. In March 1951, the boat entered a port in Niigata Prefecture on the west coast of Japan, and Itagaki was handed a package wrapped up in a furoshiki which he was instructed to deliver unopened to an address near the town of Misawa in northeastern Japan, site of a large US military base. Itagaki boarded a train for Misawa, but a little way into the journey he was consumed by curiosity about the contents of the bundle he was carrying, and started to open the furoshiki. Suddenly, he was seized by another man in the railway carriage, who, unbeknownst to Itagaki, had evidently been employed by the smugglers to shadow him. The man grabbed the bundle, pushed Itagaki out of the train at the next stop, and beat him severely. Left in an unfamiliar landscape, dazed and without money or possessions, Itagaki wandered in confusion along the side of the railway track until he was found by a guard who handed him over to the police.4 Because he was still a juvenile under Japanese law, Itagaki was sent to a youth detention centre. But, as a returnee from Sakhalin who had arrived by a most unusual route, he soon attracted the attentions, not just of the Japanese police, but also of the US intelligence services. So he became one of the hundreds of the thousands of Japanese repatriates who (as we saw in the first part of this essay) were a major US source of information on communist countries. Itagaki’s story provides disturbing insight into the experience of returnees subject to investigation and detention, though it is unlikely that many others endured quite such a violent and eventful “homecoming”. In testimony that he later gave to a Japanese parliamentary committee, Itagaki recalled how, during his time in juvenile detention in Niigata, he was collected every morning by officers of the US Counter-Intelligence Corp (CIC, which operated under the command of Charles Willoughby), and taken to their offices in Niigata for questioning. Then, after being tried in a juvenile court for illegal entry and given six months probation, Itagaki was again immediately handed over by the Japanese authorities to CIC.5 On 3 May 1951, a CIC agent took him by train to Tokyo’s Ueno Station, where he was placed in the custody of a Nisei officer whose name (Itagaki later discovered) was William Mitsuda. Itagaki was driven by car to a mansion surrounded by a huge walled garden. Arriving late at night, he had no idea what this place was, but he was soon to learn that it was the Former Iwasaki Residence: headquarters of Z Unit.6 [Espionage] [Human rights] [US dominance]
• Japan starts talks with DPRK on abduction issue
  Xinhua, October 28, 2014 The special investigation committee of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) started talks Tuesday with a Japanese delegation for an update on the reinvestigation into abductions of Japanese nationals by DPRK agents during 1970s and 1980s. So Dae Ha, chairman of the special investigation committee, met with Junichi Ihara, director general of Japanese Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau at the DPRK immigration bureau, where the special investigation committee is based. "I know that there are different voices in Japan about this visit. Under such circumstances, the visit of the delegation has demonstrated Japan's stance on abiding by DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration and Japan has made the right choice," said So. So also introduced heads of the panels set up under the investigation committee. The committee, composed of about 30 officials, has four panels in the capital city of Pyongyang and branches in other cities and counties across the country, according to state media KCNA. The four panels will be respectively investigating the remains of Japanese, remaining Japanese and their spouses, Japanese abductees and the missing Japanese in the DPRK. Ihara emphasized in the meeting that the abduction issue is a top priority for Japan. He also noted that four months have passed since the investigation committee was set up. [Abductees]
• Japan Builds Response to Chinese Area-Denial Strategy
  Oct. 26, 2014 - 04:17PM | By Paul Kallender-Umezu | TOKYO — Japan’s response to Chinese anti-access/area-denial threats rest on three planks: increasingly large helicopter carriers, next-generation 3,300-ton Soryu-class submarines and new Aegis destroyers. This strategy is further enhanced by plans to deploy 20 Kawasaki P-1 maritime patrol aircraft as replacements for the P-3C, and upgraded SH-60K sub-hunting helicopters. When integrated, this will create a much more capable fleet able to expand its role beyond being a simple “shield” to the US Navy’s “spear,” analysts said. Data from AMI International shows that the Izumo-class helicopter destroyers (22DDH) and the Soryu-class submarines are the leading programs for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), both in budget and importance to Japan’s maritime security, according to Bob Nugent, affiliate consultant at AMI. Japan unveiled the first of the two planned Izumo-class ships on Aug. 6, 2013 — the largest Japanese warship since World War II — which will be able to carry 15 helicopters. In 2009 and 2011, the Navy also commissioned two new third-generation Hyuga-class helicopter destroyers, each capable of deploying 11 helicopters. Nugent said that at almost 20,000 tons full-load displacement, compared to the Hyuga class at 13,950 tons, the 22DDH are not fully aircraft carriers because they cannot launch, recover and sustain fixed-wing aircraft, meaning they are still helicopter-carrying “destroyers.” Still, they comprise a key step in the JMSDF’s evolution into a force with significant seagoing aviation platforms and capability. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Hirohito: String Puller, Not Puppet
  Oct. 13, 2014 Introduction: Can an Official State Record of War and Occupation Be A Truthful One? Japanese and Chinese translation available below. Herbert P. Bix The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 41, No. 3, October 13, 2014 See also Herbert P. Bix and David McNeill, Selective History: Hirohito's Chronicles Japan Times October 11, 2014; and Norihiro Kato, The Journalist and the Emperor. Daring to Ask Hirohito About His Role in WWII New York Times October 15, 2014. Selective history: Hirohito’s chronicles Much can be learned from revisiting the life and times of imperial leaders of the twentieth-century, particularly those who were one thing in name and another in practice, or who combined power and authority but were neither dictators nor warmongers. The Showa Emperor Hirohito, who reigned from December 25, 1926, to his death on January 7, 1989, was such a person. As imperial Japan’s wartime leader in the years 1931-45, the emperor exerted a high degree of influence and continuous oversight of the policy making process. Working with key individuals in his entourage, he practiced dissimulation, authorized force, and cleaved to a distinctive type of Machiavellianism. A contradictory ruler, he played many roles, and did not always act according to reason. He could caution his closest subordinates to bear in mind his spirit of benevolent rule, then turn right around on the same day and sanction the use of poison gas against Nationalist forces in China. From the moment Japan began its “total war” in China in 1937 his legal and moral responsibility for waging wars of aggression mounted. Again and again he found himself prodding the major players in his oligarchic decision-making process, reconciling differences among them, and gradually becoming a real wartime leader. Along the way, rather than wielding his influence to stop the momentum for war, he kept making one disastrous political decision after another. Now, the release by the Imperial Household Agency on September 9, 2014, of the largest official account of the Showa Emperor’s life, based on a trove of previously inaccessible and in some cases unknown documents and diaries, has made possible new discoveries about the emperor. At the same time the Agency has tried to control public debate both through its own choice of materials and by encouraging selective media reporting and interpretation of its narrative. Because of its many omissions, the new official biography of Emperor Hirohito could be called a monumental effort at concealment, reinforcing prewar myths and raising more questions than it answers. By touching also on the timing of this event, the following article suggests that the Japanese government is still trying to shape historical consciousness in the service of a nationalistic political agenda—just as the U.S. government is attempting to present to Americans a sanitized official history of American war crimes throughout the Vietnam War era. [Japanese colonialism]
• “If we don’t face our past, we’re bound to repeat the same mistakes.” Japanese wartime medical orderly reports on army’s role in maintaining “comfort women” system
  The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 42, No. 1, October 20, 2014. David McNeill introduction, Matsumoto Masayoshi testimony (Japanese and English transcript and video of testimony), translation by Miguel Quintana For years, Abe Shinzo, Japan’s prime minister, has been playing with diplomatic fire over a sordid episode of wartime history that has been at the center of a storm of controversy involving Japan, China, Korea and other outposts of Japan’s empire: the herding of thousands of women across Asia into Japanese military brothels. His decision this year to order an investigation into a landmark government apology to the so-called “comfort women” might have helped end the controversy. Instead, it has further ignited it, which may indeed have been Abe’s intention – he has campaigned for nearly two decades to undermine the apology. The 1993 Kono statement, compiled in consultation with South Korea by Japan’s then chief cabinet secretary Kono Yohei, acknowledged the army’s role in forcing the women into sexual slavery. Nationalists, championed by the Yomiuri, Japan’s most popular newspaper, deny coercion and insist the women voluntarily provided “comfort” to frontline troops. They have repeatedly demanded the withdrawal of the so-called Kono statement, with potentially explosive diplomatic consequences. [Comfort women] [Japanese colonialism]
• Japanese Troops Could Join Operations on Korean Peninsula
  The U.S. and Japan are poised to revise defense guidelines so they can to engage in joint military operations on the Korean Peninsula in an emergency. But the Japanese military will require the approval of the Korean government to conduct operations inside its sovereign territory. The U.S. and Japan in a defense cooperation meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday published an interim report covering the revised guidelines that expand the operational range of Japan's Self-Defense Forces to the Korean Peninsula and beyond in order to support American troops. The revised guidelines will be confirmed as early as the end of this year and become effective early next year after relevant laws are revised. The report says their alliance encompasses not only the Asia-Pacific region but beyond, and pledges that the two countries will cooperate for "regional and global peace." The revisions come after the Japanese Cabinet in July decided to reinterpret the country's pacifist constitution, which marked a major shift in Japan's postwar security policy. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been asserting Tokyo's right to so-called collective self-defense, which allows it to intervene if an ally is in some way under threat. But the Japanese military will probably not be deployed in battles abroad. Unless Tokyo revises the constitution, which renounces war, Japanese troops would only be allowed to handle supply transports and other rear support for U.S. soldiers, as well as intelligence gathering and guard duties. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Invasion]
• Japan’s Decision on Collective Self-Defense in Context
  In the East Asian regional context, Japan’s changing security posture is not the force for peace Tokyo claims it is. By Kawasaki Akira and Céline Nahory October 03, 2014 On July 1, Japan passed a Cabinet decision that fundamentally changes the interpretation of war-renouncing Article 9 of its Constitution to allow the exercise of the right of collective self-defense. Claimed to be part of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s doctrine of “pro-active pacifism,” the move stems from a correlation between Japan’s rising nationalism on the one hand, and joint U.S.-Japan efforts to strengthen their security cooperation on the other, as Washington and Tokyo are renegotiating their defense guidelines for the first time since 1997. The revised guidelines are due by year-end, with an interim report slated to be released next week. Proponents say the Cabinet decision provides only for a “limited” expansion of Japan’s military capability overseas and allows for a strengthened U.S.-Japan cooperation that will make the Asia Pacific region more secure. Abe even claims that “there are no changes in today’s Cabinet Decision from the basic way of thinking on the constitutional interpretation to date.” But is this really so? The Cabinet decision lifts Japan’s restrictions on the use of force overseas. It now allows the country to militarily help a “foreign country that is in a close relationship with Japan,” on the condition that the attack “threatens Japan’s survival and poses a clear danger to fundamentally overturn (Japanese) people’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The use of force should also be limited to “the minimum extent necessary” Vaguely worded, the language of the decision leaves much room for interpretation to determine if and when these criteria are met. For example, Abe claims that taking part in minesweeping operations in the Hormuz Strait would now be allowed, given the fact that more than 80 percent of Japan’s oil transits through the Strait and an oil shortage would fundamentally threaten the nation. [Japanese remilitarisation]

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SEPTEMBER 2014

• EDITORIAL: Abe must keep international pledge not to wage war
  September 29, 2014 In his Sept. 25 speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan will contribute about $50 million (5.5 billion yen) for refugee support and other activities related to the battle against the militant Islamic State. In a news conference held after the speech, Abe said, “The Japanese government will take support measures as much as possible in forms that are not military contributions.” Those measures include humanitarian assistance to refugees and surrounding countries in the Middle East. Abe’s speech and remark showed to the people in Japan and abroad that the government will not be involved in military attacks conducted by the United States and other countries and will limit its support activities to nonmilitary fields. [Abe Shinzo] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• An Appeal from Okinawa to the US Congress: Futenma Marine Base Relocation and its Environmental Impact: U.S. Responsibility
  Hideki Yoshikawa Introduction Much has been written on this site on recent developments in the long-running saga over the U.S. and Japanese governments’ plan to construct a U.S. military air base, the Futenma Replacement Facility (FRF), in Henoko, Okinawa, Japan (Henoko plan).1 On July 1, 2014, 17 years after the plan was first conceived, the Okinawa Defense Bureau (the government of Japan) started the “construction phase” amid protest from local citizens and municipal governments. Just over a month later, on August 14, the U.S. Congressional Research Service released a report, The U.S. Military Presence in Okinawa and the Futenma Base Controversy (the CRS Report).2 The CRS Report provides a useful and up-to-date (though, as noted below, in one major respect incomplete) file of information, paying for the most part due attention to local, national, and international factors. As warned in the CRS Report, the Japanese government is now using “heavy handed actions” to push forward the Henoko plan, escalating the tensions between it and Okinawa.” “Most Okinawans,” the CRS authors write, “oppose the construction of a new U.S. base for a mix of political, environmental and quality of life reasons.” The fact that the governments of Japan and the United States should be committed to a project against the wishes of “most’ of the people of Okinawa should in itself be cause for strong Congressional concern, particularly since a major Okinawan newspaper now writes to ask “if there has ever been a case like this, where the government has trampled on the will of the overwhelming majority of people in a prefecture elsewhere in Japan.” “This,” the Ryukyu shimpo goes on, “is a barbaric action by the government, and so shameful if the international community just stands by.”3 What follows here, however, is not a general disquisition on that “barbarism,” but a focused consideration of the environmental aspects of the base construction plan. What we offer here is the perspective of Okinawan civil society, through the medium of its environmental NGOs. [Okinawa] [Bases]
• Police Surveillance of Muslims and Human Rights in Japan
  Asia-Pacific Journal I. The Hunt for Terrorists and Ethnic and Religious Profiling In societies governed by the rule of law, what limitations should apply to police surveillance? What protections should be accorded to religious and ethnic minorities who may be subject to police profiling? Does police profiling of members of minority groups unfairly discriminate against them or violate fundamental rights such as the right to privacy or to practice religion? Questions like these are at the heart of ongoing litigation in Tokyo concerning police surveillance of Japan’s Muslim community. In recent weeks, two separate United Nations human rights treaty bodies expressed their concern that ethnic and religious profiling by Japan’s police violate fundamental rights. In typically restrained diplomatic language, the UN Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination wrote that “profiling based on stereotypical assumptions that persons of a certain ‘race’, national or ethnic origin or religion are particularly likely to commit crime may lead to practices that are incompatible with the principle of non-discrimination.” The Committee urged the government of Japan to “ensure that its law enforcement officials do not rely on ethnic or ethno-religious profiling of Muslims.”1 Contrary to these recommendations, in a decision rendered in January of this year, Tokyo District Court approved police action based on Muslim profiling, on the ground that it is “necessary and inevitable” in order to protect Japan against the threat of international terrorism.2 The court made no reference at all to international human rights law embodied in treaties ratified by Japan, even though there is no doubt that such law is binding in Japan. Police surveillance of Muslims was brought to the attention of the U.N. human rights panels by the team of Japanese attorneys who represent the plaintiffs in the Tokyo litigation. [Islam] [Human rights]
• Japan-DPRK Progress Stalls...
  September 24, 2014 Japanese Press in Pyongyang last week, covering the visit of Japanese coming to visit the graves of family members in North Korea Japanese Press in Pyongyang last week, covering the visit of Japanese coming to visit the graves of family members in North Korea The question is, "is it a grinding halt or a temporary slowdown?" For the past year, Japan and DPRK looked to be on the way towards repairing a relationship frozen since Prime Minister Koizumi’s visit in 2004. After secret talks that led into formal negotiations, Japan relaxed some of its autonomous sanctions when North Korea agreed to reinvestigate the abductions of Japanese. In the chill of DPRK-China relations, frozen ties with the US and South Korea, this was an perhaps unexpectedly bright spot in Korea’s foreign relations. But it seems that progress has stalled again. Reports by Japanese press indicate that discussions over the preliminary abductee report have broken down. By all indications, the content of the preliminary report, which will be delayed, will not please the Japanese public. It appears that no new information regarding the officially recognized abductees will be released. Japan has signaled that it will reject the results of the preliminary investigation. North Korea has emphasized that full investigations will take a year to complete. [Abductees]
• The Life and Death of Lafcadio Hearn: A 110-year perspective
  Roger Pulvers On the 110th anniversary of the death of Lafcadio Hearn, Roger Pulvers examines the legacy—for Japan and the United States—of Japan's most famous gaijin. A small cage was opened at Lafcadio Hearn’s funeral, setting birds into the air, the soul of the deceased presumably taking flight with them. His coffin was draped in chrysanthemums and fragrant olive, adorned by a laurel wreath. Seven Buddhist priests read the sutras at Kobudera (now Jishoin Enyuji Temple) in Shinjuku Ward’s Ichigaya-Tomihisacho district in Tokyo, where Hearn had frequently strolled among the gravestones. The non-Japanese community was vehemently put off by the choice of venue. As if the officiation of the Buddhist priests wasn’t insult enough, they were enraged by the Occidental’s profane choice of a temple for the funeral. Hearn himself had been a living outrage to the non-Japanese community, a role that he, as an anti-Christian and anti-imperialist, had thoroughly relished. Only three foreigners attended the ceremony. Forty Japanese professors and about 100 students from the two universities at which he had taught — Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) and Waseda University — were also in attendance. However, this gives the wrong impression of his popularity among the Japanese population at the time. In his day Hearn was a virtual unknown in his adopted country. It was outside Japan that he was widely admired as the premier interpreter of the ways of the Japanese, seen ruefully by those in the West and often proudly by the Japanese themselves as far and away the world's most inscrutable people. In the short period of 14 years that he had lived in Japan, he felt that he had become privy to the most deeply cherished secrets of the Japanese mindset. His obituary appeared in a host of American newspapers. On Nov. 26, 1904, two months to the day after his death, The Oregon Journal wrote of him as the “Poet of Japan — he had become Japanese Thru and Tru, tried to hide himself from foreigners and to bind himself closer and closer to his chosen country.”
• The Japan-Korea Solidarity Movement in the 1970s and 1980s: From Solidarity to Reflexive Democracy
  Misook Lee Introduction The Japan-Korea solidarity movement to support the democratization of South Korea was active throughout the 1970s and 1980s in Japan among Korean residents (Zainichi1) and Japanese intellectuals and activists. Korean activists in the democratization movement have recalled the widespread international support of that era (Chi 2003, 2005; Park 2010; Kim 2010; Oh 2012), and Zainichi and Japanese activists have written about their activities in numerous books and memoirs (Chung 2006; Tomiyama 2009; Shouji 2009; Chung 2012). However, the Japan-Korea solidarity movement has been relatively neglected in both Korean and Japanese scholarship. The few academic articles that mention the movement mainly focus on the activities of Zainichi (Cho 2006) and Christians (Lee 2012). This article extends analysis of the solidarity movement to show how its activities led to a process of self-reflection and self-transformation within Japan. [Zainichi] [Democratisation]
• After 62 years, still no diplomatic relations between N. Korea and Japan
  Posted on : Sep.15,2014 16:54 KST Participants sing at Bunkyo Ward Center in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward during a commemorative event on Sept. 13 to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Pyongyang Statement of Sept. 17, 2002. Numerous Japanese civic groups came together for the occasion, including the South Korea-Japan People‘s Solidarity Network. (By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent) N. Korea is hoping Japan will lift more economic sanctions, while Japan apparently waiting for special investigation’s report By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent “We need to come together at a grassroots level in Asia - with the people of South Korea, North Korea, and China - to build peace in East Asia. And we need to normalize relations between North Korea and Japan right now.” Bunkyo Ward Center in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward was the setting for a commemorative event on Sept. 13 to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Pyongyang Statement of Sept. 17, 2002. Numerous Japanese civic groups came together for the occasion, including the South Korea-Japan People’s Solidarity Network. Delivering the keynote report was the network’s co-president, Kenju Watanabe. Remarking on late May’s Stockholm Agreement between Pyongyang and Tokyo, Watanabe said, “The Japanese media is reporting that the aim was to resolve the issue of Japanese abductees, but the reality was different.” “It was a reaffirmation of Japan and North Korea’s commitment to normalizing diplomatic relations,” he explained. Watanabe went on to say that it was “bizarre that diplomatic relations have not been established between the two even now, sixty-six years after the Democratic People‘s Republic of Korea was founded.” “The issue of normalizing relations is directly connected to peace in East Asia, and this needs to be an occasion for making it a reality,” he declared. In the Stockholm Agreement, Pyongyang and Tokyo reaffirmed the Pyongyang Declaration announcing the resumption of talks toward normalizing relations, with North Korea committing to reinvestigating the abductee issue in exchange for Japan agreeing to lift some of its economic sanctions. The event also saw various other reports on the state of North Korea-Japan relations, including a talk by Keisen University professor Lee Young-chae on the historical context of Pyongyang-Tokyo negotiations on normalizing relations. Meanwhile, questions are swirling over the reason for North Korea’s delay in releasing the first report from its special investigation committee, which had been expected around mid-September. There could be a tense behind-the-scenes battle unfolding between North Korea, which is hoping more economic sanctions will be lifted, and Japan, which wants to see what the report says before taking further action.
• Japanese women who have escaped from North Korea find little sympathy at home
  In this undated photo released in 2004, Megumi Yokota stands by a car at an unknown place in North Korea after her abduction from her hometown in Japan. (National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea/Via AP) By Anna Fifield September 15 at 11:50 AM ? OSAKA, Japan — Yoshi Takeuchi realized they had made a mistake as soon as the ferry docked in Chongjin, a major industrial city on North Korea’s east coast. Instead of finding the “paradise on Earth” promised by her ethnic Korean husband, who was being “repatriated” to a country he’d never set foot in, the Japanese woman discovered a dilapidated city in even worse condition than their impoverished neighborhood in post-war Japan. “As soon as we arrived, I said, ‘Let’s get back on the ferry and go back to Japan,’?” recalls Takeuchi, now 80 and living in the western Japanese city of Osaka, having escaped from North Korea after spending 46 years there against her will. “But it was too late. Some of the people on our ferry actually killed themselves when we arrived in Chongjin rather than have to live in North Korea,” she said in the tiny apartment she shares with her 40-year-old daughter, who fled North Korea last year. Takeuchi was part of a wave of about 93,000 people — mostly ethnic Koreans, called “zainichi” here — who moved to North Korea as part of a Red Cross “repatriation” movement between 1959 and 1984, the vast majority of them in the first three years. Several thousand were Japanese women who went with their zainichi husbands, told they could return if they wanted. They could not. [Zainichi] [Media]
• Exclusive: Japan, U.S. discussing offensive military capability for Tokyo - Japan officials
  By Nobuhiro Kubo TOKYO Wed Sep 10, 2014 4:40am EDT (Reuters) - Japan and the United States are exploring the possibility of Tokyo acquiring offensive weapons that would allow Japan to project power far beyond its borders, Japanese officials said, a move that would likely infuriate China. While Japan's intensifying rivalry with China dominates the headlines, Tokyo's focus would be the ability to take out North Korean missile bases, said three Japanese officials involved in the process. They said Tokyo was holding the informal, previously undisclosed talks with Washington about capabilities that would mark an enhancement of military might for a country that has not fired a shot in anger since its defeat in World War Two. The talks on what Japan regards as a "strike capability" are preliminary and do not cover specific hardware at this stage, the Japanese officials told Reuters. Defense experts say an offensive capability would require a change in Japan's purely defensive military doctrine, which could open the door to billions of dollars worth of offensive missile systems and other hardware. These could take various forms, such as submarine-fired cruise missiles similar to the U.S. Tomahawk. [Japanese remilitarisation] [US Japan alliance] [Threat]
• Why Japan’s collective self-defence is so politicised
  2 September 2014 Author: T J Pempel, Berkley On 1 July, the Abe Cabinet issued a reinterpretation of Japan’s longstanding self-imposed ban on the right of collective self-defence. It was justified as a minimalist countermeasure to the increasingly severe security environment posed by a rising China and an unpredictable, nuclearised North Korea. But the reinterpretation fell well short of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s long-cherished goal of formally amending the constitution and eradicating what he and others criticise as the Japan’s over-reliance on US security guarantees as well as its collective naiveté ‘about the minimum necessary measures for our self-defence’. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Abe Shinzo]
• Shinzo Abe looks for allies outside Japan as popularity wanes at home
  Japanese PM’s approval ratings drop following Abenomics finance strategy and reinterpretation of pacifist defence policy • • Anna Fifield for the Washington Post • • Guardian Weekly, Monday 11 August 2014 00.59 BST • Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, greets an audience in Brazil during the last leg of a Latin American tour that included visits to Colombia, Chile and Mexico. Photograph: Andre Penner/AP Japan’s prime minister Shinzo Abe showed off his football skills in Brasilia earlier this month, kicking a ball around with Zico, the Brazilian who once coached the Japanese team. The premier also had a friendly meeting with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and signed some energy deals. When he was in Mexico the week before, Abe and his wife, Akie, visited the ancient ruins in Teotihuacan, where they took photos alongside Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and his wife, Angelica Rivera. Later, Peña Nieto praised Abe’s “bold transformations” of the Japanese economy. Abe returned to Japan last Monday after a 10-day, five-nation tour of Latin America and the Caribbean, the latest trip of his premiership. By the time he touched down in Tokyo, he had visited 47 countries since being elected to his position for the second time at the end of 2012. Abe has rapidly become one of the best-travelled prime ministers in Japanese history. He told reporters at a news conference last month that he has been “working up a sweat” as he travels around the globe, in search of allies to help counter a rising China and energy deals to help power the Japanese economy. But there might be another reason Abe likes to be overseas: the reception he gets abroad is increasingly warmer than that at home. As Abe zipped around Latin America, the news website Japan Today asked its readers whether Abe’s average of two trips abroad each month this year is too many. One respondent said, “In fact, it might not be a bad thing if Abe stayed out of Japan completely.” [Abe Shinzo]
• Can North Korea abduction issue progress improve Abe’s approval rating?
  28 August 2014 Author: Takao Toshikawa, Oriental Economist Report Public backlash to the Abe government’s cabinet decision to recognise the right to collective self-defence, as well as the decision to restart nuclear power, has seen the cabinet’s approval rating to drop below 50 per cent. According to one Democratic Party of Japan Diet member, Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) loss at the Shiga Prefecture gubernatorial election in early July ‘turns the November Okinawa gubernatorial election into a decisive battle. If the LDP candidate loses, the politics of “Abe always wins” will be at an end’. While no Japanese prime minister has resigned because of an approval rating below 50 per cent, Abe undeniably now faces his first test of adversity. There are ebbs and flows in politics, and frequently when the tide turns, things never go back to what they were. Looking back, it may become clear that the turning point for Abe’s political future was approval of the right to exercise collective self-defence, leading to the loss of the Shiga Prefecture gubernatorial election. [Abe Shinzo] [Japan NK] [Abductees]

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AUGUST 2014

• Japan military holds drill as its role expands
  Aug. 19, 2014 - 09:32AM | By Mari Yamaguchi The Associated Press GOTEMBA, JAPAN — Japan’s military is showcasing its ability to defend remote islands, as its role expands at home and abroad under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The military began large-scale annual “Fire Power” exercises on Tuesday at the foot of Mount Fuji. Defense officials said the exercises, which last until Sunday, are aimed at repelling a hypothetical invasion of far-off Japanese islands. Officials said the exercises reflect new defense guidelines that emphasize island defense. Both Japan and China are pressing their claims to a group of disputed uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. Abe’s Cabinet approved in July a reinterpretation of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution, which was drafted under U.S. direction after World War II, to allow the military to defend foreign countries, sharply dividing public opinion. Fighter jets, attack helicopters and tanks, guided missile systems and other artillery fired Tuesday at targets at the base of Mount Fuji, where soldiers demonstrated tactics to fight off foreign invaders. The live-fire exercises involve 2,300 troops, 20 aircraft and 80 tanks and armored vehicles, among other equipment. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Japanese Correspondent Hauled Up for 'Defaming' Park
  The Seoul bureau chief of the Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun appeared for questioning at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on Monday over charges that he defamed President Park Geun-hye. Prosecutors had already banned Tatsuya Kato from leaving Korea and extended the prohibition period, which was set to expire last week. They hope to reach a swift decision whether to indict him in order to avoid escalating diplomatic tensions. In an Aug. 3 article in the online edition of the paper headlined, "Park Geun-hye disappeared the day passenger ferry sank; who was she seeing?", Kato noted that Park disappeared from the radar for seven hours on April 16, when the ferry Sewol sank killing about 250 passengers. [Sewol]
• Korean Businesses Still Lag Behind Japanese Rivals
  Japan's GDP was around four times larger than Korea's in 2013, but the gap in competitiveness between them was even greater. The Federation of Korean Industries said Monday that although some Korean companies were ahead of their Japanese rivals in terms of earnings, the overall gap in competitiveness remains much the same. When it comes to investing in research and development, a 2012 tally by the European Commission showed 353 Japanese companies among the top 2,000 businesses in the world, but only 56 Korean ones. Twenty-nine Japanese companies invested over W1 trillion (US$1=W1,018) in R&D compared to just three in Korea -- Samsung, LG and Hyundai. Among the world's top 100 innovative companies selected by Thomson Reuters last year, 28 were Japanese and only three Korean. Also, 16 Japanese academics won Nobel science prizes, while no Korean has ever won the award. As of 2012, 231 Japanese products ranked at the top of the world in terms of market share compared to 64 Korean products.
• S. Korea still far behind Japan economically
  Posted on : Aug.19,2014 17:22 KST Modified on : Aug.19,2014 17:22 KST Gap has narrowed, but Japan still leads in overall economic clout, and number of top-tier companies By Kwak Jung-soo, business correspondent Companies like Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor may be big enough to rival their Japanese counterparts, but South Korea’s overall economic strength is still far behind Japan’s, a study shows. Figures released on Aug. 18 by the Federation of Korea Industries (KFI) illustrate the economic gap between the two countries. Last year, South Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) was US$1.22 trillion, or about one-quarter Japan’s US$4.90 trillion. Aggregate market value was also one-quarter Japan’s, at 1.24 quadrillion won (US$1.22 trillion) to 4.79 quadrillion won (US$4.71 trillion). In the cases foreign currency transactions and official development assistance, the gap has grown, with South Korea’s levels roughly one-seventh Japan’s.
• Abe's North Korean Advances
  Why Japan Has the United States and South Korea Worried By J. Berkshire Miller August 10, 2014 Before the year is out, the world could witness Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. As absurd as the idea might sound, Abe has repeatedly indicated his willingness to visit Kim, provided that Pyongyang makes some concessions in the long-running saga of several Japanese nationals who were abducted and allegedly brought to North Korea decades ago. An Abe-Kim summit would be greeted with suspicion from the United States and South Korea, who might fear that Tokyo was falling into a North Korean trap meant to weaken trilateral deterrence efforts. North Korea’s intentions must always be assessed cautiously; however, if they do meet and Abe secures a face-saving political concession from Pyongyang, Japan could finally put an end to the Kim regime’s blackmail. [Japan NK] [Media]
• Japanese ministers visit war dead shrine on anniversary of World War Two defeat
  By Minami Funakoshi and Antoni Slodkowski TOKYO Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:39pm EDT Related News • Japan PM sends ritual offering to Yasukuni shrine for war dead (Reuters) - Japanese cabinet ministers paid their respects at a Tokyo shrine seen as a symbol of past militarism on Friday and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also sent an offering, moves likely to anger Asian neighbors and put at risk attempts to improve regional ties. The visit by cabinet officials including Internal Affairs Minister Yoshitaka Shindo to the Yasukuni shrine on the 69th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War Two is likely to prompt more sharp protests from Beijing and Seoul. The shrine honors 14 Japanese leaders convicted as war criminals by an Allied tribunal, as well as Japan's war dead. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent his offering through a representative but had not been expected to visit in person. Abe paid his respects at the shrine in December, sharply chilling ties with China and South Korea. Recent tentative moves to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping have yet to bear fruit. [Yasukuni]
• N. Korean and Japanese foreign ministers meet at ASEAN forum
  Posted on : Aug.12,2014 16:56 KST A few chance encounters between the South and North Korean foreign ministers, but no meeting By Kim Oi-hyun, staff reporter in Naypyidaw and Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent The North Korean and Japanese foreign ministers held their first separate meeting in ten years at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, on Aug. 10. Analysts said the meeting reflected the progress made in recent talks over the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea. In contrast, the North and South Korean foreign ministers had several “encounters” during the event, but no significant meetings. Following his meeting on the afternoon of Aug. 10 with his North Korean counterpart Ri Su-yong, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he had “expressed Japan’s position on security issues such as nuclear and missile development, as well as the special committee’s investigation,” referring to a committee launched in early July by the North Korean government to investigate the abductee issue. “Mr. Ri also talked about North Korea’s position,” Kishida added. [Japan NK] [ARF]
• Why Do We Still Need to Talk About “Historical Understanding” in East Asia?
  Hiroshi Mitani Translated and Introduced by Andrew Gordon
  In Japan today, a spirit of “dislike China; hate Korea” is widespread. Since the summer of 2012, when territorial disputes over the small Senkaku/Diaoyu and Takeshima/Dokto islands became the focus of diplomatic struggle with neighboring East Asian countries, and even more so since the real possibility has emerged of an armed clash with China, a view has spread in Japan that denies the need to keep talking about historical understanding of the first half of the twentieth century. With a sense of impending crisis, and feeling themselves now victimized by their neighbors, people are closing their ears to voices from neighboring countries that criticize Japan for a history now 70 or more years in the past. At the same time, China’s president, Xi Jinping, has recently started a campaign that brings to mind the international relations of 1945 as it renders the alliances and enmities of that time the basis of today’s international order. Ignoring the historical fact that Japan has not once gone to war since the end of World War II, his appeal equates the Japan of today with the Japanese empire of that time. Prime Minister Abe visits Yasukuni Shrine. Amidst these tensions, at the end of 2013 Japan’s Prime Minister, Abe Shinzo, visited the Yasukuni shrine. This was an act that validated Xi’s claims and could not help but damage trust of Japan around the world. But it is hard to say that public opinion in Japan has recognized the danger of his visit. Rather, the more the criticism from neighboring countries, the greater the mood in Japan that supports actions to oppose these critics. Without question, the lack of any large-scale movement to oppose the huge change in the interpretation of Japan’s constitution concerning “collective self defense” stems from anxiety over Japan’s security. In this atmosphere, it is not surprising that it has become difficult to bring up for discussion events now over 70 years in the past. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Japanese colonialism]
• Uprising: Music, youth, and protest against the policies of the Abe Shinzo government
  Noriko Manabe The passage of the Act on Protection of Specified Secrets (Secrecy Law) in Japan on December 6, 2013 was a turning point for many antinuclear and anti-discrimination activists, causing them to shift their energies to protesting Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s policies. This law, which would jail people for inquiring about state secrets even if those secrets had not been so identified, has been flagged by the UN Human Rights Council and the Japan Federation of Bar Associations as compromising the people’s right to know and undermining democracy. When it was passed in the middle of the night on December 6, 2013, about 40,000 protesters had been maintaining a vigil in front of the Diet. On a live internet-radio program on Dommune on July 30, 2014, the activist Bancho1 expressed concern that the Secrecy Law could turn Japan into a “police state” that did not require police to explain the reasons for one’s arrest “because it was secret” (Bancho, Dommune, Tokyo, July 30, 2014). Lawyers like Tamura Yusuke of Asu no Jiyu o Mamoru Wakate Bengoshi no Kai (Association of Young Lawyers for the Protection of Tomorrow’s Freedom) have also highlighted the problematic nature of the Abe Cabinet’s reinterpretation of the Constitution without undergoing an amendment process, which would require a two-thirds majority in the Diet. He argued that the Right to Collective Self-Defense primarily enables overseas wars in cooperation with the United States rather than Japan’s self-defense, which is already constitutionally permitted (Tamura Yusuke, Dommune, July 30, 2014). [Abe Shinzo] [Public opinion]
• Nagasaki mayor questions policy on anniversary of A-bomb
  By Mari Yamaguchi ,AP August 10, 2014, 12:03 am TWN TOKYO -- The mayor of Nagasaki on Saturday criticized Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push toward Japan's more assertive defense policy, as the city marked the 69th anniversary of the atomic bombing. In his “peace declaration” speech at the ceremony in Nagasaki's Peace Park, Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged Abe's government to listen to growing public concerns over Japan's commitment to its pacifist pledge. Thousands of attendants, including U.S. Ambassador Caroline Kennedy and a record number of representatives from 51 countries, offered a minute of silence and prayed for the victims at 11:02 a.m., the moment the bomb was dropped over Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, as bells rang. They also laid wreaths of white and yellow chrysanthemums at the Statue of Peace. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Koreans Flock to Period Flick About War Hero
  "Roaring Currents," the story of Korean history's most astonishing military victory by Admiral Yi Sun-shin, has set new records in the country's cinematic history. In just five days since opening on July 30, the movie has drawn 4 million viewers, the shortest time on record. It already set the record for the most viewers on its first day at 683,072 and surpassed the 1 million mark in just 37 hours, another new milestone. [Japanese colonialism] [Nationalism]
• Japan concerned Pacific security situation getting worse
  By Seth Robson Stars and Stripes Published: August 5, 2014 Growing Chinese military budget may shift power perceptions in Pacific China’s recent announcement that it would increase defense spending by 12.2 percent in 2014 is making some American allies nervous in a region where perception matters and the possible flashpoints are numerous. China blasts Japan’s new self-defense posture as others voice support The illustrations in Chinese state-controlled newspapers of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as Adolf Hitler and Rambo settled any question of how Beijing would react to Tokyo’s decision Tuesday to defend its allies in combat. Japan reinterprets constitution, can defend allies in combat Japan’s ruling coalition adopted a resolution Tuesday that – for the first time in the post-World War II era – will allow the nation’s armed forces to defend the country’s allies in combat. More air confrontations likely as China's Top Guns see elevated role China's new focus on modernizing its air force, navy and strategic nuclear force "reflects lessons learned from watching the U.S. military operation," a Chinese military expert said. TOKYO — Japan’s annual defense white paper says the country’s security environment is becoming increasingly severe amid challenges posed by China, North Korea and Russia. The report, released Tuesday, details national security developments in the past year such as moves to lift a ban on arms exports and expand the role of Japan’s Self Defense Forces. It also lays out plans to strengthen those forces by acquiring new equipment and creating an amphibious brigade and a cyber-defense group. The efforts have been greeted with suspicion by some of Japan’s neighbors, however, former U.S. Pacific Command chief Dennis Blair said last week that Washington welcomes a greater role for Japan’s military. “We strongly support a more normal, more active, more responsible role for the SDFs of Japan,” Blair told a group of Japanese reporters during a visit to Tokyo to discuss the U.S.-Japan Alliance. “Over the past 70 years, Japan has been one of a very small number of the most peaceful and responsible countries in the world,” he said. “Japan has a lot more to contribute to security.” [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Japan's naming of islands adds to tension
  China Daily, August 2, 2014 The Foreign Ministry said on Friday that Japan's unilateral decision to name China's Diaoyu Islands was "invalid" as it persisted in fueling lingering territorial tensions. Japan infuriated China and damaged ties two years ago when it said it was "nationalizing" the islands in the East China Sea, which have been part of China's traditional territory and an important fishery for centuries. The Japanese Cabinet announced on Friday afternoon that the government had given names to "158 unnamed remote islands", including islands in the Diaoyu group. [Diaoyu]

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JULY 2014

• Abe’s Support Dips Below 50% in Fallout Over Easing Pacifism
  By Andrew Davis Jul 28, 2014 9:50 PM GMT+1200 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s approval rating fell to less than 50 percent in at least the sixth survey this month after his effort to ease restrictions on the military sapped his popularity. Support for Abe’s cabinet fell 5 percentage points to 48 percent, the lowest since his election in December 2012, in a poll published today in the Nikkei newspaper. The cabinet’s disapproval rating rose 2 points to 38 percent, the newspaper said. No margin of error was given. The slide in Abe’s popularity accelerated this month after his cabinet on July 1 passed a resolution to reinterpret the pacifist constitution to allow the military to defend allies. The move prompted rare street protests and added to public discontent over a sales tax increase in April. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Abe Shinzo] [Public opinion]
• Why Japan’s Rearmament Might Not Matter
  234234Acrimony and elation erupted on opposing sides of a growing geopolitical rift in the Pacific following Japan’s decision to sidestep its constitution and seek a more aggressive global posture. AP reported that, “Japan’s Cabinet on Tuesday approved a reinterpretation of the country’s pacifist postwar constitution that will allow the military to help defend allies and others “in a close relationship” with Japan under what is known as “collective self-defense.”” Those that remember when last Japan exerted military force beyond its borders are protesting the recent step which they see as yet another attempt to remilitarize the island nation and push it toward participating in yet another disastrous armed confrontation. This includes not only nations that were victims of Japanese imperialism during World War II, but even the Japanese people themselves who paid tremendously in blood and treasure during their ill-conceived attempt at achieving hegemony over the Pacific. Whatever lessons protesters may have learned from history appear lost on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose English speech in Australia sounded suspiciously like various speeches penned for American politicians in regard to the US “Pivot Toward Asia.” But for all the posturing the announcement involved, does Japan’s attempt to rattle its saber actually matter? Why It Might Not Matter Japan is a nation in decline. Its population is both aging and shrinking while its economy is mired in stagnation. Shifting toward greater militarization or cultivating adversarial relations with neighbors like China may be an attempt to rally its population around the flag, but that such a measure even seems necessary spells trouble for Japan. And Japan’s military contributions to whichever nations is applies “collective self-defense” to are moot, considering many of these allies are likewise in permanent decline, including the United States itself. It is unlikely Japan’s contributions will allow the US to break even in its Pacific calculus. America’s attempt to “pivot toward Asia” has experienced many setbacks and delays including the ousting of allied regimes in the region and the ever expanding sphere of Chinese influence chaffing against waning US hegemony. In fact, Japan’s remilitarization may only distract it further from devising sustainable socioeconomic reforms necessary for the nation’s recovery, let alone what it needs to thrive and expand. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Militarisation] [Decline]
• Old Scores and New Grudges: Evolving Sino-Japanese Tensions
  Beijing/Tokyo/Brussels | 24 Jul 2014 The deterioration in relations between China and Japan has spiraled beyond an island sovereignty dispute and risks an armed conflict neither wants. A November regional summit is a fence-mending opportunity – if the two countries’ leaders rise above nationalism and manage multiple flashpoints. A China Coast Guard ship (below) snail as Japan Coast Guard ship is tagging in the contiguous off the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa Prefecture on Sept. 11, 2013. “November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is a chance for the two leaders to meet and smooth troubled waters ... . Both countries should seize it”. Daniel Pinkston, Crisis Group’s North East Asia Deputy Project Director Politically viable options to bridge the wide gap on the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute remain elusive. New frictions have arisen: China’s declaration of an Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) above the East China Sea deepened Tokyo’s anxiety that it desires both territory and a new regional order; Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the Yasukuni Shrine and statements that suggest a retreat from past apologies for the Second World War atrocities reopened old wounds. Asia’s two most powerful countries increasingly prioritise defence build-up over diplomacy. Their law-enforcement vessels, navies and military planes engage in frequent and risky encounters at sea and in the air. Old Scores and New Grudges: Evolving Sino-Japanese Tensions, Crisis Group's second report on the deteriorating relationship, analyses events, actors and dynamics that complicate ties and impede diplomacy. The report’s major findings and recommendations are: •China should instruct the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) navy and air force to refrain from risk-seeking and avoid collisions during patrol, exercise and surveillance. Japan, in turn, should instruct its Maritime and Air Self-Defence Forces (SDF) to take extra caution to avoid collisions or conflict with the PLA. •Japan should continue to urge resumption of the multi-agency, high-level bilateral maritime affairs consultation process and operationalisation of a defence agency communications mechanism. China should drop political conditions for such actions. Both countries should prioritise implementing the non-binding Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) they have agreed on. •China and Japan should establish hotlines between their coast guards, and between the National Security Council (Japan) and the National Security Commission (China), and ensure that those in charge have authority to speedily reach decision-makers and frontline personnel in an emergency. “China should calm anti-Japan rhetoric, delink wartime history from the islands dispute and open senior political channels to Japan” says China Analyst Yanmei Xie. “Japan should avoid actions and comments suggesting revisionist history views”. “November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit is a chance for the two leaders to meet and smooth troubled waters”, says Daniel Pinkston, North East Asia Deputy Project Director. “Both countries should seize it”. [Territorial disputes] [China Japan] [Shill] [Japanese remiltarisation]
• Social Protest in Imperial Japan: The Hibiya Riot of 1905
  Andrew Gordon The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 12, Issue 29, No. 3, July 21, 2014. The following article is a reprint of a unit developed by MIT Visualizing Cultures, a project focused on image-driven scholarship. Click here to view the essay in its original, visually-rich layout. In the coming months the Asia-Pacific Journal will reprint a number of articles on the theme of social protest in Japan originally posted at MIT VC, together with an introduction by John W. Dower to the series. These are the first in a continuing series of collaborations between APJ and VC designed to highlight the visual possibilities of the historical and contemporary Asia-Pacific, particularly for classroom applications. [Imperialism] [Public opinion]
• Seoul and Tokyo face off over mobilization of US troops to Korea
  Posted on : Jul.21,2014 09:18 KST Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks at a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Tokyo, where he announced plans to exercise the right to collective self-defense by altering the interpretation of the country’s Peace Constitution, May 15. At the same time, civic groups protested outside the residence, criticizing Japan for again becoming a country that can wage war. (AP/Newsis) In a contingency situation, Shinzo Abe says U.S. Forces Japan would need Japanese approval for deployment By Yi Yong-in, staff reporter South Korea and Japan held a public battle of nerves over the issue of deployment of the U.S. Forces Japan (USFJ) in the case of a contingency situation on the Korean peninsula. The disagreement has revealed the strained nature of relations between the two countries. The catalyst for the argument was a statement given by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at a July 15 meeting of the Budget Committee in the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the Japanese parliament. In response to a question posed by Your Party member Shigefumi Matsuzawa regarding USFJ deployment in the event of an contingency situation on the Korean peninsula, Abe said, “USFJ deployment is a matter requiring prior consultation [between the U.S. and Japan], so the USFJ cannot provide aid to Korea without Japanese approval.” This is to say that even if there is a contingency situation on the Korean peninsula, the USFJ cannot act if there is opposition from the Japanese government. Abe’s statement might be interpreted as a veiled threat to South Korea. The Japanese press seconded Abe’s statement, saying, “According to the exchange of notes based on the Japan-US Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, military use of the USFJ base is a matter requiring prior consultation between the two countries.” [Bases] [Client] [Japan SK] [US military]
• Abe Must Stop Cozying Up to N.Korea
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has warned Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe off visiting North Korea, concerned that the trip could undermine concerted efforts to pressure Pyongyang over its nuclear program. Kerry called Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and said any such visit would hurt coordination between Tokyo, Washington and Seoul to rein in Pyongyang's missile and nuclear programs. He urged Japan to consult fully with its allies. Washington has also voiced disapproval of Tokyo's easing of sanctions on North Korea.
• Reports: US wants to limit Japan’s contact with North Korea
  Posted on : Jul.17,2014 17:19 KST A N. Korea visit by PM Shinzo Abe could follow, which Washington says could undermine trilateral cooperation with South Korea By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent The US is openly moving to check Japanese contact with North Korea. Indicating that it does not look favorably on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visiting North Korea, the US even said that, if Abe wants to visit the North, prior notification is not sufficient, it also wants to discuss the visit in due format with Japan. In short, the US appears to have said that it will not permit Abe to visit the North. During a telephone conversation with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida on the evening of July 7, US Secretary of State John Kerry strongly discouraged Japan’s overtures to North Korea, the Mainichi Shimbun and other Japanese newspapers reported on July 16. During the conversation with Kishida, which lasted for about 40 minutes, Kerry observed that the US and Japan are allies and asked Japan to maintain transparency in its negotiations with North Korea and to talk about the issue thoroughly in advance, news reports said. Kerry also said that the US wants sufficient deliberations to take place before any decisions are made about Abe visiting North Korea, and that prior notification is not sufficient, newspapers reported. Quoting multiple diplomatic sources in the US and Japan on Wednesday, the Tokyo Shimbun reported that Kerry asked Abe to refrain from visiting the North, since there were concerns that this could undermine solidarity between the US, South Korea, and Japan. [Japan NK] [US global strategy] [Control]
• Reinterpretation of Article 9 a major challenge to peace in North East Asia and the rest of the world
  Posted on July 6, 2014 by kevinclements2012 Reinterpreting Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is a challenge to Peace in North East Asia. Professor Kevin P Clements Director National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies Otago University Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to “ reinterpret” Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution is challenging peaceful relationships in North East Asia and dividing Japanese public opinion. Shinzo Abe decided to “reinterpret” Article 9 because he did not have parliamentary or electorate support to gain a two thirds majority in the Diet and would probably lose a public referendum in support of Constitutional change. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Interpretation]
• Self-immolation Protests PM Abe Overturning Japan’s Pacifist Postwar Order
  Jul. 07, 2014 Jeff Kingston On June 29, 2014 a man set himself on fire in Tokyo to protest PM Abe Shinzo’s bid to lift constitutional constraints on Japan’s military forces and in subsequent days tens of thousands of citizens gathered outside the prime minister’s residence to loudly protest this initiative. Opinion polls, even those conducted by reliably rightwing news organizations, indicate widespread opposition to his renunciation of pacifism and very little support for collective self-defense (CSD). The self-immolation was a gruesome spectacle captured on numerous smart phone videos and disseminated on social media. Good thing because the mainstream media all but ignored the most extraordinary act of political protest in the quarter century that I have lived in Japan. NHK news, the government broadcaster, didn’t even mention the event, apparently playing by Pyongyang rules: ignore any ugly truths that might discredit the powers that be. Since NHK is the dominant media presence, its non-coverage is significant. In his Independent Web Journal, reporter Iwakami Yasumi says that someone at NHK divulged to him that NHK’s blackout was politically motivated, leading him to comment wryly that NHK is a ‘state broadcaster’ not a ‘public broadcaster’. However, TV Asahi did air some footage of the self-immolation and the next morning the television ‘wide shows’ that feature a discussion format probed the event at length, connecting it with Abe’s reinterpretation of Article 9. Sketchy reports did appear soon after the event on various media websites about the unnamed sixty something year old man, noting that he had ranted for about an hour about Abe’s subversion of the constitution, then doused himself with gasoline before torching himself. He was hospitalized. The subsequent print stories in the major newspapers were almost all buried deep in the back sections where crime and human-interest stories dominate. The Chunichi Shimbun provided more in depth coverage, elaborating on what the man said and pointing out that he quoted Yosano Akiko’s anti-war poem, “Don’t Lay Down Your Life”. The symbolism of the man’s defiant act of self-sacrifice was not lost on social media, where videos of his ‘performance’ went viral as did Yosano’s poem. Overall, the major media either ignored or downplayed the event, keeping it out of the limelight and not following up with subsequent analytical stories, despite this being one of the most dramatic political acts since Mishima Yukio’s suicide in 1970 after failing to win public support for his radical rightwing views and proposed coup. Arguably the stakes this time were higher in that Abe’s radical coup was a done deal, a stunning renunciation of Japan’s pacifist postwar order. This made the media’s muted and blinkered coverage all the more striking. When Abe’s spokesperson was asked about the self-immolation on June 30, he shrugged it off, stating that the Cabinet would proceed with its planned reinterpretation the next day. [Japanese Remilitarisation] [Media] [Public opinion]
• Hello Kitty, Hello Wonsan
  By Andray Abrahamian 09 July 2014 Wonsan, on the DPRK’s east coast, by all accounts, used to bustle—at least by DPRK standards. If the recent outreach between Japan and North Korea bears fruit, Wonsan could undergo a 21st century revival. Since Japan banned all trade with the DPRK in the wake of the disastrous Kim-Koizumi summit of 2002, Wonsan has been a shell of its former self. The Mangyongbong 92—the ferry that once brought both goods and people back and forth—has sat moored at the port since 2006, ill-fated ‘Rason luxury cruises’ notwithstanding. Of all the planned Special Economic Zones (SEZs) that were announced last year, however, Wonsan will be the one where real change may take place. Compared to the other zones, it is something of a “national focus” that already has had and will continue to receive more central support than the other SEZs. Wonsan currently boasts the Hyondong Industrial Development Zone, a 2 km-square zone embedded in a much larger Special Tourist Zone. The boundaries for the tourist zone seem to not yet be fixed, but will likely extend west all the way past Masikryong (Masik Pass) Ski Resort to Sinpyong, another already designated special tourist area. Ultimately, some in the DPRK envision a zone that links up with Mt. Kumgang, some 150 km south of Wonsan. They have grandiose plans: attracting $100 million investment in tech and light industry at Hyondong, one million visitors per year to Wonsan, and a new international airport. These expectations are ambitious, to use a generous adjective.
• Cabinet Decision on Development of Seamless Security Legislation to Ensure Japan's Survival and Protect its People
  July 1, 2014 (Provisional Translation) Since the end of World War II, Japan has consistently followed the path of a peace-loving nation under the Constitution of Japan. While adhering to a basic policy of maintaining an exclusively national defense-oriented policy, not becoming a military power that poses a threat to other countries, and observing the Three Non-Nuclear Principles, Japan has flourished as an economic power through continuous efforts of its people and built a stable and affluent livelihood. Japan, as a peace-loving nation, has also been cooperating with the international community and international organizations including the United Nations (U.N.), and has proactively contributed to their activities, adhering to the Charter of the United Nations. The course that Japan has taken as a peace-loving nation has garnered significant praise and respect from the international community, and Japan must continue these steps to further fortify such a position. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Constitution] [Interpretation]
• Japan’s Stealth Militarization
  July 12, 2014 J · Japan military · John Feffer By John Feffer* | July 12, 2014 [Originally published in The Hankyoreh, July 7, 2014] Suicide is not unusual in Japan. In fact, the country has one of the top ten suicide rates in the world. But the recent attempt by a man to commit suicide by self-immolation in the busy shopping district of Shinjuku in Tokyo was a startling departure from the norm. It’s been a long time since someone tried to commit suicide in Japan to make a political point. The middle-aged man sat cross-legged on a girder outside the subway station in Shinjuku. After using a loudspeaker to address the people below, he doused himself with flammable liquid and lit himself on fire. Firefighters immediately put out the flames and rushed him to the hospital. It appears that the man will survive. The protestor was speaking out against moves by the government of Shinzo Abe to provide Japan with a more aggressive military. This anti-militarist message resonates with a large portion of the Japanese population. Since World War II, the country has adhered to a “peace constitution.” In the most famous clause of that constitution, Article 9, Japan renounces the waging of war as a means of resolving international disputes. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• The Inquiry Into The “Abducted Japanese”
  Having given a historical essay on the development of the problem in previous material, we now proceed to the current news, which at a minimum shows a continuation to the dialog. First of all, the DPRK established a special committee to investigate the facts of the kidnapping of Japanese citizens in North Korea. The committee consists of approximately 30 people under the supervision of the deputy minister of public security, So Tae Ha. So Tae Ha is also adviser to the Defense Committee, the highest governing body in North Korea. The Committee is considered to have been given very serious power and has already begun its work. Secondly, on July 4th 2014, in response to the establishment of the above-mentioned Committee, the government of Japan decided to cancel three types of sanctions imposed against North Korea. The following have been canceled: restrictions on tourist exchange between the two countries; the requirement to provide information relating to the transfer of money into North Korea making such transactions extremely difficult; a ban on humanitarian North Korean ships in Japanese ports. [Abductees]

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JUNE 2014

• The issue of North Korea abducting Japanese citizens
  May 29, 2014, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that Pyongyang promised to start a new investigation in to the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korean secret services in the 1970-80s. The agreement was the result of a three-day inter-governmental consultation between Tokyo and Pyongyang recently held in Stockholm. In this regard, the Japanese even promised to cancel some sanctions against North Korea if the North were to reopen an investigation. While Japanese authorities demand to accept the official representatives in DPRK and relatives of the victims organize a rally under the slogan, “do not let the DPRK deceive us again,” we use this event to elaborate to the general reader about the “issue of abduction”, which, in recent decades, is a major stumbling block for Japanese and North Korean relations. We recall that on November 15, 1977 in Niigata 13-year-old M. Yokota was kidnapped and taken to North Korea. Then, if you believe North Korean authorities, from June 1978 to July 1983, another 13 Japanese and Japanese women who were abducted by North Korean agents and secretly taken to the DPRK. From them eight were abducted by North Korean agents and five arrived in North Korea with their own consent. [Abductees]
• Japan, DPRK to meet on abduction issue next week
  Xinhua, June 25, 2014 Japan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) plan to meet next week in China over the abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s as the DPRK agreed earlier to launch new investigations, according to local media Wednesday. Pyongyang will likely inform Tokyo of its establishment of a unit to undertake fresh investigations into the abductions, reported Japan's Kyodo News, citing government officials. The two-day meeting will kick off on July 1 and Song Il Ho, DPRK's ambassador for talks to normalize relations with Japan, is expected to explain the structure of the unit to Junichi Ihara, director general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau at the Japanese Foreign Ministry, said Kyodo. Japan and the DPRK agreed late May that the latter would launch a committee to reinvestigate the whereabouts of the abducted Japanese and Japan, in return, would lift some unilateral sanctions imposed on the DPRK. In 2002, the DPRK admitted to having abducted 13 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, but has repeatedly stated since that the matter has already been settled with Japan, with five of the abductees allowed to return home to Japan and the remaining eight being declared dead. [Japan NK]
• “Kono review will deal fatal blow to Abe”
  Updated : 2014-06-23 19:19 Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong, rights, conveys South Korea's stance on a review of the Kono Statement to Japanese Ambassador to South Korea Koro Bessho at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap By Jun Ji-hye Seoul lodged strong protest Monday over Japan for its review of the Kono Statement that acknowledged Tokyo's wartime sexual enslavement of women. "The Kono review will surely deal a fatal blow to the Shinzo Abe administration in terms of trust and international recognition," Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong said. The ministry called in Japanese Ambassador to Korea Koro Bessho to lodge an official protest against the review. [Comfort women] [Abe Shinzo] [Wishful thinking]
• Korea to Get Tough Over Japanese Revisionism
  The Korean government plans to take aggressive steps in response to a stealthy campaign by the rightwing Japanese government to distance itself from earlier admissions of wartime atrocities. The current gambit is a report by a team of government-appointed experts stating that a 1993 apology for the atrocities only took its present form under pressure from Korea. The apology by then-Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono admits that the Imperial Army was involved, directly and indirectly, in forcing Asian women into sexual slavery for troops. In a peculiar move, Japan's Foreign Ministry swiftly posted an English translation of the report on its website on Friday, even though it was compiled under the prime minister’s office. [Comfort women]
• Japan’s Kono report stirs domestic debate in Japan
  Posted on : Jun.23,2014 16:01 KST Some rightwingers still objecting to Kono Statement’s characterization of comfort women system as compulsory By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent The Japanese government panel’s review report on the Kono Statement is also being fiercely debated inside Japan. Yohei Kono, the former Chief Cabinet Secretary who was the main player behind the release of the 1993 Kono Statement, reiterated in a lecture on June 21 that the “comfort women system was compulsory.” In the Kono Statement, the Japanese government acknowledged the forcible nature of the recruitment of the comfort women and the involvement of the Japanese imperial army. “The comfort women may have been recruited through a variety of means, but once they entered the comfort stations, they had to obey the commands of the military to work. If they couldn’t refuse these commands, it is only natural to view this as being compulsory,” Kono said. [Comfort women]
• [Editorial] Japan’s comfort women provocations warrant a strong response
  Posted on : Jun.23,2014 15:56 KST The official title of the “review report” that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration put out on June 20 was “Details of Exchanges Between Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Regarding the Comfort Women Issue: From the Drafting of the Kono Statement to the Asian Women’s Fund.” It is 25 A4 pages long, cover included. Two of those are the main text, a section titled “The Study Team on the Drafting Process of the Kono Statement etc.: Study Conducted at the Study Meetings.” Attached to this is a 22-page appendix (with table of contents) that describes the circumstances of the statement’s drafting and the Asian Women’s Fund project in South Korea. Just from the way the report is organized, it’s apparent that the things Japan really wanted to say are to be found in its lengthy appendix. Indeed, the main text itself merely notes that the Study Team “concluded that the content of the report was valid, insofar as the documents that were made available during the study process.” The appendix, in contrast, goes to great lengths to show deep South Korean involvement in the Kono Statement’s drafting and the creation and operation of the Asian Women’s Fund, with references to statements made by Presidents Roh Tae-woo (in office from 1988-1993) and Kim Young-sam (1993-1998). It also goes into the details of diplomatic negotiations that Japan itself had proposed keeping confidential, and cherry-picks the parts that make its case best. These tactics are more than just a breach of diplomatic protocol - they’re a show of naked contempt toward South Korea, a declaration of diplomatic warfare. [Comfort women]
• Japan’s Kono disclosure likely to harm relations
  Posted on : Jun.23,2014 16:05 KST Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announces the results of the Japanese government’s review of the Kono Statement at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo, June 20. (Yonhap News) Recently released review report violates diplomatic agreement to keep details of negotiations a secret By Lee Yong-in, staff reporter A Japanese review of the 1993 Kono Statement published on June 20 that unilaterally made public the details of deliberations with the South Korean government not only violated diplomatic protocol but also seriously compromised the little trust that remains between the two countries, critics say. The Kono Statement was the document in which Japan acknowledged that the comfort women had been forcibly recruited by the Japanese imperial army. According to the review report summarizing the government investigation of the statement, it was the Japanese government that first proposed keeping the entire process of deliberations a secret, a proposal that South Korea accepted. Despite this, Japan was also the first to break the gentlemen’s agreement of maintaining confidentiality. Significantly, Japan made public every detail of talks between working-level officials from both countries. In addition, the South Korean government has consistently maintained that Japan was first to ask for deliberations before preparing the Kono Statement, but the Japanese report makes it appear that it was South Korea that first proposed deliberations. [Comfort women]
• Abe hijacks democracy, undermines Constitution
  by Jeff Kingston Special To The Japan Times Jun 21, 2014 By short-circuiting the democratic process, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is abusing the trust put in him by the people. His initiative to reinterpret Article 9 of the Constitution to lift constraints on the Japanese military and permit collective self-defense is the most recent example of how Abe is trampling on Japanese democracy. He and his supporters both in Japan and the U.S. assert that Article 9 is outdated and it is essential that Japan take on a more assertive military role to deal with rising regional threats. These advocates of a more muscular Japanese security posture point out that Japan lives in a dangerous neighborhood and that the limits on Japan’s military actions will undermine the U.S.-Japan alliance. Thus in their view there is an urgent need to allow Japan to participate in military action involving collective self-defense. Fine. If Abe has such a strong case then by all means make it and work toward revising the Constitution. The procedures to do so are laid out in the Constitution, requiring two-thirds approval in both houses of the Diet and a majority of voters in a nationwide referendum. The hurdles are high as they should be so that the fundamental ground rules of Japan’s democratic system are not unduly politicized or changed capriciously; this is serious business. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Constitution] [Democracy]
• [Analysis] Results of Kono Statement investigation to further damage Seoul-Tokyo ties
  Posted on : Jun.21,2014 20:20 KST Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announces the results of the Japanese government’s review of the Kono Statement at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence in Tokyo, June 20. (Yonhap News) Japan will continue to abide by statement, but suggests acknowledgement of forcible mobilization was part of a political deal By Park Byong-su, senior staff writer and Lee Yoo-jin, staff reporter The Japanese government announced the results of its investigation into the Kono Statement on June 20, stating that South Korea and Japan had held deliberations about documents during the drafting of the statement. The report is likely to make it even more difficult for Seoul and Tokyo to repair their relations. Japan did not completely deny or revise the Kono Statement. In fact, on the same day Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga reaffirmed the Japanese government’s intention to abide by the statement. “Nothing has changed about the Japanese government’s position that it will not revise the Kono Statement,” Suga said. Nevertheless, the Japanese government’s review results suggest that a political deal with South Korea was behind Japan’s acknowledgement in the statement that the comfort women had been forcibly recruited to serve as sexual slaves, undermining the statement’s credibility. South Korea is unlikely to passively watch as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tries to dilute the sincerity of historical issues in this way. [Japanese colonialism] [Comfort women] [Japan SK]
• Japan Inches Closer to Severing All Ties with Korea
  The Abe administration plans to submit a report to the Diet this week claiming that a 1993 apology for Japan's wartime atrocities was only produced in its present form under pressure from Korea. Back in 1993, the Japanese government spent 18 months researching involvement by the Japanese military in forcing women to serve as sex slaves to Japanese troops during World War II and admitted its wrongdoings in a statement delivered by then-Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono. It was the first time that Japan admitted the forced mobilization of women as sex slaves. The Kono Statement forms one of the two pillars that have maintained a fragile working relationship between Seoul and Tokyo over the last two decades. The other pillar is a statement in 1995 by then-Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama who apologized for Japan's colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. The Abe administration has attempted to undermine the apology since it came to power in December 2012, and these efforts continue by fair means or foul. According to Japanese media, the report to the Diet will stipulate Tokyo's claim that the Kono statement was the result of "political dealings" between Korea and Japan. The statement said the so-called "comfort stations," a euphemism for the military brothels, were created at the "request" of Japan's imperial military during World War II, but the report claims that Japan wanted the word "intention" while Seoul insisted on "order" or "instruction" so "request" was an inevitable compromise. The Abe administration clearly intends to portray the Kono statement as the result of Korean pressure rather than objective research. The Korean government denies the allegations, saying it provided data but did not negotiate the wording. And even if there was discussion between the two sides, they were part of diplomatic practice common to any countries and should not be targets of the Abe administration's campaign to discredit the Kono Statement. The Abe administration's goal is simple: to disown responsibility for the atrocities Japan committed in World War II. The Kono Statement officially admits responsibility, so it has to go. The forced mobilization of women as sex slaves during World War II was an act of unspeakable depravity. Yet the Abe administration seems intent on stooping even lower to duck responsibility. At Washington's behest, Seoul and Tokyo have been taking baby steps to mend frayed relations, but the latest action by the Abe administration falls little short of an official attempt to sever all diplomatic ties.
  Tokyo must realize that it is driving the situation to a point of no return. If the trilateral security alliance between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo breaks down, the blame will go to Shinzo Abe and his gang of revisionist thugs. [Abe Shinzo] [Vituperation] [Japan SK]
• North Korea should return abducted Japanese before summit: minister
  North Korea should return all the Japanese people abducted by the communist country first before Japan's prime minister could visit Pyongyang for a summit meeting, a Tokyo minister said Tuesday. A summit meeting would take place in the last stage and the key prerequisite for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to North Korea is that all the abducted Japanese people come home, said Keiji Furuya, the minister in charge of the abduction issue, in an interview with the Washington-based Voice of America. [Japan NK] [Abductees]
• Japan Keeps Chipping Away at Apology for Wartime Crimes
  The Japanese government will submit a report to the Diet this week claiming that a 1993 apology for Japan's wartime atrocities only admitted active involvement by the Japanese military in forcing women to serve as sex slaves to Japanese troops because of pressure from Korea. The move appears part of a long-running campaign by the rightwing government in Tokyo to undermine the apology, known as the Kono statement, and even if true would breach diplomatic protocol in unilaterally revealing details from negotiations on a sensitive diplomatic issue. But Seoul on Sunday said the Kono Statement was the result of Japan's own decision and warned it would respond firmly if the Abe administration attempts to whitewash the statement. [Japanese colonialism]
• High hurdles for Japan and North Korea to resolve the abduction issue
  11 June 2014 Author: Owen Lindsay, University of South Australia On Thursday 29 May, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that North Korea has agreed to launch a reinvestigation into the fates of Japanese citizens abducted by DPRK agents during the Cold War. The surprise announcement followed a three day meeting between the Japanese and North Korean governments in Stockholm and comes after a decade of North Korean opposition to further investigation of the abduction incidents. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends the Upper house diplomacy and Defense committee session in Tokyo on 29 March 2014. Abe announced that North Korea has agreed to launch a reinvestigation into the fates of Japanese citizens abducted by DPRK agents during the Cold War. (Photo: AAP) The North Korean ‘special investigation committee’ is expected to commence in a few weeks, with the survey projected to conclude sometime this year. Resolving the abduction issue is one of Abe’s most cherished political goals. More than hollow populism, the issue appears to be one with which Abe is genuinely concerned. He campaigned for Kim Jong-il’s explicit admission of the DPRK’s guilt in the 2002 Pyongyang Declaration as well as the government’s decision not to return the five surviving abductees to North Korea following their initially temporary visit home. His first term as prime minister in 2006–2007 was won largely on the back of his proactive attitude toward the abductions, and throughout his present second term his jacket is almost always adorned with the ‘blue ribbon’ badge symbolising the abductions cause. Yet, while a comprehensive resolution may be Abe’s ultimate goal, it is difficult to imagine how any finding of North Korea’s reinvestigation committee could constitute a conclusion to the issue. [Japan NK] [Abductees]
• Abe prepared to visit DPRK for abduction issue
  Japanese State Minister in charge of abduction issue Keiji Furuya said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is prepared to visit the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) if it could help resolve the abduction issue, local media reported late Wednesday. "The prime minister says he is ready to meet with First Secretary Kim Jong Un fairly and squarely, if it is truly for resolving the abduction issue, not for talks for the sake of talks, " Furuya was quoted as saying in a TV program. But the minister did not unveil when or where the prime minister made the remarks, said Japan's Kyodo News. Abe, however, had downplayed the possibility to visit the DPRK before his departure to Europe earlier the month by saying that it is "too early to make a decision on that." But meanwhile, local reports said that the Japanese government consulted with relevant U.S. officials regarding the conclusion of talks held between Japan and the DPRK in Stockholm last month, as the DPRK had committed to conducting a full investigation into the abduction issue. Japan, for its part, has agreed to lift some of its sanction on the DPRK, including those pertaining to human travel, wire transfers and vessels entering ports here. In 2002, the DPRK admitted to having abducted 13 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, but has repeatedly stated since that the matter has already been settled with Japan, with five of the abductees allowed to return home to Japan and the remaining eight being declared dead. [Abe Shinzo] [Abductees]
• Japan’s Article 9 and Economic Justice: The Work of Shinagawa Masaji1
  By Komori Yoichi Translation by Miho Matsugu Introduction by Norma Field On June 10, 2014, the Article 9 Association marks its tenth anniversary, more than ever embattled and determined. As illustrated by Alexis Dudden’s recent article on this site, “The Nomination of Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution for a Nobel Peace Prize,” business people figure in the broad swath of “Japanese people who conserve Article 9” recognized as worthy of consideration for the Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Shinagawa Masaji, the subject of this memorial tribute by prominent modern literature scholar and executive secretary of the Article 9 Association Komori Yoichi, was surely the dean of progressive financial leaders of the postwar era. English-language readers who follow Japan are likely to be aware of the political clout of Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), which not so incidentally supports Constitutional revision. Miho Matsugu’s generously annotated translation* of Komori’s tribute to Shinagawa following his death in August of 2013 provides a glimpse of an association, Keizai Doyukai, or Japan Association of Corporate Executives, that has often projected a contrasting sense of mission. Given the neo-liberal furor reigning over the ever bellicose US and its client state Japan (to borrow Gavan McCormack’s designation, as in “Japan’s Client State (Zokkoku) Problem”), we are right to be painfully aware of the limited capacity of capitalism to benefit all human beings—not to mention our home the earth. It is all the more refreshing, then, to learn not only about Shinagawa’s commitment to the “no-war clause” but also his years of union activism and espousal of “revisionist capitalism.” His example prompts wide-ranging comparison, whether to Nordic models (see the intriguing comparison recently published on this site of Sweden and Japan’s policies in the face of financial crisis) or in another era of US capitalism, Henry Ford’s brand of investment in anti-union employee well-being and espousal of pacifism, albeit a pacifism fundamentally flawed by anti-Semitism. [Article 9]
• Japan underreports 640 kg unused plutonium to IAEA
  Xinhua, June 8, 2014 Anti-nuclear protesters hold banners saying "No Nukes" before they march in Tokyo March 9, 2014. The Japanese government has not declared about 640 kg of unused plutonium in its annual report for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 2012 and 2013, an amount enough to make 80 nuclear bombs, local media reported Saturday. Japan claims to own 44 tons of plutonium, while the actual amount is 45 tons, said Japan's Kyodo News Agency. The unreported plutonium is part of the plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel placed at an offline reactor in a nuclear plant in Saga Prefecture, southern Japan. The MOX fuel was loaded in March 2011, shortly before the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis happened later that month. Until two years later, the unused fuel was taken out from the reactor which remained offline. [Plutonium]
• In Stockholm talks with Japan, N. Korea says it’s keeping its nukes
  North Korea and Japan hold director-general level talks in Stockholm, Sweden seeking a resolution to the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea, May 26. Pyongyang and Tokyo reportedly focusing on resolving abductee issue, with nuclear weapons not on the table By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent North Korea told Japan at government talks last month that it has no plans of giving up its nuclear program, Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun newspaper reported. Mainichi indirectly quoted a North Korean official who attended the talks on May 26-28 in Stockholm as saying that “nuclear weapons development and economic recovery are most important. We are absolutely not giving up our nuclear weapons.” The remarks could be a reiteration of the so-called “two-track approach” announced by Pyongyang in March 2013 - pursuing nuclear and economic development side-by-side - while also making it clear that the nuclear issue was not on the table for discussion with Japan. The remark drew an interesting response from Japan. According to the Mainichi Shimbun, the Japanese government required that Pyongyang hold off on the “new type of nuclear test” it had announced, which many took as an allusion to an upcoming fourth nuclear test. While no information is available on the conversation that ensued between representatives at the talks, what is clear is that the words “nuclear program” and “missile” appear nowhere in the agreement that was released on May 29. A subsequent press conference by Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga focused only on the broader principle of “achieving a comprehensive resolution to various issues based on the Pyongyang Declaration of 2002, including abductions of Japanese citizens, nuclear weapons, and missiles, and proceeding toward normalization of diplomatic relations.” One possible take on this is that Tokyo doesn’t intend to directly tie any resolution of the abductee issue - or the lifting of its own sanctions against North Korea as a result - to the nuclear issue. Since returning to office as Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe has repeatedly announced his plans to address the abductee issue. Now it appears that he has decided to separate that issue from the nuclear one, which would be more or less impossible to resolve during his term in office. Meanwhile, Japan’s Jiji Press reported on June 4 that Junichi Ihara, the director general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asia-Pacific bureau and senior representative to last month’s talks in Sweden, would be visiting Washington as early as next week. While there, Ihara is expected to meet with US special representative for North Korean policy Glyn Davies to explain the agreement with Pyongyang to reinvestigate the abductee issue and lift some independent sanctions against North Korea, and to ask for Washington’s understanding. [Japan NK] [Nuclear weapons]
• Abe Eyes Visit to N.Korea
  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering a visit to Pyongyang to solve the issue of the victims of North Korean abductions, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday. The North carried out a bizarre campaign from the 1970s and 80s to abduct dozens of Japanese citizens and turn them into instructors for spies. At the House of Councilors Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense, Kishida said, "We should always try to find effective ways to solve the abduction issue. We're also thinking of a visit to the North by the prime minister." But no decision has been made yet, he added. Abe told reporters it would be too soon to comment. The issue carries a huge emotional charge in Japan and is a sure vote winner for any government that manages to solve it. [Japan NK] [Abductees]
• Japan to Invite N.Korean Officials to Tokyo
  The Japanese government will invite North Korean officials for talks about reinvestigating the North's bizarre campaign in the 1970s and 80s to abduct Japanese citizens. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Monday said Japan will "invite North Korean officials to Japan" and "seek more information about Pyongyang's promised reinvestigation" of the whereabouts of Japanese nationals it abducted decades ago.
• What is N. Korea offering Japan on the abductee issue?
  Posted on : Jun.2,2014 15:58 KST North Korea and Japan hold director-general level talks in Stockholm, Sweden seeking a resolution to the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea, May 26. Japanese newspaper reports N. Korean officials as ensuring that a reinvestigation “would produce results” By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent Does North Korea have something to offer Japan on the abductee issue? On May 31, Japan’s Nikkei newspaper reported that North Korea had made statements at government talks with Japan late last month suggesting that it was acquiring information on surviving Japanese abductees. According to Nikkei, North Korean representatives ensured their Japanese counterparts that a reinvestigation “would produce results” at the meeting in Stockholm on May 26-28. According to some Japanese government officials, Japanese representatives were taking the remarks as a signal of information about the surviving abductees, and demanding that Pyongyang produce a list of survivors to back it up. Rather than answering, North Korea’s response has been to hint at the presence of Japanese residents and refer to “specific locations in North Korea,” the sources said. The situation suggests that Pyongyang went into the talks with Japan having already taken steps to produce something to satisfy the public on the abductee issue. One potential “card” could be a dramatic event like the “return of any survivors discovered,” as mentioned in the May 29 agreement. [Abductees]
• Japan-N.Korea Thaw Could Weaken Int'l Sanctions
  There are concerns that international cooperation to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons and missiles could be in jeopardy if Tokyo lifts trade sanctions against the North. Tokyo and Pyongyang agreed last Thursday that Japan will lift sanctions imposed on the North if Pyongyang investigates a bizarre abduction campaign of Japanese people during the 1970s and 80s. Currently, trade between Japan and the North is at zero after Tokyo banned imports from the isolated country in 2006 and exports to it in 2009 over its nuclear and missile programs. In 2000, Japan was the North's second largest trading partner with a trade volume of US$438 million accounting for 19 percent of the North's entire annual trade volume, a close second after China's $484 million. In 2001 Japan gave the North rice and other humanitarian aid, bringing the figure to $1.2 billion ahead of China's $721 million. A researcher at a think tank said given that North Korea's trade volume was $7.3 billion last year, trade between Tokyo and Pyongyang could jump to $1 billion if Japan partially lifts sanctions and to $2 billion if it lifts them completely. This would seriously undermine the sanctions imposed by other countries. [Japan NK] [Sidelined]
• Seoul cautious over NK-Japan deal to ease sanctions
  By Kang Seung-woo South Korea expressed concern Friday over Japan's deal to relax sanctions against North Korea amid worries that the move could derail efforts to denuclearize the North. While inter-Korean relations and denuclearization of North Korea remain stalled, rapid progress in ties between Pyongyang and Tokyo may limit Seoul's policy toward the North. Seoul's dilemma has grown since President Park Geun-hye's "trustpolitik" has had little results and her Dresden proposal provoked a backlash from the North. "We understand the importance of the abduction issue in Japan's diplomacy," a senior South Korean diplomat said. "But now is an important time for South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia to cooperate for North Korea to be denuclearized and prevented from advancing its nuclear capability." Ministry of Unification spokesman Kim Eui-do told a briefing: "We do not know how inter-Korean relations will unfold and we are watching closely." [Japan NK] [Sidelined]
• Quakes in Japan's pacifism
  Japan's prime minister is attempting to revise constitutional pacifism to allow for strengthening of armed forces. Last updated: 30 May 2014 09:59 Akira Kawasaki Celine Nahory PM Shinzo Abe aims to beef up rules of military engagement to allow the Self-Defence Force to use force overseas [AFP] On May 15, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made public his plan to gut the country's peace constitution by allowing its Self-Defence Force (SDF) to use force overseas. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has long sought to amend Article 9, which renounces war and prohibits maintenance of war potential, the economic capability of a nation to wage war, through an overall constitutional revision. However, due to significant public opposition, Abe has changed his strategy and is now trying to revise not the text of the constitution, but its interpretation. Such a move would make the fundamental peace clause a dead letter and signal a sharp departure from Japan's traditionally restrained defence policy. Abe's plan is to change Article 9's interpretation through a cabinet decision without approval by the Japan's parliament called the National Diet in the coming months. This backdoor tactic has attracted much criticism, even among those who support an eventual amendment for bypassing the formal procedure for constitutional revision, which requires a national referendum. It remains unclear whether Abe will get his way, since ruling coalition partner New Komeito, a Buddhist party, strongly resists the move. There are also significant voices of concern within the LDP about a process that neglects the formal Diet procedure. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Abe Shinzo]
• N.Korea-Japan Agreement Takes Seoul by Surprise
  Japan has decided to lift sanctions imposed on North Korea in 2006 after Pyongyang promised to investigate a bizarre campaign from the 1970s and 80s to abduct Japanese citizens. Pyongyang and Tokyo made the announcement on Thursday following meetings earlier this week. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters Thursday evening, "This is a first step toward an overall resolution" to the long-festering issue of the abductions. North Korea even mentioned the possibility of normalizing diplomatic relations and humanitarian assistance from Tokyo. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks to the media at his official residence in Tokyo on Thursday. /AP-Newsis Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks to the media at his official residence in Tokyo on Thursday. /AP-Newsis South Korea was apparently blindsided by the agreement and worries that it will seriously weaken international efforts to pressure North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. Officials here are stumped by Tokyo’s unilateral breakaway from the sanctions regime. A government official here said, "There are areas of the agreement that the government here may find sensitive to accept. We have no reason to block Japan's efforts to investigate the abductions of its citizens, but there has not been enough communication between [South] Korea and Japan on the matter." Japan has repeatedly hinted it could lift its sanctions against North Korea if the North is willing to investigate the abductions and reveal what became of the victims. There have also been calls from within the Japanese government to improve ties with North Korea in order to gain more leverage in negotiations with South Korea. But few officials here had expected Japan to take such a bold unilateral step amid U.S. efforts to tighten regional cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo and even Beijing in pressuring Pyongyang to scrap its nuclear weapons. [Japan NK] [Sidelined] [Abductees]
• Substance of Agreement at DPRK-Japan Inter-Governmental Talks
  Pyongyang, May 30 (KCNA) -- Substance of the agreement reached at the DPRK-Japan inter-governmental talks held in Stockholm, Sweden on May 26-28, 2014 is as follows: Both sides had an in-depth discussion on the issues of settling the inglorious past, settling pending issues and normalizing the bilateral relations according to the DPRK-Japan Pyongyang Declaration. The Japanese side requested the DPRK side to conduct a survey of all Japanese including the remains and graves of the Japanese who died in the territory of the DPRK before and after the year 1945 and the remaining Japanese, Japanese spouses, victims of abduction and missing Japanese. The DPRK side appreciated the Japanese side's recognition of the efforts made by the DPRK to settle the abduction issue in the past and expressed the willingness to conduct a comprehensive and full-scale survey for all the Japanese for the final settlement of all issues related to Japanese though there is its previous stand. According to this, the Japanese side voiced its intent to finally lift the measures against the DPRK (sanctions) which it is slapping on its own at present. (The measures taken as regards resolutions of the UNSC are not included.) [Japan NK]
• North shakes up abduction deal
  Link to Chongryon HQ building sale not what we agreed to: Suga Kyodo May 30, 2014 Although no deadline was set for North Korea’s promised probe into the fate of Japanese abducted by the hermit state, the review should be complete by this time next year, Japan’s top government spokesman said Friday. “We haven’t confirmed the details, but we told them that it can’t take too much time, and they are aware of it,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. But North Korea’s chief negotiator muddied the waters the same day by saying Japan had agreed to halt the sale of North Korea’s de facto embassy in Tokyo, which Suga denied. On Thursday, Japan and North Korea announced that Pyongyang had agreed to investigate what happened to Japanese who were kidnapped by North Korean agents decades ago. North Korea admitted in 2002 to having abducted 13 Japanese nationals but has repeatedly declared the issue settled after allowing five of them to return to Japan the same year. The others, it said, were dead. In return for a full-scale investigation, Japan is preparing to ease its unilateral sanctions on North Korea, including those restricting travel to Japan and cross-border remittances. [Japan NK]
• Abe taking gamble by trusting North Korea
  by Reiji Yoshida and Mizuho Aoki May 30, 2014 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is taking a big gamble by trusting North Korea, the world’s most isolated nation and one with a notorious record of betrayal and delaying tactics designed to elicit greater concessions. In a potential breakthrough, Pyongyang has agreed to reinvestigate the fates of Japanese who vanished in North Korea, including those suspected of being abducted by its agents, Abe said Thursday. In return, Tokyo has pledged to lift certain economic sanctions if the investigation begins and may even extend economic assistance to Pyongyang if the probe generates tangible results, according to the bilateral agreement signed and released on Thursday. But many fear the North’s apparent readiness to cooperate may be just another tactic to ease its international isolation and secure economic aid. If the Abe administration makes a compromise that is poorly thought through and ends up giving Pyongyang cash, observers say that Abe will likely be in trouble. “The Japanese side took a bold step, although the prospect is not clear at all,” said Masao Okonogi, a professor at Kyushu University who is a noted Korea expert. “If, say, only one (abductee) is returned, the Abe administration would face severe criticism at home. It’s a big risk for the prime minister,” Okonogi said. For example, Pyongyang agreed in 2008 to open an investigation into Japanese thought to have been kidnapped by its agents, but later reneged on the promise. [Japan NK]
• China frets over Japanese nuclear program
  By Hui Zhang Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing. At the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit held in The Hague in March, Japan agreed to turn over to Washington hundreds of kilograms of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, some of which would have been ideally suited for use in nuclear weapons. This was an important victory in global nuclear security efforts for which Japan should be commended. Unfortunately, Japan still stores 9 tonnes of separated plutonium at home and 35 tonnes in Britain and France - enough for thousands of nuclear weapons [Japanese remilitarisation] [Nuclearisation] [Plutonium]
• Pyongyang’s New Overtures and Abe’s Diplomacy
  By Sheila A. Smith 31 May 2014 Recent meetings between Japan and North Korea have prompted concern about whether Prime Minister Abe may be departing from the US and South Korea in its dealings with Pyongyang. Japanese and North Korean officials met on March 30-31, 2014 in Shenyang, China, and again on May 26-28 in Stockholm, Sweden. On May 29, Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced that Pyongyang had agreed to reopen its investigation into the whereabouts of the remaining Japanese citizens believed to have been abducted by the North Korean government. [Japan NK]

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MAY 2014

• MAJOR SECURITY SHIFT: Eight scenarios up for coalition discussion on collective self-defense
  May 24, 2014 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN The government has offered eight possible situations requiring Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense, hoping the junior coalition party will approve just one to prompt a Cabinet decision on the issue, sources said. The eight scenarios involve the Japanese Self-Defense Forces landing on the territory of a different country, an act that could lead to an unlimited expansion of SDF activities abroad, the sources said May 23. The Abe administration is seeking to reinterpret the pacifist Constitution to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense. However, New Komeito, the smaller party in the ruling coalition, has expressed opposition to what would be a sea change in the nation’s postwar security policy. The eight are among 15 cases, split into three categories, that will be shown to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito for talks on May 27. The coalition parties plan to first discuss the three scenarios in the first category covering “gray-zone situations,” in which a war has not occurred but it is difficult for Japanese police or the Japan Coast Guard to deal with the situation under existing legislation. The second category covering four situations concerns international cooperation, including United Nations peace-keeping operations (PKO) in which SDF members could use weapons. The third concerns Japan exercising the right to collective self-defense in eight situations, including the use of force to protect a different country even if Japan has not been directly attacked. One of the eight scenarios involves a war breaking out on the Korean Peninsula. SDF members would enter combat zones on the peninsula to rescue Japanese citizens after obtaining permission to land from the South Korean government. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• As Asia frets over China, warmer welcome likely for Japan PM's push
  By Rachel Armstrong and Linda Sieg SINGAPORE/TOKYO Thu May 29, 2014 5:46am EDT (Reuters) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's message of a bigger global security role for Japan when he speaks at a regional forum this week is likely to find a receptive audience as concerns grow in Asia about China - although some will refrain from clapping too loud for fear of offending Beijing. While Japan has a festering dispute with China over islands in the sea between the two Asian economic giants, tensions have also spiked between Beijing and several Southeast Asian nations over rival claims to the oil and gas-rich South China Sea. Abe is to deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Friday, a forum for defense and security experts from Asia, including the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the United States and Australia. The conservative prime minister is expected to explain his stepped-up push to lift a ban that has kept Japan's military from fighting overseas since World War Two. "Tensions are rising in the Asia-Pacific. I want to send a message to the world about Japan's pro-active contribution to peace based on international cooperation," Kyodo news agency quoted Abe as telling a parliamentary panel on Thursday. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• North Korea agrees to launch a full-scale Japanese abductee probe
  In exchange for investigation Japan pledges to lift its sanctions against Pyongyang May 29th, 2014 Kosuke Takahashi Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday announced that North Korea has agreed to launch a re-investigation into Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents in late 1970s and early ’80s. “During (the) Japan-North Korea official talks in Sweden, North Korea promised Japan to conduct a comprehensive and full-scale investigation into abductees and other missing persons cases,” Abe said at a nationally televised press conference on Thursday. [Abductees] [Sanctions]
• Abe’s quest for collective self-defence: will Asia’s sea lanes bind or divide?
  25 May 2014 Author: Sourabh Gupta, Samuels International It has been a long-standing lament of national security conservatives in Tokyo that Japan failed to take advantage when the opportunity presented itself in the mid-1980s to extend the range of its maritime patrols across the full length of the ‘oil line’ from the Persian Gulf through the Straits of Malacca to Northeast Asia. The United States would have favoured it; the Southeast Asians, witnessing the Maritime Self Defense Force’s (MSDF’s) restraint and discipline, would have embraced it; and even China would have tolerated it given the Soviet Navy’s unwelcome presence at Cam Ranh Bay. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Re-visiting Japan’s constitution
  26 May 2014 Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum The debate on the reinterpretation of the Japanese constitution is looming to be the single most consequential security-related debate in Tokyo since the US-Japan Security Treaty debate in 1960. Japanese Prime Minister Abe has compounded matters by choosing a hand-picked ‘panel of experts’ (the Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security — or the Security Advisory Committee) which was heavy on national security expertise but light on the constitutional implications of what it proposes. As a result, the panel’s report, released in Tokyo on Thursday a week ago, has left many Japanese constitutional experts aghast at the constitutional imbroglio engineered by the security experts to justify a reinterpretation of Article 9 (the ‘peace’ clause in the Japanese constitution). Of particular concern is the logical tautology that Japan can reinterpret the constitution to allow for a broad-scoped exercise of the right to collective self-defence because it falls within the minimum necessary level of self-defence that is already permissible under Article 9. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• News Analysis on Japan's Bid for Exercise of "Right to Collective Self-Defense"
  Pyongyang, May 23 (KCNA) -- Some days ago, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe formally expressed the stand to exercise the "right to collective self-defense" through revised interpretation of the country's Pacifist Constitution. It meant that Japan will fundamentally change its security policy which has been abided by since its defeat in World War II. The successive governments in Japan had so far maintained the principle that the "right to collective self-defense" is secured but not exercised under the Article 9 of its Pacifist Constitution, which bans Japan from possession of army and provocation of war. However, the present government has stuck to the revision of the Constitution since its emergence, asserting that Japan should get rid of "postwar regime." Such attempt has aroused a strong opposition from among the local people. 58 percent of the Japanese population stood against the revision of Article 9 in June last year and the figure increased to 61 percent in April this year, according to Tokyo Shimbun. Upset by the rising public opposition, the government produced a counterproposal to exercise the "right to collective self-defense" through revised interpretation of the Constitution, veiling its scheme for military expansion with "positive pacifism". What can not be overlooked are Japanese media reports that the proposal anticipated Japan's exercise of the said "right" on the Korean Peninsula. [Japanese remilitarisation] [CSD]
• North Korean secret police in touch with Japan
  TOKYO -- A North Korean intelligence agency has been in communication with Japan, raising hopes that Pyongyang will comply with Tokyo's request to reinvestigate the whereabouts of Japanese nationals abducted decades ago. Bilateral talks began this January. North Korea's State Security Department has been in contact with Japan, and representatives of the agency are expected to attend the next round of discussions in Stockholm next Monday through Wednesday. The two countries last held official talks in Beijing at the end of March.
• Abe's push for collective self-defense faces domestic resistance
  By Chung Min-uck Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe justifies Japan's collective self-defense review during a news conference at his residence in Tokyo on May 15. / Yonhap It seems that an endorsement alone by Washington, Tokyo's main ally, is insufficient for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to railroad through his key agenda to exercise the nation's right to collective self-defense, experts said, Tuesday. Last week, the right-wing prime minister announced Japan's plan to review the "administrative" interpretation of the Pacifist Constitution that has long banned the country from exercising the right which is approved by the United Nations. If exercised, the right would allow Tokyo to fight beyond its borders if one of its allies comes under attack. Among the key regional players in Northeast Asia, only the United States welcomed the move while the two Koreas and China voiced concern, saying the former colonial ruler might be returning to an era of imperialism. However, more importantly, the biggest obstacle standing in the way of Abe is resistance from within, according to experts. Not to speak of challenges from political opponents including Japan's main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, Communist Party of Japan and the Social Democratic Party, there is a split with his ruling Liberal Democratic Party's (LDP) coalition partner, the New Komeito Party. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• INSIGHT: The deep roots of Abe's drive for collective self-defense
  March 03, 2014 THE ASAHI SHIMBUN A frustrated Japanese academic and a former diplomat decided to distribute a book to politicians to bolster Japan’s security policy and end the nation’s sense of helplessness experienced in the 1990s. The two agreed in the summer of 2001 that something should be done to put Japan on a more equal footing with its superpower ally, the United States. When asked who should be the first person to receive the book about the right of collective self-defense, the former diplomat named a promising young politician only in his third term as a Lower House member. “Shinzo Abe, because he does not waver,” the former diplomat said. More than a decade later, Abe is forging ahead with his plans to change the interpretation of the pacifist Constitution to lift Japan’s self-imposed ban on exercising the right of collective self-defense. His push for changing Japan’s decades-long policy has been years in the making. Using long-time supporters, he has stacked the deck in his favor and gained the backing of those worried about China’s maritime expansion and North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development programs. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Abe Shinzo]
• Majority of Japanese Oppose Troop Deployment Abroad
  More than half of Japanese people oppose plans by their government to assert the country's right to so-called collective self-defense, which would allow Tokyo to deploy troops abroad if an ally is in some way under threat. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe last Thursday vowed to seek a new interpretation of the country’s pacifist postwar constitution to assert the right to the collective self-defense. But in a poll of 1,035 people by the Mainichi Shimbun on Saturday and Sunday, 54 percent of respondents opposed the move, with only 39 percent in favor. Opponents were mostly concerned about the possibility of Japan's involvement in a war with 71 percent. Only 25 percent are not worried. Most of the respondents considered China, with which Japan is in dispute over the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands, a considerable threat. Some 83 percent agreed with the statement that China is a threat to Japan's security. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Key negotiator in Okinawa's return amazed at continued U.S. presence
  May 15, 2014 By Satoshi Okumura/ Staff Writer A former U.S. Defense Department official who negotiated for the return of Okinawa to Japan in 1972 has expressed regret over the continued presence of U.S. military bases in the small southern prefecture. "I'm astonished that there are so many bases, so many years later," said Morton Halperin in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun during a visit to Japan. Halperin, 75, was involved in the talks to return Okinawa when he served as deputy assistant secretary of defense during the administration of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Kei Wakaizumi, a personal envoy of Prime Minister Eisaku Sato at the time, described Halperin as the "virtual top official" in the U.S. administration concerning the negotiations. Recalling his first visit to Okinawa in 1967 when negotiations had begun in earnest, Halperin said: "At that time, the American military did not believe there were bases on Okinawa. They believed 'Okinawa' was a military base. Literally, they viewed the whole island as one military base." [Okinawa] [Bases] [Japanese remilitarisation] [Nuclear weapons]
• Pacifism at a crossroads following panel’s verdict
  Self-defense capacity depends on bolstering military alliances, experts say by Reiji Yoshida Staff Writer May 15, 2014 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a historic stride Thursday toward his long-held ambition of transforming Japan’s pacifist defense policy, ordering the ruling parties to launch talks on removing the self-imposed ban on using the right to collective self-defense. Abe’s crusade to remove it has fanned fears and anxieties among critics at home and abroad who believe the move is the first step toward scrapping the pacifist stance that has guided Japan under the postwar Constitution. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Abe Takes 1st Step in Allowing Japan to Go to War Again
  Japans Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a press conference at the prime ministers official residence in Tokyo on Thursday. /AP-Newsis Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a press conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo on Thursday. /AP-Newsis The Japanese government will take steps to exercise its right to so-called collective self-defense, allowing it to attack a third country when an ally is in some way under threat. The move is at odds with Japan' pacifist postwar constitution and has alarmed neighbors who recall the country's wartime aggression. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is widely expected to amend the constitution so Japanese troops can once again operate overseas. Article 9 of the constitution says Japan forever renounces the use of force as a means of settling international disputes, unless the country comes under attack. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Korea Expresses Concerns Over Japan's Military Drive
  The government on Thursday urged Japan to dispel the doubts and concerns shared by its regional neighbors as it moves closer to exercising its right to so-called collective self-defense. Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tae-yong said the move must be transparent and consistent with the principles of Japan's pacifist constitution while contributing to peace and stability in Northeast Asia. Seoul had refrained from expressing either support or opposition to the move since all UN member nations are guaranteed to exercise the right to collective self-defense and the U.S. is in favor of Japan becoming more active in its own and allies' defense. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• [Editorial] Time to aggressively oppose moves toward Japanese militarization
  Posted on : May.16,2014 15:12 KST Modified on : May.16,2014 15:18 KST Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks at a press conference at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Tokyo, where he announced plans to exercise the right to collective self-defense by altering the interpretation of the country’s Peace Constitution, May 15. At the same time, civic groups protested outside the residence, criticizing Japan for again becoming a country that can wage war. (AP/Newsis) The administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe finally made an official announcement of its plans to exercise the right to collective self-defense by altering the interpretation of the country’s Peace Constitution. This is an extremely dangerous action that represents an attempt to alter the security order in Northeast Asia that was established after World War II. As a country that suffered colonial occupation by Japan, South Korea has no choice but to express deep concern over Abe’s provocative security policy, which, in conjunction with historical revisionism, is undermining the security order in Northeast Asia. Even more seriously, South Korea lacks any practical means of addressing Japan’s policy changes, and has no choice but to endure tremendous challenges related to diplomacy and security as a result. This is a time for everyone to recognize that the fate of the country is at stake if we fail to stay alert and react wisely. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• News Analysis: Caution amplifies about Japan's right to collective self-defense (Xinhua)
  11:22, May 08, 2014 TOKYO, May 7-- As Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe steamrolls ahead with his signature dictum to allow Japanese forces the right to collective self-defense, some within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party-led (LDP) coalition believe that more time and debate is needed on the thorny issue. In a tacit nod to the existence of a potential rift within the coalition bloc, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday that the current Diet session ending in June may not be the official deadline for gaining the Cabinet's approval for lifting Japan's self-imposed ban on exercising the right to collective self-defense. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Abe Conjures Scenario for Sending Troops to Korea
  The Japanese government is inviting fury from Korea with an ill-chosen example of how it hopes to exercise its right to so-called collective self-defense. Tokyo is proposing to send troops to the Korean Peninsula in an emergency to escort U.S. military aircraft and fleet evacuating Japanese civilians and to intercept foreign vessels carrying weapons to North Korea. The Asahi Shimbun reported on Tuesday that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will cite the example in a press conference on Thursday to discuss possible scenarios for the island country's self-defense rights. Abe is also to discuss a counterattack when a U.S. naval vessel is attacked in open seas or interception of intercontinental ballistic missiles flying to the U.S. Collective self-defense right is the right to attack a third country when an ally is in some way under threat. Japan's postwar constitution forbids collective self-defense, but Abe is widely expected to amend it so Japanese troops can once again operate overseas. The prime minister will also cite "grey-zone" cases of threats to Japan's security, such as the landing of armed Chinese civilians on the remote Senkaku or Diauyou Islands, over which Japan is in a territorial dispute with China, and a foreign submarine's intrusion into the Japanese waters. Koreans are sensitive to the idea of Japanese troops once again setting foot on their soil after the country's brutal occupation from 1910 to 1945. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Invasion]
• Diet surrounded in human-chain protest
  Anti-war rally takes Abe to task on Constitution by Tomohiro Osaki Staff Writer May 13, 2014 Combating what they call an effort to turn Japan into “a pro-war country,” 2,500 people formed a human chain around the Diet building at noon Tuesday to protest the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s drive to reinterpret the pacifist Constitution. A private panel of security experts hand-picked by Abe appears poised to submit a proposal Thursday to lift Japan’s long-held ban on using collective self-defense. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Japan could expand exercise of collective self-defense
  Posted on : May.10,2014 13:30 KST Recent newspaper report suggests Japan wouldn’t limit military involvement to situations involving the US By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent The Japanese government does not plan to limit the scope of its exercise of collective self-defense to situations involving the US, a recent report suggests. If true, this would mean Japan’s Self-Defense Forces could regard South Korea as a potential focus of collective self-defense in the event of an emergency on the Korean Peninsula. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Japan Prepares to Enter the Arms Market
  By Bruce Einhorn and Matthew Philips May 01, 2014 Keenly aware of the trouble that came with ambitious generals and an expanding munitions industry, the Japanese government has long banned most weapons exports. That policy helped buttress Japan’s pacifism, but it also hindered the growth of the country’s defense industry. Because it couldn’t sell parts overseas, Japanese defense companies missed out on chances to develop tanks, fighter jets, and other weaponry with the U.S. The ban “has resulted in an isolated Japanese defense industry that produces very small quantities at very high cost,” says Lance Gatling, president of Nexial Research, a defense consulting company in Tokyo. Japan’s Asian neighbors have taken advantage of its absence from the export scene. South Korea exported $3.4 billion worth of arms in 2013, up from $1.2 billion in 2010. China last year passed France and Britain to become the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, behind only the U.S., Russia, and Germany, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Arms sales]

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APRIL 2014

• Obama's Japan Visit and US-Japan-China Relations: A Missed Opportunity for Conflict Prevention
  Apr. 26, 2014 Mel Gurtov Most impartial observers of the China-Japan imbroglio over tiny islands claimed by both in the East China Sea—known in Japan as Senkaku and in China as Diaoyu—believe it has reached a dangerous point. The importance of the dispute is essentially two-fold. First, historical memory counts heavily in China-Japan relations. Despite their wide and deep economic ties in terms of trade, investment, and (at one time) Japanese development assistance, the dislike between peoples and governments is palpable. The Chinese are unrelenting in demanding Japanese apologies for aggression in World War II and insisting that Japanese political leaders stop behavior (notably, visiting the Yasukuni Shrine for war dead and endorsing school textbooks that elide such fraught issues as the Nanjing Massacre and the military “comfort women” system of sexual slavery) that suggests a lack of contrition. The Japanese say they have apologized enough and have every right to honor those who have served the country and display patriotic symbols. [US Japan alliance] [Territorial disputes] [Liberal] [China confrontation]
• Abe Shinzo and the U.S.-Japan Relationship in a Global Context
  Herbert P. Bix Victory for Abe Shinzo and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) in two consecutive general elections opened the way for Japan to move closer to the policies of the United States and, at the same time, throw off some of the restraints imposed by the postwar peace constitution and the San Francisco Treaty system. The Abe Administration’s Priorities and U.S., Chinese Policies A new era in the political history of postwar Japan has begun, with changes in the Japan-U.S. relationship likely to follow in the years ahead. For even in a land of patrimonial politics Prime Minister Abe is not a typical politician. His economic policies set him apart. So too does his tie to his grandfather Kishi Nobusuke, who was imprisoned after World War II as an unindicted war criminal. When Kishi emerged from prison he launched the first attack from the right on the Tokyo international war crimes tribunal. Later as prime minister, Kishi reshaped Japan’s postwar order and in January 1960 renegotiated the one-sided Japan-U.S. security treaty: the military alliance imposed on the occupied nation by the United States, over historically unprecedented popular opposition. Abe agreed with his grandfather’s view that relations with the U.S. should be strengthened, and that the postwar constitution needed to be rewritten. He resolved to follow Kishi’s lead and prioritize constitutional revision. [Abe Shinzo] [Japanese remilitarisation] [US Japan alliance]
• Three Messages from Okinawa
  Apr. 26, 2014 C. Douglas Lummis This might be one for the Guiness Book. On April 19, 2014, a ceremony was held at the fishing village of Henoko, in Nago City, Okinawa, marking the tenth anniversary of the continuous sit-in by residents and supporters opposing the construction of a new U.S. Marine Corps Airbase there. Actually it’s seventeen years since the U.S. and Japanese governments announced that the USMC Airbase at Futenma, in crowded Ginowan City, would be closed, or rather packed up and moved to this new base at Henoko, as soon as it is built. Seventeen years and, far from being built, construction has not begun and isn’t not likely to in the foreseeable future. [Okinawa] [Bases] [US Japan alliance]
• China’s impounding of Japanese ship bringing up issue of WWII compensation
  Posted on : Apr.23,2014 15:23 KST Modified on : Apr.23,2014 15:27 KST A Chinese court has ordered the seizure of the 226,434-ton ore carrier Baosteel Emotion as compensation for the loss of two ships leased from a Chinese company before the two countries went to war in 1937. Fallout from court order expected to worsen already fraught ties between Beijing and Tokyo By Seong Yeon-cheol and Gil Yun-hyung, Beijing and Tokyo correspondents The issue of compensation after World War II has emerged as another source of conflict between China and Japan. With the Shanghai Maritime Court impounding a merchant ship owned by Japanese company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines on Apr. 19, Chinese pressure on Japan over historical issues has reached the point where it is actually affecting the activity of Japanese companies inside China. This further complicates bilateral ties, which are already chilly because of the two countries’ fraught history. Recent tension has concerned the territorial dispute about the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China) and visits by conservative Japanese politicians to the Yasukuni Shrine, which enshrines dead Japanese soldiers, including war criminals. “The decision made by the Chinese court undermines the spirit of the China-Japan joint statement that was signed when the two countries established normal diplomatic relations in 1972. We will explore specific measures with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines,” said Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. When China established normal diplomatic relations with Japan in 1972, it promised to give up the right to make claims related to wartime reparations. [Japanese colonialism]
• Korea rejects Japan's help for Sewol tragedy
  Updated : 2014-04-22 18:14 The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force minesweeper Tsushima (JS 302) By Ko Dong-hwan Japanese news outlets confirmed Korea rejected Japan’s offer of help with rescuing the missing passengers from the sunken ferry Sewol, Hankyoreh said Monday. The report cited Yomiuri Shimbun, which quoted a Korean coast guard official as saying the current situation doesn’t call for extraneous supports. It also quoted Kyodo News on Saturday, which said families of the missing passengers from Sewol criticized government for rejecting Japan’s help. The report also quoted Japanese lawmaker Taizo Sugimura from the Liberal Democratic Party, who appeared on a television show on Sunday. [Sewol]
• Japan 'to Consult' Seoul Before Sending Troops to N.Korea
  Japan has told the government that it would seek Seoul's approval before sending troops to the Korean Peninsula in an emergency. Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters on Monday that Korea had told Japan it needs South Korean approval before sending troops to the Korean Peninsula and that the Japanese government "made it clear" that it would not do so unilaterally. Japan is keen to assert its right to so-called collective self-defense, a euphemism for military intervention abroad if an ally is in some way under threat. The government informed Japan of this requirement during a meeting in Washington between senior defense officials from South Korea, the U.S. and Japan last week. A Defense Ministry official said this could happen if there is an emergency in North Korea or the North attacks Japan. Koreans are wary of any Japanese military presence on the peninsula after Japan's brutal occupation from 1910 to 1945. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Group to award Nobel Peace Prize to war-renouncing Japanese continues to seek support
  April 20, 2014 By ICHIRO YAMAMOTO/ Staff Writer A group campaigning to award the Japanese people the Nobel Peace Prize for abiding by the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution isn't backing off its grassroots effort, now that it has secured an official nomination. The Executive Committee for the Nobel Peace Prize for Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution participated in an Earth Day event at Yoyogi Park in Tokyo on April 19. “In order to spread Article 9 to the world, our executive committee will continue to work until the Japanese people receive the Nobel Peace Prize,” said homemaker Naomi Takasu, 37, from Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, who has spearheaded the effort. [Article 9]
• The Bumble Bee and the Chrysanthemum: Comparing Sweden and Japan’s Responses to Financial Crisis
  Sven Steinmo (European University Institute) Ismail Emre Bayram (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies) Andrew DeWit (Rikkyo University) The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 12, Issue 16, No. 1, April 21, 2014. THIS TIME REALLY IS DIFFERENT Reinhart and Rogoff’s influential book, This Time is Different (2009), argues that financial crises over the past eight centuries have had similar causes and consequences across diverse societies. The authors make an important empirical contribution to our knowledge of financial crises by showing that excessive borrowing, debt-fuelled asset values, and exuberance about ever-increasing prices are central elements in all of them. They also remind us that we tend to forget past crises, and hence dismantle regulatory and other safeguards implemented in their wake, leaving ourselves ripe for the next bubble. But they do not discuss the diverse ways in which governments have intervened in financial markets to deal with financial crises. Since these crises seem inevitable, and financial sectors are becoming increasingly large shares of national economies (Capelle-Blanchard and Tadjeddine 2010), it is important for social scientists to examine the politics of how they are managed. The basic causes of financial crises may be similar, but there is a great diversity in responses to them in different national, historical and political contexts [Financial crisis]
• The Nomination of Article 9 of Japan's Constitution for a Nobel Peace Prize
  Apr. 20, 2014 Alexis Dudden On April 9, 2014 the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that the “Japanese people who conserve Article 9” had succeeded in registering themselves as contenders for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. As of this typing, the group remains a loosely organized, broad-based cross section of Japanese society committed to saving the Japanese constitution’s famous clause outlawing war. A number of groups in Japan have long worked to save Japan’s unique, legal forfeiture of a national right to war — especially prominent is Nobel laureate Oe Kenzaburo's group — and recent polls demonstrate such efforts having wider reach than ever before: an opinion poll published April 14 in the Asahi Shimbun reports 64% of Japanese favor preserving Article 9. Those who support attracting international attention through a Nobel Peace Prize now have between their action at Earth Day in Tokyo (April 19) and May 5 when the Nobel Prize committee announces its short list (winnowed down from this year’s record 278 contenders). The race is on, and some of the effort’s participants have set their sights on Japan’s May 3 National Constitution Day as a metaphorically significant goal line. In many regards, the Nobel Prize Committee’s acceptance of the nomination is a victory in its own right, coming as it does at a time when many view the actions of Japan’s leaders as tantamount not only to eliminating Article 9 and radically revising the Constitution but as leading the nation toward war with China. For his part, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, who proposes radical constitutional revision, calls his new security policy “proactive pacifism”. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Article 9]
• Unit 731 ruins and sites of Japanese army
  Xinhua, April 20, 2014 Photo taken on April 18, 2014 shows the ruins of an entrance to the animal breeding rooms of Unit 731 in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. Unit 731 was a Harbin-based biological and chemical warfare research unit of the Japanese army during WWII. The Unit 731 facility ruins in Harbin are evidences of the wartime atrocities committed by Japanese invaders in China. Unit 731 members conducted a series of human experiments which subjected victims to vivisections, germ war attacks, weapon tests and other forms of torture. April 18 is the International Day for Monuments and Sites. Its theme for 2014 is "heritage for commemoration". (Xinhua/Wang Kai) [731] [War crimes] [Japanese colonialism]
• The resurgence of Japanese arms firms
  By Zhang Lulu China.org.cn, April 17, 2014 Japanese military manufacturers may find themselves with a lot of opportunities as Abe's government passed the Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology on April 1, which virtually lifted the ban on Japan's weapons exports. abe.jpg Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sits in Japanese Self-Defense Force training jet on May 12, 2013. He aims to sell Japanese military products during his foreign visits. [File photo] As the development of military equipment in Japan and the prospects for its exports looks more promising than ever, the country's pacifist constitution is jeopardized and security in the conflict-ridden Asia Pacific region will face greater challenges. Lifting of weapons export ban The cabinet of Shinzo Abe passed the new three principles on weapons exports on April 1, virtually lifting the ban, which had lasting for nearly half a century. The move is set to boost Japanese military enterprises which have been hidden in civilian industries for years. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Japan's largest defense industry enterprise, announced in a statement issued only one day after the introduction of the new principles, saying the move signifies the Japanese government's recognition of the need to beef up defense production and technology research. The firm also vowed to abide by the new principles and the government's supervision of military exports and requirements on the participation of military enterprises in international military production and research. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Arms sales]
• US expresses deep concern over plutonium reprocessing program in Japan
  Posted on : Apr.14,2014 16:28 KST Japan’s Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, which is scheduled to be completed in October. Concern expressed over accumulation of spent nuclear fuel with no plan for consumption By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent The US is deeply concerned about Japan’s Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant, which extracts plutonium from spent nuclear fuel, reports say. When the facility, which is scheduled to be completed in October, comes online, the US will run out of reasons to reject South Korean demands to reprocess spent fuel in the same way as Japan. Not only that, but increasing supplies of plutonium that lack a clear purpose run counter to the US government’s principle of blocking nuclear proliferation. As part of a joint investigation with the Center for Public Integrity (CPI), an American non-profit journalistic organization, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Apr. 13 that Thomas M. Countryman, US Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, and Daniel Bruce Poneman, US Deputy Secretary of Energy, expressed their serious concern about the factory in Rokkasho to Tatsujiro Suzuki, vice chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC), when he visited the US in Apr. 2013. [Plutonium] [Rokkasho]
• Ahead of Obama’s visit, S. Korea and Japan to discuss comfort women
  Posted on : Apr.14,2014 16:25 KST Junichi Ihara, Director General of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Substantial results are not expected from director general level meeting on Apr. 16 By Yi Yong-in, staff reporter The South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Apr. 13 that South Korean and Japanese director generals would meet in Seoul on Apr. 16 for the sole purpose of discussing the issue of the comfort women, who were forced to serve as sexual slaves by the Japanese imperial army during World War II. This is the first time that a diplomatic channel has been created for talks between South Korea and Japan about the issue of the comfort women, but the chances of getting results appear small. [Comfort women]
• Limited Regular Employment and the Reform of Japan’s Division of Labor
  Scott North The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 12, Issue 15, No. 1 Precis: Responses to Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s proposed labor reforms, which are part of the economic stimulus plan known as Abenomics, are a window on the positions of major stakeholders' social debates in Japan’s future. This paper identifies, summarizes, and analyzes six responses to one of the proposed structural reforms: new labor rules that would encourage expansion of “limited regular employment,” an employment status between Japan’s famous “lifetime employment” and the burgeoning number of non-regular workers. Proponents in the business community and government tout limited regular employment (gentei seiki koyou) as a way to introduce flexibility and mobility in the labor market, boosting productivity, and helping stem the bifurcation of Japanese society into winners, with regular employment, and losers, with non-regular jobs. Opponents, however, see the proposed reforms as an ominous step toward dismantling Japan’s already weak worker protections. They argue that limited regular employment is a poison pill containing inherent contradictions that threaten the hopes of women and younger workers for stable careers, as well as loosening long-standing social and legal constraints on employers’ right to dismiss workers. Parliamentary debate on this labor legislation is set for the summer of 2014. [Labour]
• Japan in the public culture of South Korea, 1945–2000s:The making and remaking of colonial sites and memories
  Jung-Sun N. Han Summary This article examines public memory of Japanese colonial rule in South Korea by focusing on the site of the former Japanese Government-General Building (GGB) in Seoul. Completed in 1926, the GGB was demolished in 1995 when South Korea celebrated the 50th anniversary of its liberation from Japan. Reconstructing the history of the building makes it possible to examine changing contemporary South Korean society’s views and attitudes toward Japan. [Japanese colonialism]
• S. Korea, US and Japan discussing sharing military information
  Posted on : Apr.12,2014 13:31 KST President Park Geun-hye talks to Minister of Defense Kim Kwan-jin at a ceremony where Air Force Chief of Staff Choi Cha-kyu made his first report to the president since being appointed, at the Blue House, Apr. 11. (Yonhap News) Seoul and Tokyo have no information sharing agreement; US pushing for more cooperation between its two allies By Park Hyun and Gil Yun-hyung, Washington and Tokyo correspondents and Park Byong-su, senior staff writer The military information protection agreement that was shelved after former South Korean President Lee Myung-bak tried to push it through without public consent is on the table once again, this time as a three-way agreement between South Korea, the US, and Japan, senior South Korean officials say. With anti-Japanese sentiment in the South Korean public making it practically impossible to pass a bilateral agreement between the two countries, the US has been brought into the agreement. [SK Japan]
  • Minor figures being held responsible for fallout from GSOMIA
    Posted on : Jul.7,2012 12:30 KST Critics allege Lee administration is scapegoating lower level figures while avoiding responsibility By Ahn Chang-hyun, Blue House correspondent The Blue House announced on July 6 that the hasty handling of the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan was a “mistake” committed by both senior presidential secretary for national security Kim Tae-hyo and a working-level director at the Foreign Ministry. Accordingly, the Blue House has already accepted Kim’s resignation, and the Foreign Ministry has decided to replace Northeast Asian Affairs bureau director Cho Se-young. [SK Japan]
  • [Editorial] Need to accurately place responsibility for GSOMIA debacle
    Posted on : Jul.6,2012 15:22 KST Senior presidential secretary for national security strategy Kim Tae-hyo announced his resignation on July 5 after being fingered as the one responsible for the closed-door push for a General Security Of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan. This is the second resignation over the matter, coming on the heels of foreign ministry spokesman Cho Byong-jae stepping down after divulging that the Blue House, not his ministry, spearheaded the GSOMIA’s secret passage by the Cabinet. Though they have both resigned, the two men bear entirely different levels of responsibility. Kim was at the helm from start to finish, whereas Cho merely disclosed one small part of a long process. The resignations also came in the wrong order. Given the nature of the situation, Kim should have tendered his first. With all this confusion over the sequence and the weight of responsibility, some are questioning whether they can tell the difference between the coach and the athletes on the field. [SK Japan]
  • Officials play hot potato with blame for botched military pact
    Posted on : Jul.3,2012 11:40 KST President Lee Myung-bak walks up the aisle before his address at the opening of the 19th National Assembly. (by Lee Jeong-woo, staff photographer) Military pact with Japan to be judged in National Assembly and by the public By Ahn Chang-hyun, staff reporter On July 2, President Lee Myung-bak spoke for the first time on the Cabinet’s closed-door passage of a General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan. His first comments came while presiding over a meeting of presidential secretaries. Though the delayed agreement with Japan has had the country in an uproar for the past week, Lee did not make even a token expression of regret, let alone an apology as the country’s leader. Blue House spokesman Park Jung-ha quoted Lee as saying that the GSOMIA was “a nationally helpful form of agreement that we’ve already signed with 24 countries, including Russia, and that we need to sign with China in the future.” Lee was also reported as expressing disapproval of the agreement’s handling. Park quoted him as saying, “This was not a matter that should have been presented before the Cabinet as an emergency item without already having sought out the opinions of the public.” [SK Japan]
• Japan’s image hurt by Abe’s militarist facade: Nye
  by Ayako Mie Apr 4, 2014 WASHINGTON – Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s nationalistic views on history have disadvantaged Japan in its increasingly public fight with China and South Korea. Harvard University professor Joseph Nye said Abe’s reforms across the board are solid but are being presented in the wrong way, frightening its neighbors and ultimately complicating Tokyo’s alliance with Washington. “I thought Abe’s defense proposals and his package was a good package. The mistake was wrapping it in an old 1930s wrapping paper. If you get rid of the 1930s wrapping paper, then you have a good 21st century program and it will be much less frightening to others,” said Nye, former dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, during an interview with The Japan Times in Washington. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Abe Shinzo] [Softpower] [Heading]
• Abe Plays the North Korea Card
  By Dennis Halpin April 10, 2014 There is diplomatic movement afoot in East Asia that is a bit out of the ordinary. Regional leaders have shown reluctance as of late to sit down with each other. South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye, however, did garner an early invitation to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. But Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been largely shut out from the usual round of shuttle diplomacy between East Asian capitals. All that could soon come to an end. Abe did finally get to sit with Park at the recently completed Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague— although President Obama sat between them at the “trilateral meeting” to give the South Korean President cover with her domestic constituency. The need to demonstrate allied solidarity on continued North Korean provocations was the rationale for the get-together. Despite this display, Park, sent a clear message that history questions were still on the table by thanking Xi Jinping at an earlier meeting in The Hague for Beijing’s decision to construct a memorial hall in Harbin to Korean independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun. Ironically, given the current political tensions in the region, Abe could end up having his first bilateral East Asian summit with none other than North Korea’s Kim Jong Un—neither of whom have yet been invited to Beijing, though for entirely different reasons. [Japan NK] [Abductees]
• Southern Weekend Analyzes Kim Jong-un’s Diplomacy with Japan
  By Adam Cathcart | April 09, 2014 north-korean-propaganda-defend-sovreignty-final-victory >Image: KCTV Reading the Chinese press is itself an exercise in abundance, one not necessarily accompanied by a great deal of resultant insight. This is particularly true concerning commentary and analysis about Japan. The PRC is awash in books, documentaries, newspaper and magazine analysis of China’s relationship with Japan that all leads to an inevitable conclusion: The Japanese state is populated with unbending and unrepentant rightists who seek to contain China’s rise, revise Japan’s constitution along with its militant past, and who wish to block the PRC at every turn. The extent to which the Chinese Communist Party has embraced its predecessor in power, the Guomindang (KMT/Nationalists), as a historical partner in anti-Japanese solidarity and continuity is testimony to the depth and the power of this ubiquitous narrative reality. When Japan engages in regional diplomacy, this narrative inevitably rears its head in the Chinese press. From the CCP perspective, Japan cannot simply be attempting to rebalance its historically awful relationship with North Korea, it needs to be doing so as part of a broader strategy to isolate and weaken China’s position in the region. Combining the omnipresent role of Japan in China’s state media along with its less-visible but increasingly emerging anxieties over how to handle North Korea, the Nanfang Zhoumo (hereafter Southern Weekend) recently created some interesting and genuinely insightful reading. The piece under analysis was published on April 3, 2014, and indicates how carefully China is watching the regional diplomatic interplay, and how a closer DPRK-Japan relationship would threaten the interests of the PRC. The subject of the article is the meetings which occurred in North Korea’s Embassy in Beijing on March 30-31. These were, as Southern Weekend put it, “the highest level diplomatic interaction between Japan and the DPRK since Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi went to Pyongyang in 2002.” Interpreting the meetings is not child’s play. If North Korea and Japan move toward normalization, a great deal of recalculating has to take place in Beijing. Within the PRC, there are scores of experts who could comment on this matter, but there is but one academic voice given prominence in this article, and it belongs to Dr. Zhang Liangui, a professor at the Central Party School in Beijing, whose expertise on the DPRK is near the top of the list in China. Zhang assesses the recent meetings between DPRK and Japanese representatives in Beijing as being grounded in North Korea’s material needs: North Korea’s primary hope and goal with contacting Japan is to relax Japanese sanctions on North Korea, including the ban on remittances to North Korea and the ban on North Korean ships sailing into Japanese ports. [NK Japan]
• China museum amasses Japanese Unit 731 evidence
  Xinhua, April 7, 2014 More than 6,300 items have been collected in a drive to find evidence of the activities of Japan's notorious Unit 731 during World War II in the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, said local authorities on Monday. The Unit 731 Crimes Exhibition Hall in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, has gathered 1,740 new pieces of evidence in the nationwide efforts in the past two years, according to the exhibition hall. Researchers expanded their search scope to all regions where the Unit 731 was active, adding to the amount and quality of the hall's exhibits. Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin in 1935, serving as the nerve center of Japan's biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII. The 6,300 items includes arms, ammunition, clothing, equipment and parts, implements, books, documents and chemical reagents. These items represent the whole operation process of Unit 731 in research, experimentation, creation of biochemical weapons and germ warfare attacks, said the exhibition hall. At least 3,000 people were killed in experiments on humans at Unit 731. Civilians and prisoners of war from China, the former Soviet Union, the Korean Peninsula and Mongolia all perished at the hands of the Japanese. The retreating Japanese invaders blew up the base when the Soviet Union army took Harbin in 1945. The exhibition hall receives more than 300,000 visitors, about 10 percent of whom are foreigners, each year. A documentary entitled "731" started shooting in February. It will feature interviews with witnesses and academics and information from historical archives. Shooting is due to take place in China, the United States, Russia and Japan, and the film is expected to be broadcast by the end of the year. [Unit 731] [cbw] [War crimes] [Japanese colonialism]
• U.S. to Deploy 2 More Aegis Ships in Japan
  The U.S. will deploy two more new Aegis ships to Japan by 2017 to counter the missile threat from North Korea, U.S Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said during a visit to the island country on Sunday. The Aegis ships will be able to detect incoming ballistic missiles at the initial stage of their launch and intercept them with a missile of their own. They will bring the total number of U.S. Aegis ships in Japan to seven. They will significantly bolster the defense against the ballistic missile threat to Japan and the U.S. mainland and increase deterrence against North Korean aggression, Hagel said in a press conference with his Japanese counterpart Itsunori Onodera in Tokyo. U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (left) chats with Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera ahead of a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the prime ministers former official residence in Tokyo on Saturday. /AP-Newsis U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (left) chats with Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera ahead of a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the prime minister's former official residence in Tokyo on Saturday. /AP-Newsis Commenting on Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's attempt to assert Japan's right to so-called collective self-defense, Hagel said, "The United States welcomes Japan's efforts to play a more proactive role in contributing to global and regional peace and stability, including reexamining the interpretation of its Constitution relating to the rights of collective self-defense." "Collective self-defense" is a euphemism for military intervention overseas if an ally is in some way under threat. Hagel also welcomed Tokyo's recent decision to lift long-established curbs on arms exports. [Missile defense] [Threat] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Northeast Asian chill expected to continue
  Posted on : Apr.5,2014 14:22 KST Modified on : Apr.5,2014 14:33 KST Elementary school textbooks recently approved in Japan that refer to Dokdo as Japanese territory and accuse South Korea of illegal occupation. The books will start being used in spring of next year. (Yonhap News) South Korea and China forming a kind of “united historical front” over friction with Japan By Kim Oi-hyun, staff reporter Another roadblock appeared in an already fraught situation between South Korea and Japan when the Japanese government released its Diplomatic Bluebook and results from an examination of elementary school textbooks. The possibility of a summit, which has not taken place in the more than one year since the Park Geun-hye and Shinzo Abe administrations came into office, is now looking even less likely. With public opinion, domestic politics, and the dynamics of Northeast Asia pushing the two sides into a structural face-off, the chill is expected to continue for some time. [Textbook] [Dokdo]
• The war over history in Northeast Asia
  Posted on : Apr.5,2014 14:18 KST Modified on : Apr.5,2014 14:28 KST Japan’s rightward lurch makes improvement of relations with South Korea and Chine unlikely any time soon By Seong Yeon-cheol, Beijing correspondent The so-called “Northeast Asia history wars,” pitting South Korea and China on one side against Japan on the other, hit full swing last December with a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine. Abe’s visit had the effect of tossing gasoline onto the long-smoldering embers of territorial conflicts with South Korea over Dokdo, and with China over the Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China). South Korea responded by expressing “indignation” over the “whitewashing of colonial rule and wars of invasion,” while China voiced its own strong dismay about the “open affront to historical justice and human sensibility.” During her address to commemorate the March 1 Independence Movement holiday, President Park Geun-hye took aim at the rightward lurch from Tokyo, including attempts to overturn the Peace Constitution and repudiate the 1993 Kono Statement apologizing to victims of wartime sexual enslavement. “If [Japan] does not acknowledge its errors and the historical truth, it will only isolate itself,” Park said in the address. [Japanese colonialism]
• Obama plays favorites
  By Kang Seung-woo U.S. President Barack Obama is acting as if he were placing all his bets on Japan in his policy of rebalancing to Asia to counter China’s hegemony. This is in contrast to President Park Geun-hye’s increasing effort to get closer to China. It remains to be seen how these tangential moves will play out during Obama’s Asia trip later this month. On Tuesday, Washington blessed Japan’s decision to ease its 50-year-old self-imposed arms export ban. Korea and other neighbors see it as yet another move by Japan to erode its pacifist constitution. “We welcome this revised Japanese policy on defense equipment exports. It expands opportunities and simplifies processes for defense industry cooperation with the U.S. and other partner nations,” the U.S. government said. [Sidelined] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Abe administration seeks to revise ODA Charter to assist militaries
  April 01, 2014 By Atsushi Hiroshima/ Staff Writer The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is looking to revise the Official Development Assistance Charter to allow the program to provide aid to foreign militaries for the first time. The Abe administration launched the review process for the policy changes, which if authorized, would mark a major turning point in the charter. Until now, that covenant mandated that aid and support provided by the program to developing countries go only toward civilian assistance projects. The government believes the changes are needed so ODA can “play a role” in advancing national defense. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Aid]
• Japan Eases Curbs on Arms Exports
  The Japanese government continues a campaign of eroding the country's pacifist rules set after its defeat in World War II by easing curbs on arms exports. A cabinet meeting on Tuesday revised three established principles restricting arms exports so that weapons can be sold abroad if they serve "international cooperation" or Japan's national security. The principles, first established in 1967, prohibit arms exports to communist countries, states that face UN arms embargoes and nations that are embroiled in international disputes. They were later expanded to a virtual ban on any arms exports. But the revision merely commits Tokyo to scrutinizing the buyer's intentions and ensuring that the exports are not transferred to third parties without Japan's consent. As a result, Japanese arms shipments are expected to increase significantly. [Arms sales] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Abe and the Re-Militarization of Japan
  by Tom Clifford Most politicians picking a date to announce a major policy shift, overturning a fifty-year ban on the exports of military hardware, would not chose April 1. But the polished corridors of power in Tokyo are not renowned for their sense of humor. The past is another country, one which Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe consistently harks back to. Abe has even mentioned a timeframe for his goal to be achieved, what he claims is 2020 vision or in this case revision: the lighting of the Olympic flame in Tokyo in six years. Abe has vowed to push for a wholesale revision of the Japanese constitution to be enacted before the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. “By 2020, I think Japan will have completely restored its status and been making great contributions to peace and stability in the region and the world,” he said. Overturning the export ban inevitably means that the focus will turn to Article 9 of the constitution. This states that Japan pledges never to wage war, or even maintain land , sea or armed forces capable of waging war. But the article that is key to Abe’s ambitions is 96. This article sets out the procedures required to change the constitution, one that has never been altered; revised, re-interpreted but never actually altered since its enactment in 1947. It states that any amendment must be backed by two-thirds of both houses of the Japanese parliament and a referendum. Abe wants just a simple majority in both houses, which he has, to allow him to change the constitution. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Critical New Stage in Japan’s Textbook Controversy
  Koide Reiko A Conflict Behind Closed Doors: Bureaucrats, Politicians, and Ideologues In April 2012, a group of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) congressmen, calling themselves the Diet Members Group for Considering Japan’s Future and History Textbooks,1 met with officials from Japan’s Ministry of Education (hereafter MEXT) along with LDP Education and Technology Division members to view samples of the new high school textbooks that the Ministry had screened and authorized. In order to be eligible for use at public and even private schools, Japanese textbooks must be compiled by private publishers in accordance with the National Curriculum Standards and then endorsed by a MEXT organ, the Textbook Approval and Research Council, and finally authorized by MEXT in accord with their Textbook Examination Standards. In the process, scrutiny by “textbook experts” and “specialists” “ensures that the textbooks are objective and impartial” (MOFA: undated).2 [Textbook] [Japanese colonialism]

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MARCH 2014

• N. Korean envoy says no agenda set for high-level talks with Japan
  North Korea's ambassador handling relations with Japan, Song Il-ho, said Saturday that no agenda has been set for high-level talks with Tokyo, taking a cautious stance on prospects about the first meeting between the two nations in more than a year. North Korea and Japan are set to hold two-day talks in Beijing starting on Sunday, the first such meeting since November 2012, with the two sides expected to discuss the issue of abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents. The two agreed to resume the talks during their informal gathering in China earlier this month. "These talks between North Korea and Japan are to be resumed after one year and four months. So, I will know what agenda and what issues will be discussed only when I hold the talks," Ambassador Song told reporters upon his arrival at the Beijing airport. Song said the two sides will "hold consultations about the agenda when both sides meet." Asked about the prospects for the talks, Song replied, "I will have to wait and see."
• Putting differences aside, Koreas press Japan on wartime sex slaves
  Representatives of civilian groups for women from the two Koreas pressed Japan on Saturday to resolve a long-running grievance regarding Korean women forced to serve as sexual slaves during World War II, giving a united voice on the issue despite tension over the North's nuclear and missile program. The calls were made at a forum on Japan's wartime sexual slavery in China's northeastern city of Shenyang. It was the first time in seven years that North Korea's representatives attended the annual forum. During the forum, Kim Myong-suk, vice chairman of the North's Korean Democratic Women's Union, criticized Japan for attempting to deny its wartime atrocities, including the sexual enslavement of women. [Joint Korean] [Comfort women]
• Kerry assures Congress that Tokyo, Seoul won’t go nuclear over North
  Kyodo – Japan Times •Mar 14, 2014 WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the United States has made efforts to ensure that North Korea’s nuclear threat does not motivate Japan and South Korea to arm themselves with atomic weapons. “We are working with Japan and (South Korea) in order to make sure they don’t feel so threatened that they move toward nuclearization in self-help,” Kerry told a congressional session on the State Department’s fiscal 2015 budget outline. He was briefing members of a subcommittee under the Senate Appropriations Committee on Washington’s diplomatic efforts involving Japan, South Korea and China aimed at dealing with North Korea’s nuclear threat. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Nuclearisation]
• Japan and North Korea set to restart talks on nuclear programme, kidnapppings
  17 March, 2014 Reuters – South China Morning Post Ties between the East Asian nations have been fraught over Pyongyang’s missile tests and the abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents decades ago After a hiatus of more than a year, Japan and North Korea are set to resume high-level talks over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes and the issue of Japanese citizens abducted decades ago, Japanese media said on Monday. The media reports come after the parents of a Japanese girl who was abducted by North Korea more than three decades ago met their child’s daughter for the first time. [Abductees] [Megumi]
• Japanese abductee’s North Korean daughter meets relatives in Mongolia
  17 March, 2014 Agence France-Presse – South China Morning Post 26-year-old daughter of woman kidnapped aged 13 in 1977 and taken to North Korea meets her grandparents for the first time in Mongolia The ageing parents of a Japanese woman who was kidnapped and taken to North Korea as a schoolgirl and allegedly died there have met her daughter for the first time. Megumi Yokota’s parents “spent time” with their granddaughter, Kim Eun-gyong, 26, and her family in the Mongolian capital, Ulan Bator, over five days last week, Japan’s foreign ministry said yesterday. Yokota, who North Korea claims killed herself in 1994, became a symbol of a bitter bilateral row over Pyongyang’s abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, mainly aimed at training North Korean spies in Japanese language and customs. Tokyo rejects the claim that Yokota committed suicide as baseless. Yokota’s parents – father Shigeru, 81, and mother Sakie, 78 – had previously refused to meet Kim for fear of being used in North Korean efforts to establish their daughter’s alleged death as fact. “We cannot talk about it now. Please let us have a chance to rest calmly,” Yokota’s mother said in a statement to Japanese media. In the Ulan Bator meeting, Kim reiterated to the Yokotas that her mother was dead, Jiji Press quoted Japanese government sources as saying. [Abductees] [Megumi]
• A “Dynamic Joint Defense Force”? An Introduction to Japanese Strategic Thinking
  Mar. 18, 2014 Sabine Frühstück The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force public relations channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/JGSDFchannel; for the English version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tT63npchUM) recently announced in an illustrated video showing the GSDF in action that, according to the new National Defense Program Guidelines for FY 2014 and Beyond, Japan is building a “Dynamic Joint Defense Force.” As such the SDF will emphasize “readiness, sustainability, resilience and connectivity in its software and hardware, supported by advanced technology and C3I (Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence) capabilities, also laying a wide range of foundations for JSDF’s operations.” The grand and stylish 15-minute film is perhaps the most combative piece of public relations issued by the SDF thus far. There is talk of a “tough & resilient Japan Ground Self-Defense Force” and “effective deterrence and response” capabilities. The SDF do not just appear perfectly aligned with the USFJ. The USFJ look as if they were but one branch of the Japanese armed forces. To my knowledge, never before has the SDF public relations apparatus officially dared to adopt the hawkish rhetoric of becoming “more battle oriented,” speaking of “combat vehicles” that are needed for “optimizing the force structure from an operational point of view,” or the eventuality of responding “to attacks on remote islands.” The smooth aesthetic, musically dramatized and enhanced with defense rhetoric more similar to American military public relations efforts than anything I have seen before in Japan, is a clear departure from earlier, more amateurish attempts to familiarize a broad audience with the Self-Defense Forces’ mission and style. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Propaganda]
• Japan’s Plutonium Plans Stoke China Tensions on A-Bomb Risk
  By Jonathan Tirone and Jacob Adelman Mar 25, 2014 2:08 AM GMT+1300 Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd.'s (JNFL) Rokkasho reprocessing plant stands in Rokkasho... Read More Related • Uranium Prices Seen Rising in 2014: Adnani Japan is planning to start a $21 billion nuclear reprocessing plant, stoking concern in China that the facility’s output could be diverted for use in an atomic bomb. The issue will be one of the flashpoints at the Nuclear Security Summit starting today in The Hague, Netherlands, that Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and China’s President Xi Jinping are due to attend. It’s adding to bitterness marked by territorial disputes and left over issues from World War II between Asia’s two largest economies. “Japan has stockpiled large volumes of sensitive nuclear materials, including not only plutonium but also uranium, and that’s far exceeding its normal needs,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters on March 11. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Plutonium] [Nuclearisation] [Nuclear fuel cycle]
• Japan prepares to ship nuclear materials to the US
  Published time: March 24, 2014 17:37 Reuters /Gleb Garanich Japan agreed to transfer a share of its highly enriched uranium and weapons grade plutonium stockpiles to the US as part of the global effort to secure nuclear materials. Other nations are also urged to deposit excess nuclear materials in the US. On the eve of the two-day Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, US and Japanese leaders arranged a deal on “final disposition” in the US of well over 300 kilograms of weapons grade plutonium and an unspecified quantity of highly enriched uranium (HEU) that will be “sent to a secure facility and fully converted into less sensitive forms." This quantity of plutonium is enough to produce 40-50 warheads. The total quantity of HEU currently stocked in Japan is estimated at approximately 1.2 tons. According to The New York Times, some 200 kilograms of HEU is currently designated for the US. [Nuclearisation] [US dominance]
• Japan's nuclear ambitions troublesome
  By Kim Tae-gyu 2014-03-13 18:07 Japan is causing concerns among its neighbors once again. This time around, it is about the country’s plan to activate a reprocessing facility that will produce vast amounts of weapons-grade plutonium. Constructed over several decades, the plant in Rokkasho on Japan’s Pacific coast will open this October, and Japanese leaders have confirmed that it will go into operation. The Rokkasho facility has raised concerns about Japan’s real motives for operating it as many experts say it lacks commercial viability and has questionable security. [Nuclearisation] [nuclear fuel cycle]
• Joint Chiefs of Staff downplaying remarks on military cooperation with Japan
  Posted on : Mar.13,2014 15:30 KST Chairman Choi Yoon-hee had commented that Seoul, Washington and Tokyo would “cooperate in a forward-thinking way” By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent Choi Yoon-hee, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, moved to downplay remarks he made on Mar. 11 which have aroused controversy, insisting that the remarks were theoretical. During a visit to the US, Choi said that cooperation was needed between the US, South Korea, and Japan and promised to push for cooperation with Japan in areas of security. After Choi paid his respects at the memorial for veterans of the Korean War in Washington, D.C., a reporter asked him about the issue of security cooperation with Japan. Choi said South Korea, the US, and Japan “need to cooperate on security against the North Korea threat” and pledged to “cooperate in a forward-thinking way while examining things as they unfold, including relations between South Korea and Japan.” When critics responded that it is not appropriate to engage in military cooperation with Japan right now, since the country has been rapidly shifting to the right and denying historical facts in recent month, the Joint Chiefs immediately issued a statement elaborating their position.
• Arms exports changes linked to peace
  March 11, 2014 Masakazu Matsushita and Yujiro Okabe/Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers Revisions to the three principles on arms exports, currently under consideration by the government, signify an attempt by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to promote what his administration terms “proactive contributions to peace” according to analysts. The envisioned contributions involve helping other nations to improve their own defense capabilities through exports of military equipment. The new principles will also help to clarify the circumstances under which arms exports would be authorized and to define the associated procedures. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Spin] [Arms sales]
• Japan’s debate on constitutional reinterpretation: paving the way for collective self-defence
  9 March 2014 Author: Hitoshi Tanaka, JCIE Recent developments in Japan’s national security policy under the Shinzo Abe government — including the November 2013 establishment of a National Security Council based on the US model, the announcement of the first National Security Strategy a month later, and ongoing moves to change the interpretation of the constitution to allow for the exercise of the right to collective self-defence — have gained attention around the world. Given the potential ramifications, these changes to Japan’s security posture need to be debated extensively in Japan and placed within the historical context. It is important that the Japanese government clearly explains to both its citizens at home and allies and partners abroad why changes are necessary and how they are part of a natural historical progression of Japan’s exclusively defence-oriented security policy framework. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Constitution]
• Comfort women issue is a global human rights problem
  4 March 2014 Author: Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ANU For the past year, Northeast Asia has been in the grip of a worsening spiral of tensions, provoked by territorial disputes and nationalist statements by political leaders. Careful diplomacy to defuse the deepening crisis is urgently needed. So the announcement by Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on 28 February that the Japanese government intends to ‘review’ the Kono Declaration was greeted in many quarters with an astonishment that borders on disbelief. [Comfort women] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Japan, U.S. differ on China in talks on 'grey zone' military threats
  By Nobuhiro Kubo, Linda Sieg and Phil Stewart TOKYO/WASHINGTON Sun Mar 9, 2014 9:19pm EDT A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island (top), Minamikojima (bottom) and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in the East China Sea, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 2012. Credit: Reuters/Kyodo (Reuters) - As Japan and the United States start talks on how to respond to armed incidents that fall short of a full-scale attack on Japan, officials in Tokyo worry that their ally is reluctant to send China a strong message of deterrence. Military officials meet this week in Hawaii to review bilateral defense guidelines for the first time in 17 years. Tokyo hopes to zero in on specific perceived threats, notably China's claims to Japanese-held islands in the East China Sea, while Washington is emphasizing broader discussions, officials on both sides say. Washington takes no position on the sovereignty of the islands, called the Senkaku by Japan and the Diaoyu by China, but recognizes that Japan administers them and says they fall under the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, which obligates America to come to Japan's defense. But even as Asia-Pacific security tensions mount, U.S. officials have made clear they do not want to get pulled into a conflict between the world's second- and third-biggest economies. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Control]
• Japan’s 2013 State Secrecy Act -- The Abe Administration’s Threat to News Reporting
  Lawrence Repeta The “Specially Designated Secrets Protection Law”1 poses a severe threat to news reporting and press freedom in Japan. Government officials have not shied away from intimidating reporters in the past. The new law will grant them greater power to do so. Passage of the law fulfills a longstanding government objective to gain additional leverage over the news media. The new law could have a withering effect on news reporting and thus on the people’s knowledge of the actions of their government. [Abe Shinzo]
• Japan’s moves toward collective self-defense related to US alliance
  Posted on : Mar.4,2014 17:18 KST Analysis shows that the Abe administration’s main security concern is actually China By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent Why is Japan so insistent on exercising its right to collective self-defense? The Asahi Shimbun newspaper published an analysis on Feb. 3 of the Shinzo Abe administration’s psychology, based on the view of domestic national security experts and former and current Defense Ministry officials. Its conclusion was that Tokyo is trying to make an early show of loyalty to Washington to prepare for the possibility of a military clash with China over the disputed Senkaku Islands (known as the Diaoyu Islands in China). The analysis, while somewhat Japan-centered, could be read as proof that the key security concern for Abe and Japanese conservatives is actually China. In mid-February, Japan and the US staged a joint exercise to recapture a simulated Japanese island at a Marine base on the California coast. The exercise had an elite Japan Self-Defense Forces (SDF) unit land on the island under the cover of US helicopters and landing boats. It was based on a scenario of the US teaming with Japan to recapture an island after being mobilized to help according to the Japan-US Security Treaty. [China confrontation] [Japanese remilitarisation] [US Japan alliance]
• Stories from Beyond the Grave: Investigating Japanese Burial Grounds in North Korea
  Mizuno Naoki Translation and Introduction by Mark E. Caprio The ravages of World War II and its aftermath in both Europe and Asia provoked one of the most extensive human migrations hitherto witnessed in world history as refugees scurried to escape the destruction. After the guns of war had been silenced and peace restored, these displaced peoples either by choice or force embarked on a long, and often dangerous, journey back to their homelands. Hundreds of thousands of these refugees, many further fleeing post-World War II battles in “liberated” states, died en route. Ben Shephard, in The Long Road Home: The Aftermath of the Second World War (London, Bodley Head 2010), dubs this “largely ignored” story the “war’s most important legacy” (p. 4). The figures that Shephard provides of European refugees are mindboggling: as many as 17 million foreigners and Germans displaced within Germany; 11 million Germans returning from their country’s occupied territories; millions of displaced peoples from German-occupied territories, including Jews released from concentration camps, returning home. This history would be repeated three months later, with significant variations, when Japan announced its intention to surrender to the Allied forces. Postwar migration in Northeast Asia included an estimated six million Japanese repatriating from imperial outposts and Pacific War battlefields, and three to four million Koreans returning primarily from Manchuria and Japan. Additionally, the region witnessed large-scale Chinese migration that included Taiwanese returning from Japan and mainland Chinese fleeing the beginnings of the civil war between Nationalist and Communist forces. Repatriation to and from Japan was envisaged as a two-way process: ships taking Japan-based Koreans to the peninsula would be reloaded with returning Japanese. Whereas in principle all Japanese were expected to repatriate, SCAP’s policy was that the repatriation of non-Japanese in Japan would not be forced but voluntary. For various reasons, including the fact that Korea was in turmoil, a large percentage of Koreans and Taiwanese chose to forgo repatriation and remain in Japan. Whatever their desires, not all Japanese residents in Korea were able to return to their homeland. In the following discussion, Kyoto University Professor Mizuno Naoki describes one population that died in northern Korea over the months that immediately followed the war’s end. At the war’s end approximately 400,000 Japanese residents lived in this region, of whom over 34,000 were laid to rest in one of the 71 known burial areas in North Korea. In late summer 2013 he joined a team of scholars to investigate the burial sites of these Japanese. The burial areas include formal cemeteries that existed from colonial times, and less-formal burial sites, some created literally where the Japanese died. The Japanese scholars examined six of these sites for the purpose of gathering information on the stories concerning the sites themselves and the people entombed within. Mizuno also provides important information on the barriers that prevented these Japanese from repatriating, including Soviet policy in these northern provinces and the deterioration of U.S.-Soviet relations. As with the European examples, these stories of Japanese are ones that have been ignored over the past seven decades. Rather, attention has been focused on the several hundred thousand Japanese (mostly military) that the Soviet military forcibly relocated to Siberia after the war for labor purposes. Mizuno’s efforts offer a more humane side of postwar Japanese-Soviet-North Korean relations. He records examples of the cooperation provided by local and occupation officials who issued the Japanese papers for transport or tacitly looked the other way as they crossed the thirty-eighth parallel. Mizuno cites further cooperation by contemporary North Korean officials and local residents as a critical factor underlying any successes their investigations achieved. [1945]
• Addressing Japan’s ‘Comfort Women’ Issue From an Academic Standpoint
  Tessa Morris-Suzuki Contesting the Kono Statement On 4 August 1993, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Kono Yohei issued an official declaration on the issue of the so-called 'comfort women' - women recruited to work in a large network of brothels operated by the Japanese military during the Asia-Pacific War, where many suffered terrible sexual and other physical and mental abuse, and many died. The declaration, based on a study conducted by the Japanese government, read in part as follows: Comfort stations were operated in response to the request of the military authorities of the day... The Government study has revealed that in many cases [the comfort women] were recruited against their own will, through coaxing coercion, etc., and that, at times, administrative/military personnel directly took part in the recruitments. They lived in misery at comfort stations under a coercive atmosphere. The Kono Declaration went on to express the government's 'sincere apologies and remorse' to the women concerned, and to say: We shall face squarely the historical facts as described above instead of evading them, and take them to heart as lessons of history. We hereby reiterated our firm determination never to repeat the same mistake by forever engraving such issues in our memories through the study and teaching of history. Kono's statement resulted not only from demands for an apology from countries like Korea, where many 'comfort women' had been recruited, but also from the work of many grassroots groups within Japan, who had worked tirelessly to seek recompense for the victims. The study carried out by the Japanese government involved the collection of official documents showing army involvement in the control and running of the 'comfort station' system. Testimony was also collected from sixteen former 'comfort women' in Korea, but not from victims of the system in more than a dozen other Asian countries. - See more at: http://japanfocus.org/-Tessa-Morris_Suzuki/4081?utm_source=March+3%2C+2014&utm_campaign=China%27s+Connectivity+Revolution&utm_medium=email#sthash.BnRWzzG3.dpuf [Comfort women] [Japanese colonialism]
• REALITY CHECK: What the Senkakus issue entails for Washington
  February 25, 2014 – Asahi Shimbun By TAKASHI OSHIMA/ Correspondent On Sept. 8, 2012, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sat across from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a long, narrow table with plastic bottles of water separated the two sides. She asked if it was really necessary. Clinton was referring to the decision made by the Noda administration two months earlier to have the central government purchase the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea from a private owner. The meeting with Noda was held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vladivostok, Russia. Clinton was standing in for U.S. President Barack Obama, who was attending the Democratic Party national convention. Clinton went on to ask Noda how he foresaw the situation playing out. Reading from notes prepared by Foreign Ministry officials, Noda explained that more stable maintenance and management of the islands would be possible if the central government owned the islands rather than the Tokyo metropolitan government. He added that it was China that had initiated the first change to the situation surrounding the Senkakus. However, Clinton did not look convinced. During a dinner reception that very same day, Akihisa Nagashima, a special adviser to Noda who sat in on that day’s meeting with Clinton, tried to explain the Japanese position to Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. The Obama administration was skeptical about the course that Japan had decided on. [Resurgence] [Diaoyu] [Control]
• Abe guts constitutional government
  Feb 21, 2014 Editorial, Japan Times constitutional interpretation that the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution prohibits Japan from exercising the right to collective self-defense, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared at a Feb. 12 session of the Lower House Budget Committee that he is the “highest responsible person” as far as the government’s constitutional interpretation is concerned. This is a highly problematic statement for a prime minister to make. Abe ignores the fact that successive governments have upheld the current interpretation that bans the exercise of the right to collective self-defense on the basis of studies done by the Cabinet Legislation Bureau over several decades. He also forgets the fact that those governments confirmed the interpretation in question-and-answer sessions in the Diet. Abe must realize that an established constitutional interpretation inherited by successive governments is not something a prime minister can freely change. [Abe Shinzo] [Constitution] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• U.S. State Department Warns of Japanese Hate of Koreans
  The U.S. State Department has raised concerns about "hate activities" by far-right Japanese groups against ethnic Koreans. In its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013 released last Thursday, the department said, "Ultra right-wing groups held a series of demonstrations in predominantly ethnic Korean neighborhoods in Tokyo [where] group members used racially pejorative terms and were accused of hate speech by the press and politicians." The report highlights the arrest of some rightwingers including the head of the leading anti-Korean civic group "Citizens Against Special Privileges for the Zainichi" or ethnic Koreans in Japan during demonstrations on June 17 last year. It reflects growing concern in the U.S. about a broader lurch to the far right in Japanese society since Shinzo Abe took power. Permanent residents of Brazilian, Chinese, Filipino and Korean descent, who were born and educated in Japan, are subject to various forms of discrimination including "reduced access to housing, education and employment" the report added.
• REALITY CHECK: What the Senkakus issue entails for Washington
  February 25, 2014 – Asahi Shimbun By TAKASHI OSHIMA/ Correspondent On Sept. 8, 2012, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sat across from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a long, narrow table with plastic bottles of water separated the two sides. She asked if it was really necessary. Clinton was referring to the decision made by the Noda administration two months earlier to have the central government purchase the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea from a private owner. The meeting with Noda was held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Vladivostok, Russia. Clinton was standing in for U.S. President Barack Obama, who was attending the Democratic Party national convention. Clinton went on to ask Noda how he foresaw the situation playing out. Reading from notes prepared by Foreign Ministry officials, Noda explained that more stable maintenance and management of the islands would be possible if the central government owned the islands rather than the Tokyo metropolitan government. He added that it was China that had initiated the first change to the situation surrounding the Senkakus. However, Clinton did not look convinced. During a dinner reception that very same day, Akihisa Nagashima, a special adviser to Noda who sat in on that day’s meeting with Clinton, tried to explain the Japanese position to Kurt Campbell, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. The Obama administration was skeptical about the course that Japan had decided on. [Resurgence] [Diaoyu] [Control]
• Abe guts constitutional government
  Feb 21, 2014 Editorial, Japan Times constitutional interpretation that the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution prohibits Japan from exercising the right to collective self-defense, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared at a Feb. 12 session of the Lower House Budget Committee that he is the “highest responsible person” as far as the government’s constitutional interpretation is concerned. This is a highly problematic statement for a prime minister to make. Abe ignores the fact that successive governments have upheld the current interpretation that bans the exercise of the right to collective self-defense on the basis of studies done by the Cabinet Legislation Bureau over several decades. He also forgets the fact that those governments confirmed the interpretation in question-and-answer sessions in the Diet. Abe must realize that an established constitutional interpretation inherited by successive governments is not something a prime minister can freely change. [Abe Shinzo] [Constitution] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• N.Korea, Japan to Hold Talks Next Month
  Red Cross officials from North Korea and Japan will meet next month to discuss the return of the remains of Japanese nationals from the North. The Japanese Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the talks will take place in Shenyang, China on March 3. The last Red Cross talks between the two countries took place in 2012. The Japanese ministry said North Korea made the request to resume dialogue. Also attending the talks will be foreign ministry officials from both sides, suggesting that more official meetings between Pyongyang and Tokyo could follow. A diplomatic source in Tokyo said, "North Korea has opted to hold talks in order to overcome the negative publicity brought on by the execution” of former eminence grise Jang Song-taek, "while Japan appears to be trying to pressure South Korea to hold a summit."
• 'Shinzo Abe trying to revive militarism'
  2014-02-28 17:03 Kim Hak-joon, president of the Northeast Asian History Foundation, gesticulates during an interview, Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul Japan does not deserve UNSC permanent seat By Chung Min-uck Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other right wing politicians are conspiring to revive a militaristic spirit, first espoused by Yoshida Shoin and promoted by Ito Hirobumi at the height of the country’s expansionist movement, a noted scholar said Thursday. “It’s a mistake to attribute their provocations to domestic political needs,” said Kim Hak-joon, president of the Northeast Asian History Foundation (NAHF), in an interview marking the 95th anniversary of the March 1, 1919 Independence Movement. “The Shoin spirit had been simmering under the surface before bursting out through Abe,” Kim said. Shoin was a 19th century Japanese philosopher who promoted Japan’s military adventurism in an imitation of western colonial powers. Hirobumi was one of his disciples leading the militaristic takeover of Japan and invasion of China. He was assassinated by An Jung-geun, a Korean independence fighter. [Abe Shinzo] [Japanese remilitarisation] [UNSC]

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FEBRUARY 2014

• Tensions in Asia Stoke Rising Nationalism in Japan
  Young Conservatives, Japan's Version of U.S.Tea Party, Are Fast Gaining Clout. By Yuka Hayashi Feb. 26, 2014 10:30 p.m. ET Across Japan, there are signs that the collective mood—long shaped by pangs of regret over World War II—is changing as tensions with rivals, especially China and South Korea, escalate. The WSJ's Michael Arnold finds out more from Yuka Hayashi. TOKYO—A movie glorifying the life of a World War II kamikaze pilot recently topped the box-office charts in Japan for two months. Tokyo book stores have set up corners for titles disparaging Japan's neighbors . Anonymous authors with radical nationalist views, known as neto uyo, short for "right-wingers on the Internet," are thriving on Twitter TWTR -0.70% and chat pages. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Inversion]
• Why is Japan trying to review Kono Statement?
  By Kim Tae-gyu Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his subordinates have sought to review or even nullify the 1993 Kono Statement, which acknowledged the forcible mobilization of sex slaves during World War II. Analysts say that such a move reflects their ultra-rightist nationalist view that Japan was not an aggressor but an Asian leader that put forth great efforts in order to safeguard East Asia from Western forces but unfortunately failed. [Abe Shinzo] [Japanese colonialism]
• Beijing urges Tokyo to take stance on pro-nuclear voices
  Xinhua 2014-02-25 16:33 (GMT+8) Beijing has urged Tokyo to make clear its stance on right-wing activists' latest pro-nuclear weapons statements as the country continues to hold large amounts of weapons-grade nuclear material. "In recent years, voices in favor of nuclear weapons have kept emerging in Japan without any clarification from the government," foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing on Monday. Given the country's massive stockpile of weapons-grade nuclear material, the international community is obviously worried about that, Hua said. "As a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Japan should adhere to its international obligations, and stick to its own Three Non-Nuclear Principles," according to the spokeswoman. Japan is reportedly in possession of 331 kg of weapons-grade plutonium, which could be used to produce 40 to 50 nuclear weapons, and another 44 tonnes of plutonium for nuclear reactors [Japanese remilitarisation] [Plutonium] [Straits] [Nuclearisation]
• American Rooster Prepares to Crow Atop Asian Dunghill
  Sunday, February 23, 2014 In other words, it’s time for the United States to engage in a full-throated celebration of the pivot to Asia with what I think is going to be President Obama’s America F*ck Yeah tour of Asian democracies in April 2014. The trip requires more than a little spadework, given the rather fraught situation in Asia. It’s not just that the PRC and the Japan are at each other’s throats and the Philippines has declared that the South China Sea is the new Sudetenland, and the PRC must be met with confrontation, not negotiation. It’s that the United States is less than completely happy with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s sharp elbows and the fractures they create in the pivot’s united front. There has been a fascinating flurry of op-eds in US prestige media (Bloomberg, NY Times, Washington Post, and Business Week) highly critical of Abe and his provocative visit to the Yasukuni Shrine… …a visit that took place in December 2013. Concerned chin-stroking end-February 2014 is a little late, it would seem. And for that matter, the highly insulting detail that Prime Minister Abe listened to Joe Biden’s importunities for an hour before blowing him off and visiting the shrine…that was leaked end January. So why, all of a sudden, does the US have its knickers in a knot concerning last year’s display of Abe’s rather unambiguous historical-revisionist inclinations? [Abe Shinzo] [Resurgence]
• Japan unveils plans for collective self-defense
  Posted on : Feb.24,2014 14:43 KST Moving away from pacifist constitution to allow mobilization could increase regional tension in East Asia By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent Japan unveiled the outline of its plans for exercising collective self-defense, which are scheduled for a final report in April. The plans are expected to trigger an outcry at home - to say nothing of neighboring South Korea and China - with terms that open the way for Japan to involve itself in virtually any global conflict. Shinichi Kitaoka, deputy chairman of the Advisory Panel on Reconstruction of the Legal Basis for Security, held a press conference at the Japan National Press Club on Feb. 22 to announce the five terms for collective self-defense exercise that are currently being discussed by the panel. According to Kitaoka, the terms include situations where a country “in a close relationship” with Japan is under attack, where failure to take action is expected to have a grave impact on Japanese security, where the country under attack has made a request, and where the Prime Minister has made a comprehensive decision and received the consent of the Diet. They also would require the consent of any country whose territory or waters would be traversed but is itself not under attack. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• The San Francisco System: Past, Present, Future in U.S.-Japan-China Relations
  John W. Dower NOTE: This essay, written in January 2013, appears as the first section in a book co-authored by John W. Dower and Gavan McCormack and published in Japanese translation by NHK Shuppan Shinsho in January 2014 under the title Tenkanki no Nihon e: “Pakkusu Amerikana” ka—“Pakkusu Ajia” ka (“Japan at a Turning Point—Pax Americana? Pax Asia?”; the second section is an essay by McCormack on Japan’s client-state relationship with the United States focusing on the East China Sea “periphery,” and the book concludes with an exchange of views on current tensions in East Asia as seen in historical perspective). An abbreviated version of the Dower essay also will be included in a forthcoming volume on the San Francisco System and its legacies edited by Kimie Hara and published by Routledge. As the endnotes reveal, many of the issues addressed here will be familiar to close followers of The Asia-Pacific Journal. The essay was written for a general audience rather than for specialists, with particular concern for calling attention to (1) the interwoven nature of contentious current issues, and (2) their historical genesis in the early years of the cold war, and in some cases earlier. Apart from a few very minor stylistic changes, the contents of the several texts of the essay are identical. No attempt has been made to incorporate developments since early 2013. Only this present version introduces illustrations. Legacies of the past are never far from the surface when it comes to present-day controversies and tensions involving Japan, China, and the United States. Take, for example, a single day in China: September 18, 2012. Demonstrators in scores of Chinese cities were protesting Japan’s claims to the tiny, uninhabited islands in the East China Sea known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese—desecrating the Hi no Maru flag and forcing many China-based Japanese factories and businesses to temporarily shut down. Simultaneously, Chinese leaders were accusing the United States and Japan of jointly pursuing a new “containment of China” policy—manifested, most recently, in the decision to build a new level of ballistic-missile defenses in Japan as part of the Obama administration’s strategic “pivot to Asia.” And September 18 in particular? This, the Chinese were keen to point out, was the eighty-first anniversary of the Manchurian Incident of 1931—the staged event that the Japanese military used as a pretext for seizing the three northeastern provinces of China and turning them into the quasi-colony they renamed Manchukuo. The disputed islands, the containment-of-China accusations, even the bitter “history issue” involving recollection of imperial Japan’s militarism all have toxic roots in the early years of the Cold War. Together with other present-day controversies, they trace back to the San Francisco System under which Japan re-entered the post-war world as a sovereign nation after being occupied by U.S. forces for over six years, from August 1945 to the end of April 1952. [US japan alliance] [China confrontation]
• Beyond the Bubble, Beyond Fukushima: Reconsidering the History of Postwar Japan
  Christopher Gerteis and Timothy S. George Abstract: Christopher Gerteis and Timothy S. George make a case for revisiting Japan’s postwar history in the second decade of the twenty-first century. They argue that Japan’s problematic responses to the triple disasters of March 2011 warrant re-evaluating the persistent myths of failure and success associated with Japan’s “postwar” and “post-bubble” eras. Japan’s spectacular economic growth after 1945 made it an exemplar of modern capitalism for business leaders in the Americas, Europe, and especially Pacific Asia, particularly at the height of its economic dominance in the 1980s. Japan was frequently held up as a model for the development of East and Southeast Asia. Malaysia was among the first to adopt a “Look East” policy, explicitly rejecting the “western model” in favor of one attributed to Japan. In 1979, the American sociologist Ezra Vogel published Japan as Number One, with the subtitle Lessons for America. Soon, executives from the United States were visiting their former pupil and strategic junior partner to learn the secrets of its success, while Japanese hubris was reflected in the bits of gold foil one could order sprinkled on sushi at exclusive restaurants. Japan was seen - and saw itself - as the successful pioneer and model in solving the problems of late-industrial capitalism, from urban crowding to labor-management relations to pollution. However, the collapse of mammoth real estate and stock market bubbles by 1991 launched the nation on two decades of economic stagnation punctuated by episodes of fitful growth, deflation and soul searching. The hubris that drove the 1980s - that “we had all the answers” - had collapsed. The confidence, and the certainty about national goals, slipped away in the 1990s. The bubble burst, the Cold War ended, the population aged, rural areas hemorrhaged population and struggled to stay alive, and China’s era of spectacularly rapid economic growth continued even longer than had Japan’s. Japan struggled to find a direction in what suddenly seemed to be a new and unfamiliar version of modernity, or postmodernity. There was much talk about the “Galapagos-ization” of Japan, a turning inward, a giving up of grand dreams and an acceptance that Japan’s global role and importance might shrink to the point where the nation would be ignored rather than copied by the rest of the world. It was no surprise that one response was to remember - or imagine - a time when things had been different. Store devastated by the March 11, 2011 tsunami, Rikuzentakata, ©Timothy S. George And then, after 11 March 2011, the state’s ineffectual response to the triple-crises of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan heightened popular debate over whether the nation was doomed to a slow decline or might yet be able to recover its vigor and discover a new path and new purposes.
• David vs. Goliath: Resisting the Denial of the Nanking Massacre
  Feb. 21, 2014 Joseph Essertier and Ono Masami Under ultraconservative Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, the process of Japan’s remilitarization has recently gained momentum. Japan’s rightward shift is embodied in a military buildup, Abe’s pilgrimage to Yasukuni Shrine, and historical revisionism. The buildup includes a new warship and more funding for the Self Defense Forces, greater surveillance over the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands, ignoring local opposition to a new military base in Okinawa, the State Secrets Law, establishment of an American-style national security council, and plans to reinterpret Article 9 of the Constitution to allow for collective self-defense. In December 2013 the Prime Minister worshipped at Yasukuni Shrine, probably violating the Constitution’s separation of church and state while sending a symbolically violent message to the people of neighboring countries victimized during the Asia-Pacific War (1931-45). Predictably, his visit infuriated Beijing and Seoul, but also prompted a sharp rebuke from Washington, demonstrating how isolated he is on rehabilitating Japan’s wartime past. Beyond lifting constitutional constraints on the military and beefing up Japan’s security capabilities, Abe and his supporters recognize the significance of rewriting history. Two of the most crucial areas of historical revisionism concern the government-sponsored enslavement and raping of women euphemistically termed “comfort women,” and the 1937 Nanking Massacre. In the last few years many influential public figures in Japan have claimed either that these atrocities never occurred or minimized their significance. In January 2014, in his first press conference as head of NHK (Japan's equivalent to the BBC) Momii Katsuto downplayed the importance of the controversial comfort women system of wartime sexual slavery by equating it misleadingly with similar practices in other countries. This provoked domestic and international condemnation similar to the outcry sparked by the apologist remarks of Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Toru in 2013 and indeed by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s quibbling in 2007 about the degree of coercion used in recruiting Korean teenage girls to serve as comfort women. This revisionist revanchism has become rampant as Hyakuta Naoki, one of NHK’s new board members also appointed at Abe’s behest, openly denied that the Nanjing massacre happened, a position that raises further questions about Abe’s judgment and agenda. - See more at: http://www.japanfocus.org/events/view/209?utm_source=February+24%2C+2014&utm_campaign=China%27s+Connectivity+Revolution&utm_medium=email#sthash.As9HqRCK.dpuf [Japanese remilitarisation] [War crimes]
• World War III Will Be Pre-Fought on Twitter
  I would recommend that readers who have not yet done so create a Twitter account and subscribe to my feed (@chinahand). To my embarrassment and surprise, I’ve churned out over 800 tweets since I started up my feed last November. Some of it is meaningless ephemera, of course. But sometimes the twitter stream carries in it telling or insightful tweets that illustrate the dynamics of debate over US foreign policy as it evolves over a month, a week, or maybe even a day and are worth retweeting. And, of course, I put in my own two cents worth, hopefully in a telling and insightful fashion, on subjects that are perhaps too fleeting or developing too quickly for a post, but are significant nonetheless. For instance, I’ve become more attuned to the back-and-forth between US pro-Japan China hawks and the (relative) moderates in the Obama administration and the role of the Abe administration’s role as observer, participant, and victim or beneficiary depending on how the debate evolves. One set of my tweets addressed the PRC inserting itself into a spat between the United States and Japan concerning Japan’s footdragging in returning a few hundred kilos of weapon-grade plutonium. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Nuclearisation] [Plutonium] China confrontation]
• Abe adviser visited Dalian for possible North contact
  Kyodo Feb 11, 2014 BEIJING – An adviser to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe secretly visited the northeastern Chinese port city of Dalian, not far from North Korea, for about four days in late October, diplomatic sources said, adding fuel to recent speculation that Tokyo has resumed delicate negotiations with Pyongyang.
• Amendment not needed for collective defense: Abe
  Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday reiterated his administration’s position that the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution on its own gives Japan the right to collective self-defense. It’s not necessary to amend the Constitution for Japan to engage in collective self-defense, Abe told lawmakers at the Upper House Budget Committee. The right to use the Self-Defense Forces to defend allies and friendly nations that come under attack is a central pillar of Abe’s “proactive pacifism.” The prime minister asserts that Japan is at a disadvantage if forbidden to exercise this right at a time when it is being asked to play a more active role in maintaining global security. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Interpretation]
• Japan’s defence ban must be revised, says government panel
  Rewriting constitution is too hard for now, so reinterpretation to let Tokyo help allies is vital to counter a resurgent China, advisers warn A panel set up by the Japanese government is to recommend a reinterpretation of the section of the constitution that bans the nation from assisting allies at a time of military crisis – legally described as collective defence – until there is enough public support for rewriting the constitution. The 14-strong panel held its latest round of discussions on Tuesday, examining the best ways in which Japan might enhance its defences given the growing threats to regional stability. Those perceived threats were not specified, but the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made no secret of the fact that it sees a resurgent China as a challenge to peace in the Asia-Pacific region. There also are fears over an unpredictable and nuclear-armed North Korea. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Interpretation] [Threat]
• Kissinger Says Asia Is Like 19th-Century Europe on Use of Force
  By Jonathan Tirone and Patrick Donahue – Feb 2, 2014 Bloomberg Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger raised the specter of war in Asia as tension between China and Japan played out at a global security conference. “Asia is more in a position of 19th-century Europe, where military conflict is not ruled out,” Kissinger, 90, said on a panel at the meeting in Munich, Germany, yesterday. “Between Japan and China, the issue for the rest of us is that neither side be tempted to rely on force to settle the issue.” Fu Ying, chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of China’s National People’s Party Congress, told the conference earlier that China’s relationship with Japan is “probably at its worst” amid a territorial dispute. China will take action to maintain stability in the region, she said.
• What Me Worry? US Says OK to Japanese Collective Self Defense
  Tuesday, February 11, 2014 The United States government, be it the White House, the security strategists, the civilian leadership, or the military brass apparently has no qualms about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s decision to affirm Japan’s right to practice “collective self defense” or CSD. In the face of public disapproval, resistance by the impotent political opposition, and gentle pushback from the LDP’s minority partner, Abe looks to implement CSD by by asserting the government’s right to repurpose the provisions of the pacifist constitution without formal revision or reinterpretation, but through a simple statement by the Cabinet. US supporters have been cheering him on in this awkward process, like anxious soccer parents on the sidelines trying to will a clumsy toddler into nudging the ball into an empty net. Whether or not this is a good idea, especially as it will permit Japan to restructure its security relationship with its future Asian allies without US mediation, history will, as they say, judge. But it looks like the United States is all in, on the basis that collective self defense will enable Japanese military forces to assist the US. [Japanese remilitarisation] [US Global strategy] [Client] [Resurgence] [US japan alliance]
• Japan Held Secret Talks with N.Korea Last Year
  A key confidante of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held secret talks in Beijing last year with a high-ranking North Korean official, Japan's Kyodo News reported Tuesday. The Japanese official was Isao Iijima, an advisor to Abe. Kyodo cited sources in China as saying Iijima met a North Korean official in Dalian, near the border with the North, in October. The officials discussed the auction of a building in Japan owned by the pro-Pyongyang association of Korean residents in Japan, or Chongryon, and other issues. The news agency said Iijima may have even discussed ending Japan’s economic sanctions against the North and a possible summit between Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Any secret contact that took place between Japan and North Korea without informing South Korea and the U.S. could undermine concerted efforts the three allies are making to deal with the North's nuclear weapons program.
• Abe Cites N.Korean Threat to Justify Military Expansion
  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe mentioned North Korea on Monday as a reason why Japan wants to assert its right to so-called collective self-defense, which would allow it to deploy troops abroad if an ally is in some way under threat. Speaking before the lower house of the Diet, Abe said his government is "discussing whether it would be acceptable not to resist" North Korean movements of weapons and munitions at a time when Pyongyang is attacking the U.S. or defying international sanctions. Abe said he cited North Korea as an example to "make it easier to understand." It is the first specific country he has named as a justification for loosening the pacifist principles of Japan’s postwar constitution, which prohibits deployment of active fighting troops abroad. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Threat]
• North Korea Proves It’s the Internet Troll of Diplomacy
  BY J. Dana Stuster FEBRUARY 4, 2014 - 06:07 PM It's an Internet truism -- known as Godwin's Law -- that "given enough time, in any online discussion -- regardless of topic or scope -- someone inevitably makes a comparison to Hitler or the Nazis." Sometimes this natural law of online commenting literally crosses over into the real world, so it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that North Korea, the Internet troll of international diplomacy, called Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe an "Asian Hitler" in an editorial published Tuesday by state news agency KCNA. [Abe Shinzo] [Media] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Japan's rightist moves gaining momentum
  By Kang Seung-woo The confrontation between Korea and Japan is expanding, with Tokyo creating more buzz regarding its imperialist past and wartime aggression and Seoul standing firm against the rightist moves. Unlike being limited to absurd remarks in the past, Japan and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are employing a strategy stretching into the area of culture. The latest tilt is taking place at UNESCO, as a city of the island country is seeking to add suicide notes and letters written by kamikaze pilots during World War II to the institution’s World Heritage list. Approximately 4,000 kamikaze pilots carried out suicide attacks against U.S. naval vessels in the closing stages of WW II.
• China criticizes Japan over comments doubting Nanjing massacre
  BEIJING Wed Feb 5, 2014 10:49pm EST (Reuters) - China's Foreign Ministry has criticized remarks by a board member of Japan's state broadcaster who said a massacre carried out by Japanese troops in China's then-capital of Nanjing in 1937 did not happen. China consistently reminds people of Japan's historical brutality, such as the Nanjing Massacre in which China says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people. A post-war Allied tribunal put the death toll at 142,000, but some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars deny a massacre took place. Naoki Hyakuta, a member of NHK's board of governors who is also a novelist and commentator, was quoted by Japanese media this week as saying the Nanjing Massacre did not happen. [War crimes] [Japanese colonialism] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Obama Administration Quietly Pushes Back Against Japan Lobby
  [In the original version of this post, I mis-stated the US position on coverage of the Senkakus by the US-Japan Security Treaty. President George W. Bush had affirmed it, President Obama was reportedly primed to retract it, but Secretary of State Clinton reaffirmed it during the US response to the 2010 rare earth crisis. The post is corrected. The US recognized Japanese administrative control of the Senkakus as part of the agreement to revert sovereignty over Okinawa in 1973, but intentionally did not take an official position on sovereignty, largely out of deference of the Republic of China's sensitivities on the subject, and declared that the issue was to be worked out between Japan & Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. The issue of the [lack of] a US position on Senkaku sovereignty is the subject of an authoritative analysis and presentation of the relevant documents by Yabuki Susumu and Mark Selden at Japan Focus. With this context, it is clear that the "national purchase" which triggered the most recent iteration of the Senkaku crisis, by unambiguously claiming Japanese sovereignty over the Senkakus, discarded the Nixon-era understanding and, indeed, may have been a slap at the United States as much as the PRC. CH 2/2/2014] [Diaoyu] [Japanese remilitarisation] [Resurgence]
• Japan engaged in desperate lobbying against East Sea name: document
  The Japanese Embassy in Washington signed a $75,000 contract recently with a major U.S. public affairs firm in a bid to kill a legislation on the use of the "East Sea" name, according to a related document. Yonhap News Agency on Sunday obtained the four-page contract signed in mid-December between the embassy and McGuireWoods Consulting LLC (MWC). It details the company's strategy to block a legislative move in the U.S. state of Virginia on identifying the body of waters between Korea and Japan. [Lobby]
• Return arms-grade plutonium: U.S.
  27 January, 2014 – Japan Times Washington has been pressing Tokyo to return over 300 kg of mostly weapons-grade plutonium given to Japan for research purposes during the Cold War era, Japanese and U.S. government sources said Sunday. President Barack Obama’s administration, which is keen to ensure nuclear security, wants Japan to return the plutonium supplied for use as nuclear fuel in a fast critical assembly in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, the sources said. The highly concentrated plutonium could be used to produce 40 to 50 nuclear weapons. Japan has strongly resisted returning the plutonium, which it says is needed for researching fast reactors. But it has finally given in to repeated U.S. demands, the sources said. [Plutonium] [Nuclearisation]
• Japan says historic maps bolster claim to islands controlled by South Korea
  24 January, 2014 – South China Morning Post Five old maps have gone on display in the southern Japanese city of Matsue, supposedly providing fresh evidence that islands held by South Korea and known as Dokdo are in fact Japanese territory. Tokyo claims the two rocky outcrops, approximately 157 kilometres from the Oki Islands, should be listed as the Japanese islands of Takeshima. [Dokdo] [Territorial disputes]
• Obama Administration Quietly Pushes Back Against Japan Lobby
  In a rather unnoticed development, Shinzo Abe’s administration in Japan has been determinedly nibbling away at the Obama administration’s freedom of action in Asia, seeking to foreclose positions and options that fall outside the contain/confront China spectrum so desirable to Japan. The United States may never fall into the “tail wagging the dog” relationship with Japan, at least in its own mind; but the cost of Asian security initiatives that are at cross purposes with Japanese desires will increase until, perhaps, they don’t seem worth it. [Japanese remilitarisation] [China confrontation] [Friction]

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JANUARY 2014

• Is Abe Starting to Treat the Obama Administration as a Lame Duck?
  And is Joe Biden the Designated Whipping Boy? There has always been an implicit contradiction between Shinzo Abe's declared desire to "bring Japan back" and the US wish to lead "Free Asia". The divergence of aims has been obscured by the eagerness of the US defense establishment to encourage Japan's increasing heft as a "security" "defense" "active pacifist"; well, let's just say "military" power, in order to add to the credibility of US hegemony in the Western Pacific, and Japan's awareness that US military backing - if properly exploited by invoking the US-Japan Security Treaty - can give Japan a significant leg up in its confrontation with the People's Republic of China. The Abe administration has performed exactly as desired by American military strategists, both in its willingness, nay eagerness to build up its military and endorse the concept of "collective self defense", and on the highly contentious issue of shoving the Futenma airbase relocation down the throats of the resisting Okinawan people by a combination of financial blandishments and crude political pressure. However, there are signs that the are tensions in the US-Japan romance, largely because the Obama administration is serious about exploiting the potential of its "honest broker" role to carve out a role for itself as the even-handed interlocutor between Japan and China - a role that the PRC is encouraging in order to drive a wedge between Tokyo and Washington - and is therefore not giving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the full-throated support that he believes he needs and deserves. [Abe Shinzo] [Japanese remilitarisation] [Client] [Friction]
• Two Steps Forward Two Steps Back in Abe's Contain-China Initiative
  The week started well with Abe in full regional statesman fig delivering a “China must be contained” speech at Davos (Yes, I know, nobody openly uses the "C" word, "containment" but if anyone can come up with a better descriptor, let me know). Ian Bremmer and a significant contingent of think-tank poobahs seemed primed to love the speech, and they did. First, Bremmer: And Prime Minister Abe just came, he gave a great speech. Folks are optimistic about the economy. The one part of the speech that people were really concerned about was Japan-China. And understandably. He’s criticizing the Chinese as being aggressive and militaristic. He compared Japan-China relations explicitly to relations between Germany and the U.K in 1914, where the economic relations were good but the security tensions, let’s say, were not so good. And we saw what happened there. I wouldn’t say that Abe was directly raising the specter of war, but he was saying that China is acting in a manner that’s unacceptable and Japan won’t tolerate it. Bremmer also implied that the PRC was taking advantage of a certain lack of American testicular fortitude on the China question: [Abe Shinzo] [China confrontation]
• Could Hosokawa Morihiro’s political comeback restore sanity to Japanese politics?
  Jan. 26, 2014 Sven Saaler In the upcoming Tokyo gubernatorial elections, Hosokawa Morihiro could make an astonishing comeback more than a quarter of a century after retiring as Prime Minister. Mainstream and independent media have generally stressed his opposition to nuclear power and his support for green energy alternatives, in contrast to the national government of Abe Shinzo. However, Abe and Hosokawa also represent different poles in another controversial field of politics – the politics of memory including the fraught question of apologies for war and the regional and global implications of their respective stances. Abe's visit to the Yasukuni Shrine in December 2013 was only the climax of his career as a historical revisionist. It has been his declared objective to “overcome the postwar regime” and rectify the “distorted image” of Japan’s wartime past rooted in Japanese society. The image that he is referring to, one widely shared not only by Japan’s Asian neighbors but also by its patron and ally the United States, is that of Japan as an aggressor nation in the Asia-Pacific War (1931-45). For Abe, the war was rather one fought for the defense of Japan against the Western colonial powers and for the liberation of East Asia.
• The Front Line in the Struggle for Democracy in Japan – Nago City, Okinawa
  Gavan McCormack Introduction Through the first year of his second term as Prime Minister (December 2012-December 2013) Abe Shinzo’s government stirred concern on the part of neighbour countries, Japan’s key “ally” the United States, and global opinion generally. Despite some suggestion of economic recovery under “Abenomics,” there was something inexplicable about Japan. Abe’s revisionist historical views, his commitment to Yasukuni, and his hard-line stance on territorial disputes, had plunged relations with China and South Korea to new depths, while raising the level of tension with the United States. When Abe spoke of “liquidating the post-war” regime so as to replace it with a “new” or “beautiful” Japan, he meant one whose citizens would be expected, indeed required, to love it, with a drastically revised new constitution that would widen state prerogatives and narrow citizen rights, a “national defense army” replacing the existing Self Defense Forces and national security reinforced by a tightened, draconian “secrets protection” law and a Prime Ministerial National Security Council (both now in place). The door also opened to the export of Japanese weapons and nuclear power plants as well as the dispatch of Japanese soldiers to global theatres under a doctrine of “collective self-defense.” His is a vision more radical than that of any previous post-war Prime Minister, including his grandfather, Kishi Nobusuke, Prime Minster 1957-1960, who in 1960 pushed through the US-Japan Security Treaty agreement against massive opposition. Yet the nature of the changing balance of forces in the nation state and the global system is such that the full weight of such changes, or their implications, may not be immediately felt at the centre, in Tokyo, or grasped by the major media, Japanese or international. At the periphery, however, especially in Okinawa, the lines of regional, national, international, and global policy intersect and the grand design has immediate implications for everyday life. Following earlier essays in this journal, and my co-authored book with Satoko Oka Norimatsu in 2012,1 in the series commencing in this journal late in 2013, I have focussed on the implications of two specific events: the decision by the Okinawa Governor on an application by the Government of Japan for license to reclaim a large sector of Oura Bay in Northern Okinawa for construction of a US Marine Corps base, to which the existing base at Futenma would ultimately be transferred, and the election of a city mayor in Nago, the site of the projected base. Previous articles covered the former, the build-up through 2013 towards the decision eventually announced by Governor Nakaima on 27 December to reverse his previous stance that Futenma should be transferred “outside Okinawa” and grant the license.2 This essay considers the latter: the events leading to and from the election held in Nago City on 19 January 2014. [Okinawa] [Bases]
• US presses Japan to hand back exported plutonium
  Xinhua, January 27, 2014 Japan's key ally the United States has been pressing the country to return more than 300 kg of mostly weapons-grade plutonium that exported to Japan for research purposes during the Cold War, reported local media. The plutonium that stored at a fast critical assembly in Tokaimura in Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture could be used to produce 40 to 50 nuclear weapons, reported Japan's Kyodo News, citing unnamed Japanese and U.S. government officials. Japan has strongly resisted the demand raised by U.S. President Barack Obama's administration, but it finally gave in to repeated demands, Kyodo said. The two countries since last year have been seriously discussing the issue as the United States plans to reach an accord with Japan at the third nuclear security summit in March in the Netherlands, according to the report. The fast critical assembly belonged to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency is Japan's only critical assembly designed to study characteristics of fast reactors. The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and other researchers have argued that the plutonium in question is needed for research and vital for producing good data, said Kyodo. At present, Japan has another estimated 44 tonnes of plutonium, but its quality is not on par with the plutonium used for research purposes, Kyodo quoted a Japanese expert as saying. [Plutonium] [Nuclearisation]
• Japan: new head of public broadcaster shrugs off use of wartime sex slaves
  Calls for NHK's Katsuto Momii to resign after remarks that risk fuelling tension with South Korea and China Justin McCurry in Tokyo theguardian.com, Monday 27 January 2014 04.49 GMT The new chairman of Japan’s national broadcaster is facing calls for his resignation after defending Japan’s use of wartime sex slaves and suggesting that he would toe the government line on key diplomatic issues. Katsuto Momii’s remarks, made over the weekend at a his first press conference as head of NHK, are likely to anger China and South Korea, both victims of Japan’s militarism in the first half of the 20th century. They also risk adding to prime minister Shinzo Abe’s diplomatic woes amid rising tensions with China and South Korea over territorial disputes and interpretations of Japan’s wartime conduct. Momii said brothels were “common” in all countries involved in the war, and described as “puzzling” criticism of Japan’s enslavement of up to 200,000 mainly Korean, Chinese and Filipino women – euphemistically known as “comfort women” – in frontline brothels across Asia between 1932 and 1945. "Can we say there were none in Germany or France? It was everywhere in Europe," he said. "In the current moral climate the use of comfort women would be wrong. But it was a reality of those times. [Comfort women] [Japanese colonialism] [Media]
• Former comfort woman passes away at age 90
  Posted on : Jan.27,2014 15:44 KST ) Hwang Geum-ja was known for her exceptional generosity, and the trauma of her wartime suffering By Lee Jae-uk, staff reporter For the duration of the Catholic ceremony for the departed, the singing of hymns never stopped. “Watch over the soul that has departed today,” they sang. “Give her eternal peace and rest.” A recent remark by NHK chairman Katsuto Momii that every country has had its comfort women could have disturbed Hwang Geum-ja’s passing, but in her funeral portrait, her face was at peace. Hwang Geum-ja, who was forcibly mobilized as a comfort woman for the Japanese imperial army, passed away at the Bumin Hospital in Seoul on Jan. 26. After being hospitalized last month for ailments associated with old age, her health deteriorated. Ultimately, she died of sepsis. 237 former comfort women have been registered with the government, but Hwang’s death brought the number remaining alive today down to 55. [Comfort women] [Japanese colonialism]
• Japan's Militarization Leads to Foolish Self-Destruction: Rodong Sinmun
  Pyongyang, January 23 (KCNA) -- Japanese Prime Minister Abe in the New Year news conference said now is the time to fight to retake "strong Japan" and that the people's discussions should be deepened to amend the constitution in keeping with the changing times. His remarks were not made deliberately but they fully revealed the sinister intention of the Japanese reactionaries, says Rodong Sinmun Thursday in an article. It goes on: The gravity and danger of the moves of the Japanese reactionaries to revive militarism lie in that the moves have reached an undisguised phase in which they are not reading the face of the international community. The present Abe Cabinet advertising "strong Japan" is rushing headlong into moves to turn Japan into a military giant. Japan opts for increasing military expenditure. It is frequently sparking off territorial disputes in the waters around it. The Japanese right-wing forces made history textbooks which beautify the war ignited by the Japanese imperialists and justify the past history in a bid to educate the rising generation with them. The Japanese reactionaries are openly bringing the issues of turning their country into a military power and launching reinvasion up for discussion as a state policy and pushing forward with them. It is their calculation that if they increase military expenditure and amend the constitution, they can certainly opt for reinvasion legitimately. It is now meaningless to discuss whether Japan is a "pacifist state" or a war state. Japan, the war state which threw off the mask of the "pacifist state", is emerging as vicious aggression forces in the 21st century dreaming of conquering the world. If Japan persists in its moves for militarization and overseas aggression, oblivious of the lesson from the defeat of the Japanese imperialists, this will bring nothing but ruin to it, the article warns. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Nago mayor wins re-election in blow to Abe, U.S.
  by Eric Johnston Staff Writer Jan 19, 2014 Nago Mayor Susumu Inamine won re-election late Sunday, dealing a setback to the central government’s plans to build a replacement air base for the U.S. Marines in the Henoko district just weeks after Okinawa’s governor approved the deal. “This election was easy to understand. It was about one issue, the Henoko issue, and whether you were for or against the new base,” Inamine told supporters. “The people have spoken and they have said no.” Inamine, 68, defeated former Okinawa Assemblyman Bunshin Suematsu, 65, by a vote of 19,839 to 15,684. Turnout was high at 76.71 percent. During his campaign, Inamine vowed to remain a staunch opponent of moving U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from crowded Ginowan up north to Nago. His re-election to a second term will create new headaches for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government, and comes less than a month after Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima granted Tokyo permission to proceed with a base-related landfill project in Henoko Bay despite opposition from the mayor and the Nago city council. [Okinawa] [Bases]
• Japan’s Naval Ambitions in the Indian Ocean
  16 January, 2014 – Stratfor Tokyo’s request to participate in the naval exercises comes at a time when Japan is not only increasing its economic ties in East Africa and the Indian Ocean basin, but is also seeking to bolster its defense ties with India. The Japanese just concluded their first-ever bilateral naval exercise with the Indians in the Bay of Bengal in December 2013. The Indian government also affirmed in early January that Tokyo and New Delhi have agreed to hold more regular bilateral air and naval exercises. A number of constraints preclude a true strategic alliance between Japan and India at the moment, but that has not stopped New Delhi and Tokyo from bolstering their ties, particularly in the military and security domains. In particular, the prospect of defense industry cooperation and joint military training programs are driving Japan’s recent courting of India. Beyond the economic and industrial benefits of a closer relationship with India, an increased presence in the Indian Ocean would marginally enhance Japan’s ability to protect its own sea-lanes of supply while simultaneously placing Japan in a position to independently threaten those of China. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Seapower] [Counterbalance]
• Izumo to serve as command ship
  [Note: This ship is essentially an aircraft carrier, and if it can accommodate five helicopters landing at the same time, it should be able to accommodate osprey planes as well. – JG] 13 January, 2014 – Japan Times The brand new Maritime Self-Defense Force helicopter destroyer Izumo will undergo a refit to serve as the command center for defending remote islands in the southwest, sources said. By deploying a vessel with front-line headquarters functions, the Defense Ministry aims to strengthen the integrated operations of the Self-Defense Forces in the event coordinated actions are needed to retake remote islands that have been captured, the sources said. The move reflects the outline of a new defense program mapped out in December that calls for creating an amphibious unit in the Ground Self-Defense Force whose main task would be to take back islands. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Seapower] [China confrontation]
• Spinning the Tokyo Metro Election
  Andrew DeWit The election campaign for the Tokyo metropolitan government (TMG) does not begin, officially, until January 23, with the voting scheduled for February 9. But there is already an enormous amount of spin in the Japanese press and social media, as well as in the lamentably meagre coverage offered by English-language media and bloggers. I won't pretend to be objective about the election and assessing the associated reporting and commentary. Like 455 of Japan's 1789 local governments, I personally think Japan should get out of nuclear power,1 or at the very least reform its power markets—separating generation from transmission—before undertaking any restarts. Japan’s best option is green and smart growth, and it is incredible to watch a TMG campaign unfold focused on that opportunity. That said, let us look at some of the spin and what it reveals about the stakes in the present election. There has, of course, been much social media attention to such items as seeming favoured, and Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)-backed, candidate Masuzoe Youichi. One disturbing item is the apparent spousal abuse of LDP House of Councillors member Katayama Satsuki when they were briefly married in 1986.2 But the focus of most of the spin has been the candidacy of Hosokawa Morihiro, the former governor of Kumamoto Prefecture as well as Prime Minister – briefly – from August 1993 to April 1994. His candidacy was clearly encouraged by former Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro, who last fall became increasingly vocal in his advice to current PM and LDP head Abe Shinzo to get out of nuclear power. Koizumi’s press conferences and other very visible efforts followed his fact-finding trip to Germany and Finland in early August of 2013. Albeit less vocal than Koizumi, Hosokawa also became anti-nuclear due not only to Japan's still-unfolding tragedy at Fukushima Daiichi and its environs, but also by learning, in 2005, of the UK's Sellafield nuclear reprocessing facility's leak and its consequences. Last December, the duo of Hosokawa-Koizumi was presented with the unexpected election for TMG governor, due to the December 19 resignation of disgraced former governor Inose Naoki [Nuclear energy]
• The Great Betrayal
  Jan. 13, 2014 C. Douglas Lummis December 27 will be remembered as a black day in Okinawan history. On that day, Okinawa Governor Nakaima Hirokazu cast aside his campaign promises, his statements made repeatedly during the last three years, and his duty as Governor to represent the Okinawan people’s will, and approved the Japanese governments’ application for permission to begin reclaiming land offshore from Henoko in northern Okinawa, on which to build a new US Marine Corps base. This amounts to approval of the base, which he had promised to oppose. This is also an event that will be researched and debated for years by people who want to understand the mechanics of colonial domination. It is a classical case, as though Nakaima had studied the works of the great anti-colonial scholars such as Franz Fanon and Albert Memmi, and learned from them what to do. As they wrote, a colony can’t be controlled by outside force alone; it requires cooperation from among the elite class of the colonized people, elites who hope to profit from the colonial situation, who have learned to think like the colonists, and who imagine themselves as having passed over into a status of equality with them. [Okinawa] [Collaborator]]
• Bombs Bursting in Air: State and citizen responses to the US firebombing and Atomic bombing of Japan
  1 Mark Selden Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: "In God is our trust." And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! I US Firebombing and Atomic Bombing of Japan This paper assesses and compares the impact and historical significance of the firebombing and atomic bombing of Japanese cities in the history of war and the history of disaster. Japan’s decision to surrender, pivoting on issues of firebombing and atomic bombing, Soviet entry into the war, and the origins of Soviet-American confrontation, is the most fiercely debated subject in twentieth century American global history. The surrender question, however, is addressed only in passing here. The focus is rather on the human and social consequences of the bombings, and their legacy in the history of warfare and historical memory in the long twentieth century. Part one provides an overview of the calculus that culminated in the final year of the war in a US strategy centered on the bombing of civilians and assesses its impact in shaping the global order. Part two examines the bombing in Japanese and American historical memory including history, literature, commemoration and education. What explains the power of the designation of the postwar as the atomic era while the area bombing of civilians by fire and napalm, which would so profoundly shape the future of warfare in general, American wars in particular, faded to virtual invisibility in Japanese, American and global consciousness? World War II was a landmark in the development and deployment of technologies of mass destruction associated with air power, notably the B-29 bomber, napalm, fire bombing, and the atomic bomb. In Japan, the US air war reached peak intensity with area bombing and climaxed with the atomic bombing of Japanese cities between the night of March 9-10 and the August 15, 1945 surrender. The strategic and ethical implications and human consequences of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have generated a vast, contentious literature. By contrast, the US destruction of more than sixty Japanese cities prior to Hiroshima has been slighted, at least until recently, both in the scholarly literatures in English and Japanese and in popular consciousness. It has been overshadowed by the atomic bombing and by heroic narratives of American conduct in the “Good War” that has been at the center of American national consciousness thereafter.2Arguably, however, the central breakthroughs that would characterize the American way of war subsequently occurred in area bombing of noncombatants prior to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki [WMD] [Airpower] [American way of war]
• The Sun Also Rises: Resisting Militarism in Japan
  It’s a critical time to support Japanese efforts to oppose Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s nationalist refashioning of his country. By John Feffer, January 15, 2014. I passed through an enormous tori, the traditional gate in front of Shinto shrines. In the courtyard, white-clad Shinto priests walked quietly back and forth. A flock of white doves, specially bred on the site, pecked at the ground and then took wing at the prodding of a photographer. I visited the strolling garden and the sumo ring. I examined the ema, the small wooden plaques that worshippers hang at the shrine to send their wishes to the kami, or spirits. More than a decade ago, I was enjoying my visit to Yasukuni Shrine, a tranquil oasis in busy Tokyo, when my attention was suddenly attracted to several large objects lying on the ground outside the museum within the shrine complex. One of the objects was a kaiten. During World War II, the Japanese Army developed this manned torpedo for suicide missions. It was an ominous sign. Inside the museum, the Yushukan, the curators presented a sanitized version of Japan’s wartime conduct that celebrated sacrifice and ignored the less savory elements. There was no discussion of atrocities like the Nanking massacre or the drafting of women into sexual slavery or the chemical weapons experimentation. Indeed, at a book table on the ground floor, I scanned the titles of several publications that exposed these “myths.” [Yasukuni]
• The Origins of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Dispute between China, Taiwan and Japan
  2mYabuki Susumu with an introduction by Mark Selden This article introduces Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) documents and Okinawa Reversion Treaty Hearings on the Senkaku dispute to clarify Japanese, Chinese and United States positions on the historical origins and contemporary trajectory of the Senkaku/Diaoyu (hereafter, Senkaku) dispute. Introduction Yabuki Susumu, in a series of articles and talks, has rigorously mined the historical record of China (PRC/ROC)-Japan-US relations to illuminate the background to the dangerous conflict that presently threatens to bring war to the Western Pacific in the wake of Japanese nationalization of three of the Senkaku islands in September 2012. While other important issues add to the gravity of the conflict, including enlarged territorial claims by China, Japan and Korea in the form of advancing and defending competing claims to ADIZ in the East China and South China Seas, Yabuki shows the long trajectory of competing claims over the Senkaku dispute and the evolving policies of China, Japan and the United States in shaping it. Since so much of the international discussion of the issues has focused on China-Japan conflict, a particularly important contribution of the present paper is its clear presentation of US recognition at the highest levels of the significance of the competing territorial claims, and its maneuvering in negotiations with Taipei, Tokyo, and Beijing to shape the outcome. The story can, of course, be traced back to earlier claims to the islands, including historical interactions involving Taiwan and Okinawan fishermen and Chinese tributary missions, to Japanese claims to the islands, and to their disposition by the US in framing and implementing the San Francisco Peace Treaty. The treaty set the stage for the transfer of the Senkaku to Japan in 1972 at the time of the reversion of administrative rights to Okinawa. But the story told here pivots on the detailed negotiations between Washington and Taipei in 1971 in the context of the US-China opening. What it shows is keen awareness of the Senkaku question by the ROC as early as 1970 in the context of US preparation for the reversion of Okinawa, and preoccupation with the issue by both Kissinger and Nixon in as they prepare the 1971 US-China opening at the time of Ping Pong Diplomacy and discussions of PRC resumption of the UN Security Council Seat. An ROC Note Verbale to the State Department of March 15, 1971 made the historical and contemporary case for Chinese possession of the Senkaku islands. Following close attention to its content, in the shadow of demonstrations over the islands on Taiwan, Kissinger handwrote in the margin, “But that is nonsense since it gives islands to Japan. How can we get a more neutral position?” The authoritative legal position of the US was given at the time of the Fulbright Hearings on reversion in the form of a memorandum of October 20, 1971 by Robert I Starr, Acting Assistant Legal Adviser for East Asian and Pacific affairs. Noting the dispute over the Senkaku between China and Japan, it noted that “The United States believes that a return of administrative rights over those islands to Japan, from which the rights were received, can in no way prejudice any underlying claims (of ROC and/or PRC).” It would remain for China and Japan to negotiate their disposition. At no time thereafter has the US legal position changed. MS [Diaoyu] [Territorial disputes]
• How Important is the Tokyo Gubernatorial Election?
  Andrew DeWit Metropolitan Tokyo, the world’s largest city-region and site of the 2020 Olympics, lost its Governor (Inose Naoki) to a YEN 50 million political-donation scandal on December 19.1 Gubernatorial elections are set for February 9, with the official campaign period set to begin on January 23. There are at present three main candidates, one on the left (Utsunomiya Kenji), one on the far right (Tamogami Toshio) and one roughly in the centre (Masuzoe Yoichi).2 They may soon be joined by a powerful, potentially winning challenger stressing green power. This election matters a great deal for Japan, as well as for the world. Even without the precarious backdrop of Abenomics and the mounting China-Japan conflict over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands and Prime Minister Abe Shinzo’s provocative visits to Yasukuni Shrine,3 the election would be worth paying attention to. Tokyo Metro boasts a total population of 37 million and a city-region GDP of about USD 1.5 trillion, nudging out second-place New York City.4 It also has 51 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the largest number in the world, according to CNN Money’s 2011 ranking.5 Tokyo also places at least 3rd or 4th on the various comprehensive and authoritative assessments of city-region size, influence, innovative capacity and other indices.6 In a world challenged by climate change, resource crises, inequality, and other profound problems, it matters a great deal what Tokyo does to build resilience.
• Call It "Japanese Military Restoration"
  Wednesday, January 08, 2014 After several rhetorical fits and starts, I've decided that the best description for the overall process of Japan's recovery of its full security sovereignty (exports of military equipment and technology, alliances, collective self defense, offshore military adventures, etc.) is "military restoration". "Remilitarization" doesn't fit for a country that was already a global top-ten military power. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Former Japanese Prime Minister asks Pres. Park to stop using “tattletale diplomacy”
  Posted on : Jan.11,2014 12:57 KST Some in Japan have been critical of Park refusing to hold a summit with Japanese PM Abe while criticizing him in other meetings By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda sparked controversy and aroused the ire of South Korean netizens when he said that President Park Geun-hye’s foreign policy was like “a schoolgirl telling tales.” In an interview with the Mainichi Shimbun that ran in the Jan. 10 edition, Noda was asked about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s tendency to make comments about blocking China’s maritime expansion each time he meets a foreign leader. “It looks the same as the President of South Korea criticizing Japan in the US or Europe just like a schoolgirl telling tales,” Noda said. “China probably sees it the same way. It just goes to show that if a leader has something to say, they should meet the other leader and say it face to face. We should all stop using tattletale diplomacy.” In Japan there has been criticism of President Park declining to have a summit with Abe and instead criticizing Japan in meetings with the leaders of other countries. Noda was essentially making the point that Shinzo Abe was himself guilty of something that Japanese had criticized other countries for doing. But South Korean netizens have responded furiously, calling the statement offensive and demanding that the South Korean government make some kind of response. [Abe Shinzo] [Noda]
• Japan’s strategic predicament behind the Yasukuni curtain
  6 January 2014 Author: Hugh White, ANU Why did Prime Minster Abe visit Yasukuni Shrine? Tessa Morris-Suzuki says: His core aim is to ‘escape from the postwar regime’ — that is, to reverse the liberalising reforms introduced to Japanese politics and society in the wake of the Asia Pacific War — and his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine is a very explicit expression of that aim. I don’t doubt that she is right, but her answer does lead us straight on to another question: why does he want to ‘escape from the post war regime’? What is driving him? There seem to be two possible answers to the question of Abe’s motives. One looks inwards, focusing on Abe himself — his family history, political values and personality — and on the elements in Japanese society and politics with whom his ideas and values resonate. I think this is the answer Tessa favours, and it seems to be taken for granted by most people outside, and possibly many inside, Japan who have commented on the issue. No doubt there is a lot of truth in it, and it leads to a satisfyingly simple response: blame Abe. But this does seem to overlook another, more outward-looking explanation. Japan today faces its toughest strategic crisis since 1945, which is challenging the foundations of the post-war strategic posture that has served it so well for so long. To put it simply: as China grows, Japan has more and more reason to be anxious about China’s power, and less and less confidence in America’s willingness to protect it. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Resurgence] [China rising]
• Japan Puuuuuuuuuuushes the Envelope on Collective Self Defense Or... US Pivot Hoisted on Japanese Petard Again
  Via M. Taylor Fravel’s twitter feed I was introduced to this report from Yomiuri Shimbun Dec. 30, 2013. I will quote at length: Japan wants to join patrols of vital sea lanes with foreign forces and launch counter attacks if ships of other nations come under attack Japan should be able to exercise the right to collective self-defence, in the event that a “grave situation that concerns the security of Japan” emerges while Self-Defence Force (SDF) ships, for example, are participating in joint patrols of key sea lanes for transporting crude oil and other essential items, says an outline of a report to be compiled by a government panel. … If the new interpretation is adopted, the SDF would be allowed to participate in joint patrols of vital sea lanes with foreign forces and launch counter attacks if ships of other nations came under attack. Japan would also be able to provide arms and ammunition or logistical support to U.S. forces in combat areas should an emergency occur near Japan. According to Kitaoka, the panel members unanimously agreed that there should be conditions for allowing Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defence. For example, it should be exercised only when a nation with which Japan has close ties has unjustly come under attack and asks for Japan’s cooperation. … (Parenthetically, I should point out that the notoriously vulnerable sea lanes of the South China Sea, which Japan is offering to protect, are pretty much vital to nobody but China. Japan has already studied the costs of avoiding the SCS to bring crude oil and iron ore to Japan—iron ore from Australia, I believe, already takes a Pacific route rather than through the SCS because of the size of the carriers—and determined it amounted to a less than apocalyptic 10% of the shipping costs. But, as Visa would put it, cost of fomenting confrontation in SCS: priceless.) Of course, this opens the door for Japan to conclude collective self-defense agreements with the Philippines, Taiwan, and perhaps (though unlikely) Vietnam. However, the first candidate might be a bigger, more confident, and more secure PRC-tweaking power: India. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Article 9] [Nuclear fuel cycle] [Nuclearisation] [Client]
• U.S. Can No Longer Overlook Japan's Lurch to the Far Right
  U.S. State Secretary John Kerry at a press conference after talks with Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se in Washington on Tuesday had nothing to say about Japan's lurch to the far right. As if anticipating that journalists would want to ask about Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the militarist Yasukuni Shrine, Kerry took no questions. All he said was, "The United States and [Korea] stand very firmly united, without an inch of daylight between us." But the focus of attention in recent weeks has been Abe's whitewash of Japan's World War II atrocities, military expansionism and gross insensitivity to the feelings of neighbors who suffered during colonial times. When Abe visited Yasukuni late last year, a U.S. State Department spokesman expressed "disappointment." But other than that Washington's response has been perfunctory. The U.S. State Department said on Monday that resolving differences through dialogue "coincides with the interests" of all of the countries involved. [Japanese Remilitarisation] [Yasukuni] [US Japan alliance] [Sidelined]
• US snubs S. Korea's call on Abe
  Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, left, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry deliver remarks to the media in the Treaty Room of the U.S. State Department after their private meeting in Washington, Tuesday. / AFP-Yonhap By Chung Min-uck U.S. Secretary John Kerry ignored an invitation by South Korea to join in the condemnation of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine. Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told a press conference after holding talks with Kerry in Washington, Tuesday, “I pointed out that historical issues stand in the way of reconciliation and cooperation in the region. And I emphasized the need for sincere actions (by Japan).” “The secretary and I agreed to strengthen our efforts to alleviate tension and promote peace and cooperation in Northeast Asia,” Yun added. His U.S. counterpart, however, did not mention the sensitive issue of history disputes that are currently undermining relations between countries in Northeast Asia Instead, he voiced optimism over the future of the Korea-U.S. alliance. “The relationship between our two nations has always shown its ability to be able to adapt, to face new challenges,” Kerry said. “And it is clear that the foundations of this relationship are built to endure.” Kerry’s words and attitude are in line with criticism brought upon the U.S. that the country, which exercises the biggest influence on its ally Japan, is not taking “sincere actions” in pressing Tokyo about its latest provocations. [Sidelined]
• SYMPOSIUM: Japan’s massive stockpile of plutonium casts shadow over nonproliferation efforts
  5 January, 2014 – Asahi Shimbun Nuclear policy experts from around the world discussed a broad array of issues concerning the use of plutonium in nuclear power generation at a recent symposium in Tokyo. The symposium, titled “Managing Spent Fuel: To Reprocess or Store,” was jointly sponsored by The Asahi Shimbun Co. and Princeton University. Discussions revolved around the wisdom of Japan’s energy policy of utilizing plutonium for power generation under the government’s nuclear fuel recycling program. [Plutonium] [Nuclear fuel cycle] [Nuclearisation]
• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vows to build ‘a new Japan’, keep up defences
  Patrick Boehler 1 January, 2014 – South China Morning Post Prime minister also pledges to defend the nation and reform the economy Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has issued an assertive call for “building a new Japan” in his new year’s message, vowing to defend territory disputed with China and reform the country’s struggling economy. “In a world that is deepening its mutual interdependence, inward-focused thinking is no longer able to safeguard the peace of Japan,” he said, according to a transcript released by his office on Wednesday [1]. “We will fully defend the lives and assets of our nationals as well as our territory, territorial waters, and territorial airspace in a resolute manner,” he said. His annual message this year is his second since his return to power in December 2012. In last year’s message [2] he pledged to upgrade the defence measures of the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea, which are also claimed by China. He did not reiterate the pledge this year. When planning for a lifetime, there is nothing better than cultivating people. Abe suggested, however, that Japan’s pacifist constitution, imposed on the country after the Second World War, should be amended. [Abe Shinzo] [Japanese remilitarisation] [Constitution]
• Expanded links to Indian air force eyed amid China spat
  7 January, 2014 – Japan Times Japan and India moved to expand air force ties before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visits New Delhi in a few weeks, bolstering relations two months after China declared an air defense identification zone in a disputed area. Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera and his Indian counterpart, A.K. Antony, discussed starting talks between air force officials while reaffirming plans to conduct regular naval exercises, according to an Indian government statement Monday. Asia’s second- and third-largest economies may also conduct pilot exchanges, it said. “Both sides know that China stands between them and that they’d be smart to make sure they’re on the same page with each other now and in the future,” said C. Uday Bhaskar, an analyst with the New Delhi-based National Maritime Foundation who spent 37 years in the Indian navy. “They’re taking steps, small steps, but if there’s an inclusion of the air force now, then you’re seeing growth in this relationship.” [Japanese remilitarisation] [China confrontation] [India] [Counterbalance]
• Abe steps on Washington’s toes
  4 January, 2014 – Japan Times WASHINGTON – The administration of President Barack Obama plans to urge the Japanese government to take concrete action to repair ties with China and South Korea, according to senior U.S. officials. In light of the fallout expected from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s first official pilgrimage to war-related Yasukuni Shrine last month, the United States is worried the provocative act will undermine the stability of the region and is closely watching to see whether he will pray at the shrine again, the officials said. The moves reflect the Obama administration’s concerns that the bad blood between Japan and its neighbors will adversely affect Washington’s alliances in Asia. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Abe Shinzo]
• Japanese Wrestler-Turned-Lawmaker to Visit N.Korea
  Former Japanese pro wrestler and incumbent lawmaker Antonio Inoki will visit North Korea on Monday to meet high-ranking officials there. He wants to promote sports exchanges and discuss his proposal for a trip by a delegation from the Diet, Kyodo News reported Thursday. Inoki, a member of the Japan Restoration Party, has visited North Korea 27 times since 1995 and has apparently built up an impressive list of contacts in the North despite his party's far-right credentials. In November last year, he went to North Korea without the required permission and set up a Pyongyang office of a non-profit sports exchange organization. At the time, he met former eminence grise Jang Song-taek and Kim Yong-il, the director of the International Department of the North's Workers Party, who apparently encouraged the proposed visit by Diet members. Jang's last appearance in public before his execution was at that meeting with Inoki. Kyodo reported that North Korea told Inoki that its response remained unchanged despite Jang's ouster.
• Japanese Paper Slams Park's Reluctance to Work with Tokyo
  The Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun in an editorial on Sunday criticized President Park Geun-hye's diplomatic policies. "China, the world's second-largest economic power, and South Korea are becoming rapidly closer to each other, indicating they are set to strengthen ties through their mutually shared anti-Japan sentiment" amid uncertainties over North Korea. The daily condemned Park for blaming Japan for the failure to maintain security cooperation between the countries in a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. "It is highly questionable for a country's leader to criticize Japan during a meeting with a senior official from a third country… It is hard to accept her self-centered opinions," it said.
• Japan Defiant Over Long March to Far Right
  Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga on Sunday said the Abe administration does not wish to hold summits with Korea and China if it is forced to change its stance on historical issues, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Friday. Suga's comments show Japan's reluctance to divert from its march to the far right after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors the country's war dead including convicted World War II criminals. [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Bitter Soup For Okinawans - The Governor’s Year-End Betrayal
  The Asia-Pacific Journal, Volume 12, Issue 1, No. 2, January 6, 2014. Gavan McCormack In and around Okinawa, events of unparalleled importance continue to unfold, with implications for Japan, the US-Japan and US-Japan-China relationships, and for peace and democracy generally. As former Governor Ota Masahide foresaw earlier in the year, 2013 turned out to be “the worst ever (obviously excluding the utter catastrophe of 1945) for Okinawa.”1 The “special series” (“Again Okinawa”) published in this journal in November pointed to the importance of two imminent decisions: one in December when the Okinawan governor was to give his response to the national government’s request that he license reclamation of the seas off northern Okinawa to allow construction of a major new military complex there for the US Marine Corps, and one in January when the electors of Nago City were to choose a mayor for the city designated as site of the new base. 2 The reverberations of the former were heard around the world in December. Here we focus on it. [Okinawa] [Bases] [China confrontation]
• 250,000 Japanese Visit War Shrine for New Year
  A queue of over 200 m formed as Japanese people flocked to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo to pay tribute to the war dead on Thursday. The shrine honors convicted war criminals among the dead, including wartime leader General Tojo. Around 250,000 people visited the shrine from Jan. 1 to 3. Shrine administrators said numbers have surged since the visit of rightwing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Mounting international criticism appears only to have encouraged visitors, who paid tribute to the war dead in silence and prayed for good luck for the new year. Some members of the far-right organizations distributed leaflets to passersby at the entrance. [Yasukuni] [Nationalism] [Japanese remilitarisation]
• Japan's nuclear capability matches US: Chinese daily
  By Chung Min-uck Japan’s nuclear weapons capability equals that of the U.S., a media outlet for the China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) reported Wednesday. “Japan’s six nuclear fuel reprocessing facilities can annually produce 9 tons of plutonium and this ability could be used to make 2,000 nuclear weapons,” the PLA Daily reported. “The production capacity is comparable to U.S.” [Japanese remilitarisation] [Nuclearisation]
• Abe Sees More Assertive Japan Across Entire World
  Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, in remarks published Sunday, that he expected his country to be playing a more assertive security role throughout "the entire world" -- and have a new constitution to back this ambition. …Punch line is, this AFP article (including the headline used as the title of this post) is datelined April 22, 2007, during Abe’s brief, first prime ministership. In 2007 PRC "assertiveness" was not on the table. In fact, at that time the George W. Bush administration was looking forlornly for the PRC’s help on the intractable North Korean issue. The problem, in other words, was not that China wasn’t being “assertive”; it was that the PRC was being insufficiently “assertive” in stepping up on the world stage and shouldering its “responsible stakeholder” obligations, a phrase that has rather ironically evaporated from the State Department’s China-bashing lexicon in recent years. Without an easily exploitable China menace, Prime Minister Abe, in order to peddle his constitutional revision nostrums and enable the projection of Japanese power beyond the nation’s boundaries, had to lean on the relatively slender reeds of the a) the North Korean menace b) global terrorism. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Abe Shinzo] [Client]
• Japan set to buy $240B worth of hi-tech weapons
  Agence France-Presse 5:02 am | Wednesday, December 18th, 2013 Members of Japan Ground Self-Defense Force rappell down from a UH-60JA helicopter during the annual live-fire drill at the Higashi Fuji training range in Gotemba, southwest of Tokyo on Aug. 21, 2013. Japan’s new defense plan, approved on Tuesday Dec. 17, 2013, calls for the purchase of stealth fighters, drones and submarines as part of a splurge on military hardware that would beef up defense of far-flung islands amid a simmering territorial row with China. AP PHOTO/KOJI SASAHARA TOKYO—Japan announced on Tuesday that it would buy stealth fighters, drones and submarines as part of a splurge on military hardware that would beef up defense of far-flung islands amid a simmering territorial row with China. The Cabinet of hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to spend 24.7 trillion yen ($240 billion) between 2014 and 2019 in a strategic shift toward the south and west of the country—a 5-percent boost to the military budget over five years. The shopping list is part of efforts by Abe to normalize the military in Japan, which has been officially pacifist since its defeat in World War II. Its well-equipped and highly professional services are limited to a narrowly defined self-defensive role. [Japanese remilitarisation] [Media] [Arms sales]

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