Japan's Nationalist Movement Strengthens
Lawmakers Find Ways to Draw Young Supporters Who Favor a More Assertive Foreign Policy; 'We've Been Too Complacent'.
By YUKA HAYASHI (Updated August 14, 2012, 11:15 p.m. ET)
TOKYO-Nationalist politicians and activists are wielding new clout in Japan, straining the country's ties with China and South Korea, and creating headaches for policy makers in Tokyo
Two Japanese cabinet ministers visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine-a place strongly associated with the country's imperialist past-on Wednesday, the first such visits since the Democratic Party of Japan took power three years ago. The visits further inflamed a dispute with South Korea; South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who upset Japanese officials with his visit to an islet contested by the two nations, said in a speech Wednesday that Japan must resolve issues from the World War II era before the two countries can develop better relations.
Mr. Lee referred to Japan as a "close neighbor, a friend" but noted the sexual enslavement of Korean women by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
"It was a breach of women's rights committed during wartime as well as a violation of universal human rights and historic justice," he said. "We urge the Japanese government to take responsible measures in this regard."
Adding to tensions in Japan, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday it would soon send two navy vessels to the disputed Russia-controlled islands known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan to honor Soviet soldiers who died there after World War II.
Nationalist lawmakers have found new ways to drive the policy debate in recent weeks, using tactics that go beyond traditional noisy protests to embrace a younger generation of supporters-and their videos and social media. Various blogs, tweets and Internet videos offering nationalistic views shunned by most of Japan's mainstream media are helping to bring together conservative politicians and the public.
In the past three months alone, Japanese politicians have twice drawn formal diplomatic protests from the Chinese government: by hosting in Tokyo a large conference of Uighur separatists, branded terrorists by Beijing, and by pushing Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda into proposing to buy a chain of privately owned islands claimed by both China and Japan.
A separate group of parliament members stirred complaints from Seoul by visiting the U.S. to demand the removal of a New Jersey monument dedicated to so-called comfort women, Korean women forced to work in military brothels during Japan's occupation of Korea during World War II.
The growing influence of nationalist causes complicates matters for Mr. Noda, who has so far avoided saber-rattling but faces poor approval ratings ahead of a tricky leadership campaign in coming months.
Mr. Lee's visit last week to South Korea-controlled islets claimed by Japan pushed Tokyo to give a strong response. It recalled its ambassador to Seoul, and postponed a meeting between its finance minister and his South Korean counterpart.
The nationalist agenda is to push Japan's government to be more assertive in defending the country's territorial claims in a region fraught with multiple such disputes.
Many hope the growing interest in territorial issues will give momentum to their ultimate goal: revising Japan's pacifist constitution, which severely limits the role of the military, known as the Self Defense Forces.
"Many Japanese are beginning to realize we've been too complacent," says Keiji Furuya, an opposition politician who, among other things, spearheaded the Uighur effort and joined the Korea protest in New Jersey. "Just look at all the claims made on our territories from China, South Korea and Russia. We've never been made to look so foolish."
Japan's 21st-century nationalist movement has no single leader or party, but is a loose alliance of politicians, young and old, from the two main political parties-along with some rightist activist groups-backed by increasingly influential commentators and business executives.
One prominent figure in the movement is Shintaro Ishihara, the 79-year-old governor of Tokyo. Mr. Ishihara has been the face of Japanese nationalism from the time he wrote his best-selling "The Japan That Can Say 'No,' " in 1989 as a member of parliament.
But after years of being dismissed as largely a fringe provocateur, Mr. Ishihara's clout appears to be on the rise. He was able to translate his trademark China-bashing into policy this summer with his plan for the Tokyo metropolitan government to buy the contested Japan-controlled Senkaku islands-called Diaoyu in China-from private Japanese owners.
Mr. Ishihara got considerable attention for his Senkaku gambit when his online island-buying fundraising campaign raised $16 million in two months. Playwright and movie director Satoru Mizushima says his network of nationalist organizations generated one-third of that cash. He also raised $13,000 to defray costs for the visiting Uighurs in May.
Realizing the diplomatic perils of letting Mr. Ishihara control the territory, Mr. Noda felt compelled to have the national government step in to try to purchase the islands, currently owned by a Japanese family and leased by the Japanese government. But that, in turn, has raised Beijing's ire, leading to protests and a Chinese patrol-boat mission to the area-prompting counter-protests from Japan. Another boatload of protesters from Hong Kong is expected to arrive at the islands within the next few days.
Today's leading nationalist organizations try to distance themselves from traditional right-wing groups, whose public image is one that includes loud and menacing protest rallies. The issues driving the current generation also are distinct from earlier ones, which were more focused on Japan's war experiences and on issues such as worship of the imperial family. Some see the nationalists as drawing from the same pool of disgruntled youth as the antinuclear protesters, although that movement has moved closer to the mainstream.
What ties elements of the current movement together are the territorial rivalries and the desire to see Japan act more decisively over them. "At a time when China is claiming even Okinawa as part of its own territory, Japan must be more resolute in our foreign policy," said Takeo Hiranuma, a parliament member who heads the small Sunrise Party of Japan.
Nationalist Internet sites have proliferated in recent years, allowing participants-known as netto uyoku, or Internet rightists, to air their views, often using incendiary and derogatory terms for China and Korea.
The 63-year-old Mr. Mizushima is another leader among Japan's new nationalists. He helped start a political group in 2010 called Ganbare Nippon, or Hang Tough Japan, which has organized seven so-called fishing expeditions to the disputed islands that Mr. Ishihara wanted to purchase, as a way of underscoring Japan's territorial claims.
Mr. Mizushima also runs a cable channel that, in 2009, became focused on right-wing talk shows, one of the few such outlets in Japan. "We created our channel as a counterweight to national newspapers and broadcasters that don't tell the truth," said Mr. Mizushima, whose media production company also posts its shows on the Internet. An Internet show called "Senkaku Islands, What If Japan Goes to War With China?" drew 37,000 viewers.
- Evan Ramstad contributed to this article.
Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com
By YUKA HAYASHI (Updated August 14, 2012, 11:15 p.m. ET)
TOKYO-Nationalist politicians and activists are wielding new clout in Japan, straining the country's ties with China and South Korea, and creating headaches for policy makers in Tokyo
Two Japanese cabinet ministers visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine-a place strongly associated with the country's imperialist past-on Wednesday, the first such visits since the Democratic Party of Japan took power three years ago. The visits further inflamed a dispute with South Korea; South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who upset Japanese officials with his visit to an islet contested by the two nations, said in a speech Wednesday that Japan must resolve issues from the World War II era before the two countries can develop better relations.
Mr. Lee referred to Japan as a "close neighbor, a friend" but noted the sexual enslavement of Korean women by Japanese soldiers during World War II.
"It was a breach of women's rights committed during wartime as well as a violation of universal human rights and historic justice," he said. "We urge the Japanese government to take responsible measures in this regard."
Adding to tensions in Japan, the Russian Defense Ministry said Tuesday it would soon send two navy vessels to the disputed Russia-controlled islands known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan to honor Soviet soldiers who died there after World War II.
Nationalist lawmakers have found new ways to drive the policy debate in recent weeks, using tactics that go beyond traditional noisy protests to embrace a younger generation of supporters-and their videos and social media. Various blogs, tweets and Internet videos offering nationalistic views shunned by most of Japan's mainstream media are helping to bring together conservative politicians and the public.
In the past three months alone, Japanese politicians have twice drawn formal diplomatic protests from the Chinese government: by hosting in Tokyo a large conference of Uighur separatists, branded terrorists by Beijing, and by pushing Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda into proposing to buy a chain of privately owned islands claimed by both China and Japan.
A separate group of parliament members stirred complaints from Seoul by visiting the U.S. to demand the removal of a New Jersey monument dedicated to so-called comfort women, Korean women forced to work in military brothels during Japan's occupation of Korea during World War II.
The growing influence of nationalist causes complicates matters for Mr. Noda, who has so far avoided saber-rattling but faces poor approval ratings ahead of a tricky leadership campaign in coming months.
Mr. Lee's visit last week to South Korea-controlled islets claimed by Japan pushed Tokyo to give a strong response. It recalled its ambassador to Seoul, and postponed a meeting between its finance minister and his South Korean counterpart.
The nationalist agenda is to push Japan's government to be more assertive in defending the country's territorial claims in a region fraught with multiple such disputes.
Many hope the growing interest in territorial issues will give momentum to their ultimate goal: revising Japan's pacifist constitution, which severely limits the role of the military, known as the Self Defense Forces.
"Many Japanese are beginning to realize we've been too complacent," says Keiji Furuya, an opposition politician who, among other things, spearheaded the Uighur effort and joined the Korea protest in New Jersey. "Just look at all the claims made on our territories from China, South Korea and Russia. We've never been made to look so foolish."
Japan's 21st-century nationalist movement has no single leader or party, but is a loose alliance of politicians, young and old, from the two main political parties-along with some rightist activist groups-backed by increasingly influential commentators and business executives.
One prominent figure in the movement is Shintaro Ishihara, the 79-year-old governor of Tokyo. Mr. Ishihara has been the face of Japanese nationalism from the time he wrote his best-selling "The Japan That Can Say 'No,' " in 1989 as a member of parliament.
But after years of being dismissed as largely a fringe provocateur, Mr. Ishihara's clout appears to be on the rise. He was able to translate his trademark China-bashing into policy this summer with his plan for the Tokyo metropolitan government to buy the contested Japan-controlled Senkaku islands-called Diaoyu in China-from private Japanese owners.
Mr. Ishihara got considerable attention for his Senkaku gambit when his online island-buying fundraising campaign raised $16 million in two months. Playwright and movie director Satoru Mizushima says his network of nationalist organizations generated one-third of that cash. He also raised $13,000 to defray costs for the visiting Uighurs in May.
Realizing the diplomatic perils of letting Mr. Ishihara control the territory, Mr. Noda felt compelled to have the national government step in to try to purchase the islands, currently owned by a Japanese family and leased by the Japanese government. But that, in turn, has raised Beijing's ire, leading to protests and a Chinese patrol-boat mission to the area-prompting counter-protests from Japan. Another boatload of protesters from Hong Kong is expected to arrive at the islands within the next few days.
Today's leading nationalist organizations try to distance themselves from traditional right-wing groups, whose public image is one that includes loud and menacing protest rallies. The issues driving the current generation also are distinct from earlier ones, which were more focused on Japan's war experiences and on issues such as worship of the imperial family. Some see the nationalists as drawing from the same pool of disgruntled youth as the antinuclear protesters, although that movement has moved closer to the mainstream.
What ties elements of the current movement together are the territorial rivalries and the desire to see Japan act more decisively over them. "At a time when China is claiming even Okinawa as part of its own territory, Japan must be more resolute in our foreign policy," said Takeo Hiranuma, a parliament member who heads the small Sunrise Party of Japan.
Nationalist Internet sites have proliferated in recent years, allowing participants-known as netto uyoku, or Internet rightists, to air their views, often using incendiary and derogatory terms for China and Korea.
The 63-year-old Mr. Mizushima is another leader among Japan's new nationalists. He helped start a political group in 2010 called Ganbare Nippon, or Hang Tough Japan, which has organized seven so-called fishing expeditions to the disputed islands that Mr. Ishihara wanted to purchase, as a way of underscoring Japan's territorial claims.
Mr. Mizushima also runs a cable channel that, in 2009, became focused on right-wing talk shows, one of the few such outlets in Japan. "We created our channel as a counterweight to national newspapers and broadcasters that don't tell the truth," said Mr. Mizushima, whose media production company also posts its shows on the Internet. An Internet show called "Senkaku Islands, What If Japan Goes to War With China?" drew 37,000 viewers.
- Evan Ramstad contributed to this article.
Write to Yuka Hayashi at yuka.hayashi@wsj.com