Tokutei Asia

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Tokutei Asia countries. (Orange)

Tokutei Asia (特定アジア, Tokutei Asia^?), literally "specific-Asia", Toku-A (特ア, Toku-A^?) in short, is a Japanese term that means "The specific countries in Asia", often used in Japanese media and journalism, and it virtually refers to South Korea, North Korea and the mainland China.

1 Usage
2 Background
3 The view toward Japan
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Usage

The term is used to specify Asian regions which have obvious negative views of Japan or where anti-Japanese sentiments are still strong, or the regions which have political tensions and disputes with Japan, namely, South Korea, North Korea and China.^[1]^[2] Overseas Chinese and Koreans can be added by the context of their work in journalism.

As for China, the autonomous regions like Tibet, Xinjiang Uyghur and Inner Mongolia are usually excluded from the term. Similarly, the areas of Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan, which are not directly under the governance of People’s Republic of China, are also not included within the definition.

[edit] Background

Since the term “Asia” has a broad meaning and usage, the word can be arbitrarily and indiscriminately used by Japan’s critics, civil groups and countries that adopt an anti-Japan stance or policy, in a way to mislead people into thinking that the criticisms and viewpoints were broadly representative of all Asian people or countries. Japanese people who considered the usage as a problem sought the solution and coined this term.

In one audience participation style TV program Nihon no korekara (日本の、これから, Nihon no korekara^?)^[3] which focused on social issues aired on NHK on August 15, 2005 in Japan, and one non-Japanese participant made a comment on the Yasukuni Shrine issue. The person said "Japan should accept criticism from Asia. There are many objections. I feel Japan is a country lack of sincerity whenever I see the Japanese government attempts to disregard the issues." Then Japanese female journalist and also a TV presenter Yoshiko Sakurai asked the participant "Which countries are you referring to?". "China and South Korea in particular." answered the participant. Sakurai said "We should define which countries we are referring to with the word - Asia. People might assume the whole of Asia when we hear the word, but the country which has been making scathing criticism of Japan are China and South Korea.".^[3]

In 2005, Taro Aso, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, said "The only countries in the world that talk about Yasukuni are China and South Korea".^[4]

Junichiro Koizumi had been visiting Yasukuni shrine every year while he was the Prime Minister. Each visit has set off rumbles among Japan's neighbors, especially China and Korea, which bore the brunt of 20th century Japanese aggression.^[5] He also told the parliament that only two countries - China and South Korea - have complained about Japanese leaders’ visits to Yasukuni shrine.^[6]