Japan Press Weekly

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2013 March 13 - 19 [TOKYO]

Tokyo governor considers past Japanese war as war for self-defense

Tokyo Governor Inose Naoki has clarified his position of glorifying the past Japanese war of aggression.

On March 13 at a Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly special budget committee meeting, Democratic Party lawmaker Kamino Yoshihiro requested the governor to provide school education materials based on a perspective glorifying Japan’s past war of aggression and its colonial rule over Korea.

Inose in his reply agreed with Kamino on the need to eliminate a “masochistic view” of Japan’s past war. He also claimed that Japan had to obtain natural resources from Southeast Asia for the national interests, so the past Japanese war was a war for self-defense.

Kamino argued that Japan entered the war in self-defense and had no intention to invade other nations. He criticized the government statement offering remorse over Japan’s war of aggression as disrespecting the war dead. Regarding Japan’s colonization of Korea, he said, “Japan annexed Korea based on a bilateral treaty and was not an act of colonization.”