A Nasty Trick 'The Main Battleground of The Comfort Women Issue'

By the middle of the film I began to feel a little tired. Then unexpectedly, the words "Japan Conference" abruptly appeared on the screen. I was surprised because the Japan Conference had nothing to do with the comfort women.

Setsu Kobayashi, professor emeritus at Keio University and a constitutional scholar, began talking He argued the Japan Conference had the power to influence the Abe administration. He said it "intended to revive the constitution of the Empire of Japan" and return the country to an era where basic human rights were denied. And in his view, Yoshiko Sakurai was leading their campaign.

He continued speculating: "The Japan Conference is supported by Shinto shrines, including the Yasukuni Shrine. Yoshiko Sakurai probably has a free office within the shrine's grounds."

He then came to a very strange conclusion: "The Japan Conference's doctrine of getting back to prewar Japan is terrifying. But I am determined to fight against it, even if I get murdered in the battle.”

What a delusion! The Japan Conference and Yoshiko Sakurai have never expressed the slightest intention to revive the constitution of the Empire of Japan.

And I have a very good news for Kobayashi. His name has seldom been mentioned among conservatives. There is no one who has a reason to kill him. I can assure him that he is safe.

I asked the Japan Conference whether or not Dezaki had asked them for an interview when making the film. The answer was no. The Japan Conference also released a statement denying Dezaki's accusations. Dezaki did not bother to check the facts.

Hideaki Kase, a foreign policy critic and chair of the Tokyo headquarters of the Japan Conference appeared next. At one time he wrote and spoke often in political and business circles, and even now his name might be found on the lists of some conservative organizations. He is introduced in the film as a man who orchestrates many conservative organizations from behind the scene.

However, the Dezaki account of Kase as the man behind the scene is entirely fictional. Kase has not been actively involved in or spoken on the comfort women issue. Furthermore, he has not been the representative of the Japan Conference itself. So he had little to offer in response to Dezaki's questions.

Although the relationship to the comfort women issue was unclear, Dezaki next moved on to warn the Japanese people about revising the constitution. He threatened: "If you Japanese revise the pacifist constitution and rearm Japan, you Japanese will be involved in wars by us Americans!"

Dezaki didn't seem to know that Japan has a Self Defense Force and is already armed to defend itself. The Abe administration now wants to revise the constitution in order to improve Japan's security, but at the same time the right to collective defense would remain partly restricted so that Japan would not fight in wars unrelated to its own defense.