Nippon Kaigi

The Nippon Kaigi (日本会議 - Japan Conference) is a Japanese nationalistic nonparty organisation that was established in 1997 and has approximately 35,000 members, and that holds dominant positions in the legislative and executive powers through its affiliates.[1]

Ideals

The organisation promotes in general a revival of the fundamentals of the Empire of Japan, and what it considers to be core reactionary ideals, which implies constitutional and historical revisions.[2][3][4][5] The neo-nationalist movement sees its mission to promote patriotic education, the revision of the constitution, and support for PM's official visits to Yasukuni Shrine.[6][7][8][9]

The return to Imperial Japan's monarchy and State Shinto with a restoration of the Emperor's god-like status as the ultimate Shinto leader is another key mission. As Hideaki Kase, an influent member of Nippon Kaigi, summed it up: We are dedicated to our conservative cause. We are monarchists. We are for revising the constitution. We are for the glory of the nation.[10]

In parallel with revisionism and whitewashing (e.g. depicting aggressions wars as liberation wars, war criminals as national heroes to be worshiped), the organization often highlights certain sides of true historical facts that contribute to the conveying the image of Japan as a victim of history (e.g. Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens). Education minister Hakubun Shimomura, the secretary general of the Discussion Group of Nippon Kaigi Diet Members (Nippon Kaigi kokkai giin kondankai - 日本会議国会議員懇談会), argues for patriotic education and opposes a "masochistic view of history".[11]

For the return to militarism too, "Nippon Kaigi and its allies aim to revise the constitution, particularly Article 9 (which forbids a standing army)".[12]

According to a February 2014 report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service, Nippon Kaigi believes that Japan should be applauded for liberating much of East Asia from Western colonial powers, that the 1946-1948 Tokyo War Crimes tribunals were illegitimate", and that "the killings by Imperial Japanese troops during the 1937 Nanjing massacre were exaggerated or fabricated.[1][13] The group vigorously defends Japan's claim in its territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands with China, and denies that Japan forced the "comfort women" into sexual slavery during World War II.[1]

Nippon Kaigi also fights against feminism, LGBT rights, and the 1999 Gender Equality Law.[12]

Politics

Thirteen ministers of Shinzo Abe' s Cabinet "are members of the Discussion Group of the Nippon Kaigi Diet Members, affiliated with the Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference), the biggest right-wing organization in Japan."[11][14]

In 2013, the Tokyo branch of the lobby threw a party to celebrate the Shinzō Abe cabinet, where the Imperial Rising Sun Flag was flown, the "Kimigayo" sung, and the pledge to "break away from the post-war regime" renewed.[15]

Following the 2014 reshuffle of Abe's cabinet, this openly revisionist lobby claimed 15 people out of 18 cabinet members, including the Prime Minister himself.[16] Most of them (63% of the extended 97-member Abe administration and nearly 90% of its 18 cabinet ministers) also belong to the Shinto Association of Spiritual Leadership Diet Members' Caucus advocating State Shinto.[17]

289 of the 480 members of the Diet are affiliated to the lobby.[1]

History and organization

Nippon Kaigi was founded in 1997 through the merger of two revisionist groups:

Nippon Kaigi claims 35,000 individual members, 47 prefectural chapters, and about 230 local chapters[21] The organization's website lists the members depending on their seniority in an organization headed by a President seconded by Vice Presidents and a pool of 'advisors', actually eminent Shinto priests leading key shrines (some of them belong to the Imperial family, and Nippon Kaigi also aims to restore the Shinto god-like status of the Emperor of Japan).

Among the regional branches, "Nippon Kaigi Hiroshima (Japan Congress Hiroshima), consists of about 750 Hiroshima residents". Its executive director, Masanari Tade, is the son of an A-bomb victim.[22] Foreign lecturers can be invited to meetings: during a forum on the Constitution organized by the Fuji, Shizuoka branch of the lobby in 2014, Pema Gyalpo, a professor from Tibet at Toin University of Yokohama, gave a lecture making a parallel between China's aggression of Tibet and the threat it poses to Japan.[23]

The Nippon Kaigi Local Assembly Union (Nippon kaigi chihou giin renmei - 日本会議地方議員連盟) focuses on key topics: comfort women, Nanking, abductions, Japanese national anthem and flag, education.[24]

Nippon Kaigi leverages its local presence to add "bottom-up" pressure for the constitutional reforms it already pushes 'top down' at the legislative (289 of the 480 members of the Diet are affiliated) and executive (15 of the 19 cabinet members) levels.[21]

List of members and affiliates

(See main article: Members of Nippon Kaigi) Among the members, former members, and affiliated are countless lawmakers, many ministers and a few prime ministers (Taro Aso, Shinzo Abe...).

As of October 2014, the lobby claims 289 of the 480 Diet members, and 15 of the 19 government members. Its chairman, Toru Miyoshi, is none other than the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan.

History and familial histories

In a country where political dynasties sometimes span across centuries, some leading figures of the lobby belong to families that were directly involved in war crimes, which is often pointed out as a source of motivation in their quest for historical revisionism and whitewashing:

Shinzō Abe

Shinzō Abe's maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, who also was a Prime Minister (1957-1960), had been jailed between 1945 and 1948 as a Class-A war crime suspect. In his book "Utsukushii Kuni e" ("Towards a Beautiful Country"), Abe wrote: "Some people used to point to my grandfather as a ‘Class-A war criminal suspect,’ and I felt strong repulsion. Because of that experience, I may have become emotionally attached to ‘conservatism,’ on the contrary."[25] Abe's brother Nobuo Kishi is also a member of the Nippon Kaigi group in the Diet.

Tarō Asō

Tarō Asō long denied the existence of forced labor in the familial mining company during the war, and still refuses to apologize to the survivors.[26]

Hirofumi Nakasone

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone chairs a commission established to consider "concrete measures to restore Japan's honor with regard to the comfort women issue. His own father Yasuhiro Nakasone was praised for setting up a 'comfort station' in Indonesia in 1942 (the future Prime Minister was then a lieutenant paymaster in Japan's Imperial Navy)."[27]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Norihiro Kato (September 12, 2014). "Tea Party Politics in Japan". New York Times.
  2. ↑ Abe Cabinet - An Ideological Breakdown, The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Jan. 28, 2013
  3. ↑ Christian G. Winkler (2011). The quest for Japan's new constitution: an analysis of visions and constitutional reform proposals, 1980-2009, London; New York: Routledge, ISBN 9780415593960, p.75
  4. ↑ Jennifer Ellen Robertson, Politics and Pitfalls of Japan Ethnography, Routledge Chapman & Hall, ISBN 0415486491, Page 66
  5. ↑ N. Onishi - New York Times, December 17, 2006 , Japan Rightists Fan Fury Over North Korea Abductions
  6. ↑ Mullins, Mark R. (2012). The Neo-Nationalist Response to the Aum Crisis, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 39 (1), 110-112
  7. ↑ about Nippon Kaigi (Japanese)
  8. ↑ Rightist ministers make up 80% of Abe Cabinet, Japan Press Weekly - January 5, 2012
  9. ↑ Daiki Shibuichi (2008). Japan's History Textbook Controversy, Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, Discussion Paper 4
  10. ↑ Linda Sieg, Reuters, June 15, 2006
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Muneo Narusawa, "Abe Shinzo: Japan’s New Prime Minister a Far-Right Denier of History", The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol 11, Issue 1, No. 1, January 14, 2013
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Politics and pitfalls of Japan Ethnography" - page 66 - Routledge (June 18, 2009) - Edited by Jennifer Robertson
  13. ↑ Chanlett-Avery, Emma; Cooper, William H.; Manyin, Mark E.; Rinehart, Ian E. (February 20, 2014). "Japan-U.S. Relations: Issues for Congress". Congressional Research Service.
  14. ↑ The Economist of Britain on Jan. 5, 2013. Cited in: William L. Brooks (2013), Will history again trip up Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? The Asahi Shimbun, May 07, 2013
  15. ↑ Nippon Kaigi website - 2013: nipponkaigi.jp/archives/391
  16. ↑ "Abe’s reshuffle promotes right-wingers" (Korea Joongang Daily - 2014/09/05)
  17. ↑ "News Analysis: Abe unifies far-right ideology in upper echelons of Japanese politics" (John Day, Xinhua, Sept. 8, 2014)
  18. ↑ Nippon Kaigi website
  19. ↑ "The Quest for Japan's New Constitution: An Analysis of Visions and Constitutional Reform Proposals 1980-2009" p.75 (Christian G. Winkler, Routledge Contemporary Japan Series, 2011)
  20. ↑ "Japan's History Textbook Controversy - Social Movements and Governments in East Asia, 1982-2006" - Daiki Shibuichi - March 4, 2008 - ejcjs
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 .Pushed by conservatives, 19 assemblies pass statements urging constitutional revision Asahi Shimbun Aug 1, 2014
  22. ↑ Asahi Shimbun Aug 6, 2009 - quoted in Cable 09TOKYO1813, DAILY SUMMARY OF JAPANESE PRESS 08/07/09
  23. ↑ "富士市富士支部『第2回憲法講演会』" - May 3, 2014 - LDP Shizuoka website
  24. ↑ "Web Resources for Understanding - Japan's Conservative Nationalists" - Asia Policy Point - July 2007
  25. ↑ "Formed in childhood, roots of Abe's conservatism go deep" - Japan Times - December 26, 2012
  26. ↑ "Ito, Masami, "Pair seek POW apology from Aso" - Japan Times - 20 Juin 2009, p. 2.
  27. ↑ "Comfort women and Japan's war on truth" - The New York Times - Nov 15-16, 2014

Bibliography

External links