Japan Press Weekly

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2014 September 24 - 30 [POLITICS]

Abe Cabinet’s female ministers associated with extremist groups

Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo boasts that he appointed early in September “many” women as his cabinet ministers and executives of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. However, it has come to light that some of them have close relationships with extremist groups, provoking severe criticisms from both home and abroad.

Internal Affairs Minister Takaichi Sanae and LDP Policy Research Council Chair Inada Tomomi in 2011 respectively had their photographs taken in the Diet members’ office building with the representative of an extreme-right group which adheres to Nazism.

National Public Safety Commission Chair Yamatani Eriko also got her photograph taken in 2009 with officials of Zaitokukai, an organization which has repeated hate speech demonstrations against Korean residents in Japan. One of Zaitokukai’s officials stated on his Web page that they have been associated with Yamatani for two decades.

In European nations, if it turns out that politicians have connections with neo-Nazi groups, they are forced to resign. Meanwhile, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged the Japanese government late in August to regulate hate speech actions and punish persons involved.

PM Abe overlooks these women’s behavior as well as turns a blind eye to his own responsibility for appointing them to key posts.

Abe and the three women are all core members of a group of parliamentarians supporting the Japan Conference (Nippon Kaigi), an ultraright organization which has justified Japan’s aggression during World War II. While advocating the slogan “Let’s create a Japan where women can be more active”, the Abe administration is actually isolating itself in the global community.

Past related article:
> Abe forms his Cabinet with members of pro-Yasukuni parliamentarians’ group [September 6, 2014]