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The Significance of Nippon Kaigi in the Revisionist Tomomi Yamaguchi The “HistoryWars” and the “Comfort Woman” Issue: The SignificanceofNippon Kaigi in the Revisionist Movement in ContemporaryJapan Introduction In December 2012,Abe Shinzō became Japan’sPrime Minister for the second time. From the beginning of his political career in 1993asanew member of the House of Representativesfrom the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (hereafter,LDP), Abehas been apolitician committed to historical revisionist causes. Both times that he served as the primeminister in 2006–2007 and then since 2012,Abe showed extensive interest in denying Japan’sresponsibility over the “comfort woman” issue, and the issue gained lots of political attention, both in Japan and abroad.¹ At the national political level, the revision of the Kōno statement issued on 4August 1993, by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary, Kōno Yōhei, became the topic of intense discussion. The statement includes the phrase, “[a] government studyhas revealed thatinmanycases they werere- cruited against their own will, through coaxing, coercion, etc., and that,attimes, administrative/military personneldirectlytook part in the recruitments.”² Right- wing forces arguetothis daythatthe Kōno statement’sindication that the “com- fort women” wereforciblyrecruited by the Japanese military is false. After the building of the “comfort woman” statue (Statue of Peace) in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in December 2011, the Japanese right-wingand the government have been obsessed with “comfort women” statues and memo- rials in different overseas locations, giventheir heavy interest in the internation- al reputation of Japan. The building of the first “comfort woman” memorial in the U.S. in front of alibrary in Palisades Park, New Jersey,in2010,gainedatten- tion of Japanese conservativesinspring 2012.Subsequently,statues werebuilt in The term “comfortwomen” was aeuphemism used during WWII, which does not reflect the harsh realities of women forciblyengaged in sexual slavery.When used in English-languageac- tivism and academia this term is often put in quotation marks. Yōhei Kōno, “Statement by the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yōhei Kōno on the Resultofthe Study on the Issue of ‘Comfort Women’ Kōno statement,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, 1993. Accessed January 24,2019.http://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/women/fund/state9308.html. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110643480-013 234 Tomomi Yamaguchi multiple locations in the U.S., resulting in mass protest emails being sent from Japan to mayors, city council members, and others. In July 2013,a“comfort woman” statue was built in Glendale, California.While right-wing groups en- couraged sending protest emails and faxes, some local Japanese residents in the Los Angeles areaattended the public hearing.UsingGlendale as an oppor- tunity to initiate anew movement,the conservative intellectuals, activists and the ruling LDP of Japanstarted to focus on the United States as their shusenjō (main battlefield) of the “comfort women” issue. They have criticized the “com- fort woman” memorials, resolutions, museum exhibits, and coverageof“comfort women” in history textbooks and curricula in the U.S. In this context,the concept of rekishisen (history wars) wasintroducedin 2014.The term was initiallycoined by Japan’smost conservative national paper, Sankei Shimbun,inApril2014, with its new series entitled “The History Wars,” which still continues today. The series focuses on Japan’sdisagreements with South Korea and China concerning historicalevents pertainingtoJapan’s colonial history,and the “comfort women” issue is the most prominent issue in the series. The “history wars” imagined by the conservativesare occurring in the U.S., the “main battlefield” of the “comfort women” issue. Moreover,it puts forth the narrative that Japan is avictim of “false indictments” by South Koreaand China,and thus has no choice but to fight against the accusations. Arimoto Takashi, the head of the “history wars” reportinggroup of Sankei,writes that “the comfort women issue is no longer simple difference of opinion on his- torical understandings; it is a ‘war.’”³ The use of the “war” metaphor in the “his- tory wars” is closely connected to revisionist history.AccordingtoJapanese his- torical revisionists, the “comfort women” issue was fabricated to inflame diplomatic tensions and to put forth aone-sided, unfair evaluation of Japan in the international community,byChina, South Korea and alsothe Japanese left,including Asahi Shimbun,the nation’ssecond-largest paper,which is known for its liberal stance. Forexample, aconservative journalist,Sakurai Yoshiko, characterizes “history wars” as “afull-fledgedinformation war now waged against Japan, with China as the chief adversary and the U.S. as the main battlefield.”⁴ Critic NishiokaTsutomu also writes, “unscrupulous forces”—likelymeaning South Korea and China in this context—“suppress the facts and malign Japan.”⁵ Sankei Shimbun, Rekishisen: Asahi Shimbun ga sekai ni maita“ianfu” no uso wo utsu [History Wars: Shooting the Lies about “Comfort Women” that Asahi Shimbun Disseminated to the World] (Tokyo: Sankei Shimbun,2015), 4. Ibid. Ibid., 1. The “History Wars” and the “ComfortWoman” Issue 235 Intellectuals who have promoted the idea of “history wars,” such as Sakurai and Nishioka, are the key conservative ideologues,⁶ and they closelywork with Japan’slargest conservative organization, Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference), and its allied organizations. Formed with the mergeroftwo conservative organiza- tions in 1997, Nippon Kaigi became an umbrella organization encompassing tra- ditionallyconservative groups and individuals,aswell as the religious right—in- cluding Jinja Honchō (the Association of Shinto Shrines) and manyother right- wing new religions and moral education groups.⁷ Activist TawaraYoshifumi points out that the organization appointed business leaders and intellectuals as board members, in additiontoreligious leaders, and hid its right-wing prior- ities, yetthe right-wing nature of the organization remained unchanged.⁸ Nippon Kaigi has local headquarters in all 47 prefectures, along with manylocal branch- es in cities across Japan. There are also various affiliated organizations of Nippon Kaigi,such as its Parliamentary Leagueand Municipal Council Members’ Lea- gue, and its women’ssection called Nihon Josei no Kai (Japan Women’sAssoci- ation). In addition, thereare organizations thatwork closelywith Nippon Kaigi, including Nihon Seisaku Kenkyū Sentā (Japan PolicyInstitute), aconservative think-tank headed by Itō Tetsuo who is said to be one of the advisorstoPrime Minister Abe.⁹ Hence, despite having the different names of the organizations, Ryuichi Kitano, “Nerawaretsuzukeru ‘ianfu hōdō’” [The ‘ReporingofComfort Women’ Target- ed Continuously], in Tettei kenshō,Nihon no ukeika [Thorough Examination, Japan’sLeaning To the Right], ed. Hotaka Tsukada(Tokyo: ChikumaShobō,2017), 278. Thereweretwo organizations that mergedin1997toform Nippon Kaigi; Nihon oMamoru Kai (Association to Protect Japan)was aright-wing organization formed in 1974 as aShintō and Bud- dhist-affiliatedreligious group. Nihon oMamoru Kokumin Kaigi (The National ConferencetoPro- tect Japan) was formed in 1981 as astandingright-wingorganization, after the passageofthe reign eraname lawin1979. Yoshifumi Tawara, “What is the Aim of Nippon Kaigi, the Ultra- right Organization that Supports Japan’sAbe Administration?” transl. by AsiaPolicy Point, Wil- liam Brooks,and Lu Pengqiao, Introduction by Tomomi Yamaguchi, TheAsia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 15–21,no. 1(2017). Accessed February 28,2019.https://apjjf.org/2017/21/Tawara. html. Ibid. JournalisticliteratureonNippon Kaigi came out in 2016,though still very few scholarlyworks exist (Nogawa et al. 2017). See Narusawa 2016;Tawara 2016;Yoshifumi Tawara, “What is the Aim of Nippon Kaigi, the Ultra-rightOrganization that Supports Japan’sAbe Administration?” Trans- lated by Asia PolicyPoint. TheAsia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus 15 (21), No. 1, November 1, 2017. Accessed April 2, 2017.https://apjjf.org/2017/21/Tawara.html ;Aoki 2016;Fujiu2017for journalist works that werepublished recently. All of these works point out that the religious group House of Growth(Seichō-no-ie)playedasignificant roleinthe establishmentofthe precursor organi- zations of Nippon Kaigi,and impacted manyofthe coreleaders of the current Nippon Kaigi. It is, however,important to note that Seichō-no-ie became split in the early2000s under the 236 Tomomi Yamaguchi manyofthe organizations have common leaderships, and close relationships with Nippon Kaigi. The estimated membership of Nippon Kaigi itself is close to 40,000,which maynot sound massive,but consideringthe number of followers of the religious and moral education organizations affiliated with Nippon Kaigi,the number of people whom they can organize to attend rallies, join signaturedrivesand vote is significant.Mobilizinglocal branches and various affiliatedorganizations across Japan in national and local levels, Nippon Kaigi operates a “grassroots right-wing movement,” while maintaining strong ties with the Abeadministra- tion. Moreover,current Prime Minister Abeisheavilybacked by Nippon Kaigi. Abehas participated in Nippon Kaigi’sDiet representatives’ league since its be- ginning,and as of September 2019,16out of 20 cabinet members, includingAbe himself, belonged to the organization.¹⁰ Maintaining close ties with politicians such as Abe, Nippon Kaigi is the driving forceinvolvedextensively in the “history wars” in Japan, in North America,
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