This is the hot topic in Japanese political circles at the moment. It's complicated, but important.
The JIIA (Japan Institute of International Affairs - under the jurisdiction of the The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan) published an essay "How Japan Imagines China and Sees Itself" by Masaru Tamamoto on 31 May 2006. Tamamoto is a well respected academic who leans left.
Tamamoto's essay was attacked in "Japan-dispatched Official Anti-Japanese Essay" by Yoshihisa Komori, editor of the Sankei Shimbun, a right-leaning newspaper in Japan.
Yukio Sato, president of the JIIA, apologizes for the original Tamamoto essay and the organization deletes the entirety of the contents of the commentaries from their website. It looks like Tamamoto is fired from his job as editor of the JIIA Commentary. This is a sad commentary on the state of affairs regarding free speech in Japan. That Sato did not support Tamamoto is also emblematic of problems with democracy, which Japan accuses China of.
Western academics watching Japan are horrified at these new actions which seem to cement the image of Japan as a rightist, ahistorical nation- just the image that the Foreign Ministry wants to disperse.
Steve Clemons, Senior Fellow & Director, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation and Director of the Japan Policy Research Institute, writes "Japan's Right-Wingers Out of Control". It's also syndicated to TPM Cafe where there's some great comments. TPM Cafe user Empty Cafe's comment hits home:
Mr. Clemons -
Thank you for trying to bring Tamamoto-san's misfortune to a wider audience.
Right wing nutdom had a great week last week:
1) the PM paid his respects at Yasukuni on War Remembrance Day (an action I support, by the way)
2) an ultra-nationalist burned Kato Koichi's house down, then tried to disembowel himself in the courtyard
3) Russian maritime border police shot a Japanese fisherman in the head, the first border fatality in 50 years, leading to angry protests in front of the Russian Embassy (all just in time for the anniversary of the Soviet invasion of the Northern Territories!)
and, unfortunately
4) Sato Yukio issued an apology to the nation, printed in Friday's Sankei Shimbun, "reflecting deeply as one responsible" for "the use of misleading technical terms and other similar problems" (almost sound Maoist, doesn't it?) in the JIIA Commentary series--and announcing not only its indefinite suspension (a euphemism for cancellation) but its removal from the website.
Komori is a kook- he believes that Nanking did not happen, that WWII comfort women were prostitutes, not sex slaves, that Japanese POW camps were comfortable for the prisoners, and a bunch of other insane nonsense.
Daniel Sturgeon has captured the data from the JIIA website for posterity. Thank you Daniel!
Yale Global Online is carrying a few other JIIA articles including Tamamoto's "Japanese Discovery of Democracy" and Haruko Satoh's "The Odd Couple: Japan and China, The Politics of History and Identity" and Hikari Agakimi's "'We the Japanese People' – A Reflection on Public Opinion".
I keep hearing that Japan is turning Right and at first I was incredulous. Now I'm watching for additional signs.
UPDATE: I'm tracking Google News and Technorati Japan for anything on Komori or Tamamoto but I don't see anything in the mainstream media.
UPDATE2: Steve Clemmons' op-ed has hit the Wa-Po and the Japanese blogs do have a number of anonymous opinions...
The Rise of Japan's Thought Police (Washingtonpost.com)
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