Formation May 30, 1997 | Legal status Active | |
Merger of Nihon wo mamoru Kai(1974) and Nihon wo mamoru Kokumin Kaigi(1981) | ||
The Nippon Kaigi (日本会議, "Japan Conference") is a Japanese nationalist non-political party and State Shinto-advocating religious organization that was established in 1997 and has approximately 38,000 members. The group is influential in the legislative and executive branches of the Japanese government through its affiliates. Shinzō Abe, the Prime Minister of Japan, serves as a special advisor to the group's parliamentary league.
Contents
The group describes its aims as to "change the postwar national consciousness based on the Tokyo Tribunal's view of history as a fundamental problem" and to "revise the current Constitution," and sees its mission to promote patriotic education, the revision of the Constitution of Japan, and support for prime ministers' official visits to Yasukuni Shrine.
In the words of Hideaki Kase, an influential member of Nippon Kaigi, "We are dedicated to our conservative cause. We are monarchists. We are for revising the constitution. We are for the glory of the nation." Nippon Kaigi supports revising the Japanese Constitution, especially Article 9 which forbids a standing army.
Objectives
Nippon Kaigi has described six official goals of the organization as:
- "A beautiful traditional sovereignty for Japan's future" (美しい伝統の国柄を明日の日本へ): Fostering a sense of Japanese unity and social stability, based around the Imperial Household and shared history, culture and traditions of the Japanese people.
- "A new constitution appropriate for the new era" (新しい時代にふさわしい新憲法を): Restoring national defense rights, rectifying the unbalance of rights and obligations, strengthening the emphasis on the family system, and loosening the separation of religion and state.
- "Politics that protect the state's reputation and the people's lives" (国の名誉と国民の命を守る政治を): Addressing the loss of public interest in politics and government by taking a more aggressive stance in historical debates and crisis management.
- "Creating education that fosters a sense of Japanese identity" (日本の感性をはぐくむ教育の創造を): Addressing various problems arising in the Japanese educational system (bullying, prostitution, etc.) by instituting respect for the national flag and anthem, respect for national history, culture and traditions (in the process abandoning "gender-free" education and critical views of Japanese history).
- "Contributing to world peace by strengthening national security" (国の安全を高め世界への平和貢献を): Strengthening Japanese defense power in order to counterbalance China, North Korea and other hostile powers, and remembering Japan's war dead.
- "Friendship with the world tied together by a spirit of co-existence and mutual prosperity" (共生共栄の心でむすぶ世界との友好を): Building friendly relations with foreign countries through social and cultural exchange programs.
Some have claimed that 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 killings by Imperial Japanese troops during the 1937 Nanjing massacre were exaggerated or fabricated". 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. Nippon Kaigi fights against feminism, LGBT rights, and the 1999 Gender Equality Law.
History
Nippon Kaigi was founded in 1997 through the merger of two groups whose agendas included constitutional revision:
The founding President was Koichi Tsukamoto, the founder of Japanese clothier Wacoal.
Yuzo Kabashima, the secretary general of Nippon Kaigi, established a sister organization Nihon Seinen Kyogikai in 1977, which is headquartered in the same building as Nippon Kaigi and acts as the organization's secretariat.
Organization
Nippon Kaigi claims 35,000 individual members, 47 prefectural chapters, and about 230 local chapters. 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 belonging to the Imperial family.
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.
Following the 2014 reshuffle of Third Abe Cabinet, 15 of the 18 cabinet members, including the Prime Minister himself, were members of Nippon Kaigi. 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.
As of October 2014, the group claims 289 of the 480 Japanese National Diet members, and 15 of the 19 government members. Among the members, former members, and affiliated are countless lawmakers, many ministers and a few prime ministers including Taro Aso and Shinzo Abe. Abe's brother Nobuo Kishi is also a member of the Nippon Kaigi group in the Diet. Its chairman, Toru Miyoshi, is the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan.
After campaigning actively for LDP candidates in July 2016, Nippon Kaigi will campaign for constitutional revisionism in September 2016.
Criticism
Norimitsu Onishi considers that the organization promotes a revival of the fundamentals of the Empire of Japan; Tamotsu Sugano, the author of the bestselling expose on the group, "Research on Nippon Kaigi" (日本会議の研究) describes them as a democratic movement in method but intent on turning back sexual equality, restoring patriarchal values, and returning Japan to a pre-war constitution--neither democratic nor modern, and they are consolidated in left-phobia and in misogyny. The book was banned of sales by the district court for defamation on January 6 2017.
Muneo Narusawa, the editor of Weekly FRIDAY (Shūkan Kin' yōbi) considers that, in parallel with historical revisionism, the organization often highlights historical facts that convey Japan as a victim such as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the 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".