Tuesday in Washington, May 26, 2015

May 24, 2015, 10:37 pm

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Monday is a National Holiday in the United States and Congress is in recess all week.
The work week starts Tuesday.

EUROPE AND THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL. 5/26, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Gérard Araud, Ambassador of France to the United States; Peter Westmacott, Ambassador of Britain to the United States; Peter Wittig, Ambassador of Germany to the United States; Barbara Slavin, Senior Fellow at the South Asia Center at the Atlantic Council.

RETHINKING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE. 5/26, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group, CSIS. Speakers: Wes Bush, Chairman, CEO, and President, Northrop Grumman; Dr. John Hamre, President, CEO, and Pritzker Chair, CSIS and Director, Brzezinski Institute on Geostrategy; Andrew Hunter, Director, Defense-Industrial Initiatives Group and Senior Fellow, International Security Program.

LGBTI RIGHTS: GLOBAL ACTIVISM, US DIPLOMACY. 5/26, 10:00am-Noon. Sponsors: United States Institute of Peace (USIP); International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. Speakers: Nancy Lindborg, President, USIP; Randy Berry, Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LBGT Persons, US Department of State; Sumit Bisarya, Constitution Building Programme, International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance; Michael Dafel, Doctoral Candidate, University of Cambridge; Eric Gitari, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission in Kenya; Monie Griffith, Director, Marriage Equality, Ireland; Richie Maitland, Co-founding Director, Groundation Grenada; Michelle Reddy, Programme Director, Fiji Women's Rights Movement; Jason Gluck, Senior Program Officer, Rule of Law, USIP.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE EMERGING AMERICAN-IRANIAN NUCLEAR DEAL. 5/26, Noon-1:00pm, lunch. Sponsor: Hudson Institute. Speakers: Efraim Inbar, Director, Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Bar-Ilan University; Lee Smith, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute.

THE GLOBAL VILLAGE MYTH: DISTANCE, WAR, AND THE LIMITS OF POWER. 5/26, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: Cato Institute. Speakers: Patrick Porter, Academic Director of the Strategy and Security Institute at the University of Exeter; Zack Beauchamp, World Correspondent for Vox.com; Austin Long, Assistant Professor at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University; Justin Logan, Director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute.
PURCHASE BOOK: http://amzn.to/1DQyIfL

THE EBOLA RESPONSE: THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE'S MEDICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ROLE IN A GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY CRISIS. 5/26, 2:00-3:00pm. Sponsor: Heritage Foundation. Speakers: Carmen Spencer, Joint Program Executive Officer for Chemical and Biological Defense; COL. Russell E. Coleman, Joint Project Manager for Medical Countermeasure Systems; COL. Stephen J. Thomas, Deputy Commander of Operations, Walter Reed Army Institute of Research; COL. Neal E. Woollen, Director of Biosecurity, US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases.

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Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule January 12-18, 2015

May 28, 2015, 6:00 pm

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Monday, January 12, 2015

AM
12:00 At holiday home (no visitors)

10:00 At holiday home in Narusawa Village, Yamanashi Prefecture (no morning visitors)
10:11 Depart from holiday home
11:29 Arrive at official residence

PM
12:26 Depart from official residence
12:27 Arrive at office
12:37 Meet with Minister of Finance Aso Taro, Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Vice-Minister Kagawa Shunsuke, and Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho
12:58 End meeting with Mr. Aso, Mr. Kagawa, and Mr. Tanaka
01:04 Meeting of the Government and Ruling Parties
01:17 Meeting ends
01:24 Depart from office
01:25 Arrive at ramen shop Shinamen Hashigo Akasaka location in Akasaka, Tokyo. Lunch with secretaries
01:46 Depart from ramen shop
01:52 Arrive at Jikei University Hospital in Nishi-Shinbashi, Tokyo. Visit relative in hospital
02:20 Depart from hospital
02:38 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Tuesday, January 13, 2015
AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:11 Depart from private residence
09:26 Arrive at LDP Party Headquarters
09:35 LDP Officers Meeting
09:56 Meeting ends
09:58 Depart from LDP Party Headquarters
10:00 Arrive at office
10:03 Council for Science, Technology and Innovation meeting
10:21 Council meeting ends
10:25 Cabinet Meeting begins
10:32 Cabinet Meeting ends
10:34 Headquarters for Promotion of Social Security Reform meeting
10:49 Meeting ends

PM
12:04 Panel Discussion with Managers of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Miyazawa Yoichi also attends
01:08 Discussion ends
01:56 Meet with Minister in charge of Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan Ishiba Shigeru and State Minister of Cabinet Office Taira Masaaki
02:47 End meeting with Mr. Ishiba and Mr. Taira
02:48 Speak with Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen and Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro
03:02 Finish speaking with Mr. Nakatani and Mr. Kuroe
03:16 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
04:02 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
04:03 Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, National Policy Agency’s Director of Security Bureau Takahashi Kiyotaka, and Deputy Director-General of Public Security Intelligence Agency Kojima Yoshiharu enter
04:16 Mr. Yachi, Mr. Takahashi, and Mr. Kojima leave
04:34 Mr. Kitamura leaves
04:56 Meet with Chairman of Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren) Sakakibara Sadayuki
05:15 End meeting with Mr. Sakakibara
05:38 Meet with Governor of Tokyo Prefecture Masuzoe Yoichi
06:21 End meeting with Mr. Masuzoe
06:30 Depart from office
06:32 Arrive at official residence

Wednesday, January 14, 2015
AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
08:48 Depart from official residence
08:49 Arrive at office
09:02 Nine Ministers’ Group of NSC meeting
09:09 Meeting ends
09:26 Extraordinary Session Cabinet Meeting begins
09:35 Cabinet Meeting ends
09:38 Interview open to all media: When told “The 2015 budget has been decided by the Cabinet, but the total amount of the general account is the largest ever,” Mr. Abe answers “The government bond issues sum has been reduced a total of 4.4 trillion yen, the first time in six years that it has been under 40 trillion yen. The sum has been reduced the past 3 years running.”
09:39 Interview ends
09:40 Speak with Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF)’s Minister Nishikawa Koya and Vice-Minister Minagawa Yoshitsugu
09:48 Finish speaking with Mr. Nishikawa and Mr. Minagawa
10:33 Meet with Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of International Cooperation Bureau Ishikane Kimihiro
11:07 End meeting with Mr. Saiki and Mr. Ishikane
11:23 Meet with Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT)’s Vice-Minister Honda Masaru and Director-General of Civil Aviation Bureau Tamura Akihiko
11:50 End meeting with Mr. Honda and Mr. Tamura
11:56 Depart from office

PM
12:01 Arrive at ANA Intercontinental Hotel Tokyo. Dinner with President of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Miyanaga Shunichi, Chairman of Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company Saito Katsutoshi, and others in banquet hall Libra within hotel
01:06 Depart from hotel
01:10 Arrive at office
01:11 Speak with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro
01:16 Finish speaking with Mr. Kimura
01:25 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu
01:55 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
02:00 Meet with Cabinet Advisor Honda Etsuro
02:15 End meeting with Cabinet Advisor Honda
02:34 Depart from office
02:35 Arrive at official residence
02:36 Informal talk with LDP monthly women’s magazine Liburu [りぶる] section author and TV personality Kataoka Tsurutaro
03:29 Finish talking with Mr. Kataoka
03:30 Depart from official residence
03:31 Arrive at office
03:34 Meet with Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)’s Minister Shimomura Hakubun and Vice-Minister Yamanaka Shinichi
04:27 End meeting with Mr. Shimomura and Mr. Yamanaka
04:43 Depart from office
04:55 Arrive at Kansai Telecasting Corporation Tokyo Office in Ginza, Tokyo. Appear on news program
05:32 Depart from Kansai Telecasting Corporation
05:44 Arrive at office
06:01 Meet with Administrative Vice-Minister of Defense Nishi Masanori
06:22 End meeting with Mr. Nishi
06:29 Depart from office
06:30 Arrive at official residence

Thursday, January 15, 2015
AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
09:23 Depart from official residence
09:25 Arrive at office
09:44 Speak with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro
09:47 Finish speaking with Mr. Kimura
10:14 Meet with MOFA’s Administrative Vice-Minister Sugiyama Shinsuke; Ambassador in charge of Cultural Exchange Sato Hideo; Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa; Director-General of International Cooperation Bureau Ishikane Kimihiro; MOF’s Director-General of International Bureau Asakawa Masatsugu; Administrative Vice-Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Ishiguro Norihiko; and MLIT’s Director-General for International Affairs Inaba Kazuo
11:36 End meeting with Mr. Sugiyama, Mr. Sato, Mr. Uemura, Mr. Ishikane, Mr. Asakawa, Mr. Ishiguro, and Mr. Inaba
11:37 Meet with Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Shiozaki Yasuhisa; Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW)’s Director-General of Labour Standards Bureau Okazaki Junichi and Director-General of Health Insurance Bureau Karasawa Takeshi

PM
12:13 End meeting with Mr. Shiozaki, Mr. Okazaki, and Mr. Karasawa
01:00 Meet with Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro
01:25 End meeting with Mr. Yachi
02:04 Filming video message for event related to science and technology
02:11 Finish filming
02:25 Meet with Councillor of Cabinet Secretariat Tanaka Shigehiro; MOFA’s Director-General of Economic Affairs Bureau Saiki Naoko; Mr. Ishiguro; and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI)’s Director-General of Trade and Economic Cooperation Bureau Munakata Naoko
02:45 End meeting with Mr. Tanaka, Ms. Saiki, Mr. Ishiguro, and Ms. Munakata
03:00 Receive fuel-cell vehicle. Test drive
03:07 Finish test drive
03:15 Meet with MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka, Administrative Vice-Minister Sugiyama Shinsuke, and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa
03:50 End meeting with Mr. Saiki, Mr. Sugiyama, and Mr. Uemura
03:59 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
04:32 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
04:33 Meet with MOF’s Vice-Minister Kagawa Shunsuke, Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs Yamasaki Tatsuo, and Mr. Asakawa
04:48 End meeting with Mr. Kagawa, Mr. Yamasaki, and Mr. Asakawa
04:50 Meet with MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, MOD’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Chief of Staff for Maritime Self-Defense Force Kawano Katsutoshi
05:15 End meeting with Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano
05:40 Receive courtesy call from Chairman of ROK-Japan Parliamentarians’ League Suh Chung Won and colleagues. President of Japan-Korea Parliamentarians’ Union Nukaga Fukushiro also attends
06:12 Courtesy call ends
06:14 Depart from office
06:28 Arrive at building 1-chome 3-bankan [壱丁目参番館：ichi-chome san-bankan] in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Informal talk with critic Kin Birei; Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Shimomura Hakubun; Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Mr. Shiozaki; Chairperson of National Public Safety Commission Yamatani Eriko; Minister in charge of Promoting Women’s Empowerment Arimura Haruko; Chairperson of LDP Policy Research Council Inada Tomomi; and others at office of Ms. Kin within building
07:53 Depart from building
08:08 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Friday, January 16, 2015
AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:48 Depart from private residence
09:13 Arrive at Haneda Airport
09:22 Interview open to all media: When asked “What is the purpose of your visits in the Middle East?” Mr. Abe answers “We want to transmit a message to the world that we will go on to make a tolerant, inclusive society with the Middle East.”
09:24 Interview ends
09:52 Depart from airport on personal government aircraft with wife Akie bound for tour of visitation to four Middle Eastern countries

PM
(Local time in Cairo, Egypt)
Arrive at Cairo International Airport in Egypt
View Grand Egyptian Museum facilities construction site in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo
Conference with Prime Minister of Egypt Ibrahim Mahlab at Prime Minister’s Office
Stay night at Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza

Saturday, January 17, 2015

AM
(Local time in Cairo, Egypt)
Attend Joint Meeting of Japan-Egypt Business Committee at hotel Conrad Cairo in Cairo, Egypt, and give speech
Conference with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at his office
Attend meeting with President El-Sisi and an economic mission

PM
(Local time in Cairo, Egypt)
Joint press release
Lunch meeting hosted by the president
Depart from Cairo International Airport
(Local time in Amman City, Jordan)
Arrive at Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan
Arrive at lodging Four Seasons Hotel Amman in Amman City
View the Jordan Museum
Arrive at lodging Four Seasons Hotel Amman in Amman City, Jordan
Informal talk with an economic mission at resident Japanese Ambassador to Jordan’s official residence in Amman City, Jordan
Dinner meeting with King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al Hussein and his wife the Queen at king’s private residence
Stay night at Four Seasons Hotel Amman

Sunday, January 18, 2015
AM
(Local time in Amman City, Jordan)
Reception event at Office of Prime Minister of Jordan in Amman City, Jordan
Conference with Prime Minister of Jordan Abdullah Ensour
Conference with King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al Hussein at Royal Court Office
Witness economic mission’s greeting to King of Jordan

PM
(Local time in Amman City, Jordan)
With economic mission, attend lunch meeting hosted by King of Jordan
Depart from Queen Alia International Airport in Jordan
(Local time in Jerusalem City, Israel)
Arrive at Ben Gurion International Airport on outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel
Arrive at lodging David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem City
Summit Conference with Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu at Waldorf Astoria Hotel, small assembly attends
Attend meeting with economic mission and Prime Minister Netanyahu in Jerusalem City
View Israel enterprise exhibition
Attend business seminar
Stay night at David Citadel Hotel

Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones

Monday, June 1, 2015 in Washington

May 31, 2015, 7:04 am

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BLURRING BORDERS: NATIONAL, SUBNATIONAL, AND REGIONAL ORDERS IN EAST ASIA. 6/1, 8:30am-3:30pm. Breakfast and Lunch. Sponsor: Wilson Center. Speakers: Jacques deLisle, FPRI, University of Pennsylvania; Dru Gladney, Pacific Basic Institute, Pomona College; Christine Kim, Georgetown University; Mike Mochizuki, GWU; Richard Bush, Brookings; Gilbert Rozman, Princeton University, FPRI; Satu Limaye, EWC; Robert Sutter, GWU; Sheila Smith, CFR; and Moderators: Felix Chang, FPRI; Shihoko Goto, Senior Associate for Northeast Asia, Asia Program, Wilson Center; Robert Daly, Director, Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, Wilson Center.

DID THE FED'S QUANTITATIVE EASING MAKE INEQUALITY WORSE? 6/1, 9:30am-12:30pm. Sponsor: Brookings. Speaker: Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute; Matthias Doepke, Northwestern, Northwestern University; Veronika Selezneva, Northwestern University; Martin Beraja, University of Chicago; Erik Hurst, University of Chicago;Joe Vavra, University of Chicago; Andreas Fuster, New York Federal Reserve; Robert S. Kerr, Senior Fellow, Brookings; Donald Kohn, Hoover Institution; Kevin Warsh, Hoover Institution; Susan Lund, McKinsey; Mark Zandi, Moody’s Analytics; Jean Boivin, BlackRock.

IRAN NEGOTIATIONS: UNANSWERED QUESTIONS AND A LOOMING DEADLINE. 6/1, 1:00pm. Sponsor: The Iran Task Force. Speakers: Former Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind; Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn; Former CIA Director Michael Hayden; John Hannah, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Iran Task Force.

ASSESSING TOXICOLOGIC RISKS TO HUMAN SUBJECTS USED IN CONTROLLED EXPOSURE STUDIES OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANTS. 6/1, 1:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: The National Academy of Sciences. Speakers: Thomas Burke, EPA Science Advisor; Robert Kavlock, Deputy Assistant Administrator, EPA Office of Research. 

DERWIN PEREIRA INDONESIA INITIATIVE. 6/1, 2:30-3:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies. Speaker: Ridwan Kamil, Mayor of the Indonesian city of Bandung.

THE SECOND BAPTISM OF RUS’? THE RETURN OF RELIGION AND THE (SOVIET) ORIGINS OF RUSSIAN PATRIOTISM. 6/1, 3:30-4:40pm. Sponsor: Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies. Speaker: Victoria Smolkin-Rothrock, Assistant Professor of History, Wesleyan University. 

THE RENEWABLE ENERGY TRANSITION. 6/1, 4:00-5:30pm. Sponsors: Atlantic Council; International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Speaker: Adnan Amin, Director General, IRENA; Amos Hochstein, Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, Bureau of Energy Resources, US Department of State; Mike Carr, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy; and Moderator: Richard L. Morningstar, Founding Director, Global Energy Center, Atlantic Council.

PUTIN. WAR: THE MAKING OF THE NEMTSOV REPORT. 6/1, 5:30-7:00pm. Sponsors: The Center on Global Interests; Free Russia Foundation. Speaker: Ilya Yashin, Russian Activist.

TAKING STOCK: THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEURS OF THE UNITED NATIONS: THE UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF DEALING WITH TORTURE. 6/1, 5:30-8:00pm. Sponsor: The American Society of International Law (ASL). Speakers: Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur on Torture for the UN; Manfred Nowak, Director, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights.

Agree to Differ

June 1, 2015, 7:59 pm

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Agree to Differ released May 18, 2015 at The 3rd World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue “Sharing Culture for Shared Security" in Baku, Azerbaijan. A UNESCO and Tudor Rose publication on the International Decade for the Rapprochement of Cultures, for which UNESCO is lead agency.

'Agree to Differ' is a fresh assessment of the contemporary world with some of its significant contradictions, but also solutions for the future. Following the initiative of Tudor Rose on the occasion of the International Decade of the Rapprochement of Cultures, this publication establishes a picture of experiences at the international, regional, national and local levels, which call for rapprochement of cultures and mutual understanding. Hence, 'Agree to Differ' brings elements of reflection that will feed into the work of UNESCO in the field of intercultural dialogue. Moreover, this publication contributes to the construction of a framework of common values that foster social cohesion. 

See: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/the_3rd_world_forum_on_intercultural_dialogue_opens_in_baku/#.VWMdflXBzGc

Release:http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/learning-to-live-together/?tx_browser_pi1[showUid]=30987&cHash=27abc6a1dc

Text:http://digital.tudor-rose.co.uk/agree-to-differ/index.html#9/z

The understanding of modern history that Shinzo Abe lacks

June 1, 2015, 8:05 pm

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May 2012

INTERVIEW/ Akira Iriye: Transcending the logic of power

First published in the Asahi Shimbun's Asia Japan Watch July 5, 2014
By HIROKI MANABE/ Correspondent

The Abe administration focused on the logic of “power,” as in state and military strength, as the Cabinet on July 1 approved the reinterpretation of the Constitution to allow the exercise of the right to collective self-defense.

But Akira Iriye, professor emeritus of history at Harvard University, who has been studying history since moving to the United States 60 years ago, says such a state-centric view is outdated in today’s globalized world.

In an interview with The Asahi Shimbun, Iriye says we need to view the world through the lens of “sharing” and “connecting.”

Excerpts from the interview follow:

Question: How does Japan under the Abe administration look in the eyes of a historian who has lived in the United States for so long?

Iriye: I think the country has become ensnared in a Japan-centric view. The state-centric thought symbolized by phrases like “our beautiful country” and “defend Japan’s pride” shows ignorance of what the world is like in the present day.
Q: Are you saying it does not suit the times?

A: Yes. Recent historiography focuses not only on great power relations, territorial issues and power games, but also attaches importance to the presence of non-state actors, such as multinational companies, NGOs and religious organizations, as well as to interpersonal connections that transcend national borders. This is because most issues, like environmental problems and terrorism, cannot be understood or solved within the context of a single country.

In the past, I used to study history by looking at different states, such as British history, American history, Chinese history and the history of international relations. The trend of viewing history in non-state terms came about among researchers in the late 1980s or so, and I, too, began to think that way.

In a speech I gave upon stepping down as president of the American Historical Association in 1988, I argued that historiography must have a more global perspective. I received support from many more people than I had expected.


Until then, historiography was an idea that even applied the chronological periods of Western history to other countries, but then came the line of thought that stepped away from the Western-centric view and decentralized historiography.

click to order

Furthermore, we have made advances in global history, which makes the Earth the framework rather than states, and in what we call transnational research, which has a focus on relationships that transcend national borders, rather than on relationships between states.

'TRANSNATIONAL CONNECTIONS'

Q: Arguments premised on power politics are still prominent in international relations theory and political science. When you say “transcend national borders,” don’t people tell you that it is unrealistic?

A: On the contrary, I think realist perspectives on international relations are shallow and hold little meaning in today’s world. Paul Kennedy, who wrote “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers,” was a great scholar, but many “realists” who stress that national interests move the world are being extremely narrow.

Realist views became widespread in Japan in the 1960s. I was acquainted with Masataka Kosaka, the scholar of international politics, who wrote “Genjitsushugisha no Heiwaron” (A realist’s perspective on peace), and at the time my thinking was similar to his.

I felt uncomfortable with ideologically driven opposition to the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, and I thought that a close partnership between Japan and the United States was important. That is because when I studied the history of international relations, I tended to concentrate on the arms race and other policy decisions.

Since we focused too much on balance of power considerations, however, not a single researcher, myself included, predicted the end of the Cold War that came around the year 1990. I think you could say that realism lost its standing.

For it is now believed that the 1975 Helsinki Accord, in which the Soviet Union recognized respect for human rights, spread democratization hopes in the Eastern Bloc, while at the same time the global economy exerted a greater than anticipated effect on the Soviet Union.

If you do not understand such deep connections going beyond the state framework, it would not be possible to anticipate an end to the Cold War. Realism is an idea that does not recognize global changes caused by cultural, social or ideological forces.

Inter-power relations are important, but many historians now believe that these are not as fundamental as transnational connections. The transnational approach to the study of history focuses on phenomena that transcend borders, for example, migrations, cultural interactions, environmental problems, women’s movements, terrorism and so on.

It has been said that it takes 30 years for historians to catch up with forces leading up to the present, so our conceptions may have finally caught up to reality.

Q: In Japan, there are growing fears over Chinese expansionism, so we seem to be preoccupied with the state as the basic framework in discussing Japan-China relations.

A: That is an old-fashioned geopolitical idea. I think Chinese expansionism is just one aspect to consider. To only emphasize territorial issues, despite the fact that so many things, people and money are moving across national borders, goes against the global trend.

And China will inevitably undergo further changes. It is wrong to assume that the whole country acts at Beijing’s command. The Chinese researchers and exchange students I know have ideas different from the government's. There is much Japan and China, and Japan and South Korea, can share with each other.

I think that just clamoring that “China is going to invade another country,” even though all the world’s countries are heading in a direction of a shared fate, is to ignore the bigger picture. Such people seem completely preoccupied with territory issues and are making the situation graver for all of East Asia.

Q: Some are of the opinion that Article 9 of the Constitution is unrealistic. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided to allow Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense.

A: I think such realism is out of date, whereas Article 9 of the Constitution is not. For nearly 70 years, there has been no world war, and the majority of the world agrees with the idea that armed force does not settle international disputes. Even the idea of getting the United States to protect Japan instead of Japan's exercising the right of self-defense is an old-fashioned geopolitical idea of the sort that predates World War II.

There is no easy answer to the question of whether it is the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty’s nuclear umbrella or rather Article 9 that has kept Japan in peace, but at the very least, Japan has not posed a threat to its neighbors. This has been a necessary precondition for its economic growth, which has been undertaken in conjunction with the development of a more globalized world.

These days, even the United States under President Barack Obama is attempting arms reduction, and it may be said that Japan has been the global leader when it comes to this development. This is nothing for the Japanese to feel humiliated about or entertain self-doubt. It is also in Japan's interest to pursue such a policy.

'ONLY ONE HISTORY'

Q: An exclusionist movement has begun to rear its head in Japan.

A: Right-wing parties are also making great strides in France. I think this is a transitional phenomenon common to many countries, and it is very serious. I believe people are beginning to feel impatient because they are being left out by economic stagnation, and it is steering them toward a bigoted nationalism.

Speaking of nationalism, some people say that looking squarely at our past is a masochistic way to view history, but if we are going to truly take pride in Japan, then naturally we should start by accepting the past.

A lesson that has been drummed into my head from studying history is that you cannot arbitrarily change the past. It is important to thoroughly explore and look at things from many angles, but you cannot alter the facts themselves. There is only one history, no matter what country of the world you are from, whether you are Japanese, Turkish or Brazilian. A history that you cannot share with others cannot be called history.

Q: You say going “beyond the state,” but in a globalizing economy there is a negative side, such as the growing disparity between the rich and the poor.

A: That would not mean, however, it would be wise to return to the Cold War or to protectionism. I think it is erroneous to perceive of the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a traditional manner, or as a contest of national interests. Basically I support it. Rectifying its possibly negative aspects would require closer global, non-economic links transcending national boundaries.

We cannot stop the flow of money and people anymore. Humanitarian connections such as non-state actors and international NGOs will be playing greater roles in the globalized world.

Q: So how should an individual face globalization?

A: My granddaughter who graduated from a public high school in Illinois this year has a Japanese mother and an Irish American father. And my last graduate student, a very fine scholar who received his doctorate recently, has a German father and a Chinese mother. These are the sort of inter-racial blending that is happening in American society as well as elsewhere. President Obama is another example, of course.

People and society are becoming “hybridized,” so to speak. If there is to be hope for the world’s future, then I think that is where it lies.

There was cultural hybridization in Japan during the Meiji Restoration. I cannot understand why, despite this history, there is an anti-foreign sentiment today seeking to close off the country from international contact. That is ridiculous. Japan can never be an exception to globalization. We cannot go back to the "good old days," which never existed any way.

Monday in Washington June 8, 2015

June 7, 2015, 2:19 pm

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CAN THE FINANCIAL SECTOR PROMOTE GROWTH AND STABILITY? 6/8, 8:30am-2:00pm. Sponsor: Brookings Institution’s Initiative on Public Policy. Keynote Speaker: Richard Berner, Director, Treasury Department’s Office of Financial Research.

WORLD BANK’S EIGHTH MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE. 6/8, 9:00am-5:00pm. Sponsor: World Bank. Featured Speakers: Dani Rodrik, Professor, Princeton University and Ran Abramitzky, Professor, Stanford University.

HOW ICELAND WEATHERED THE FINANCIAL CRISIS. 6/8, Noon-1:30pm. Sponsor: National Economists Club. Speaker: Geir Haarder, Iceland Ambassador to the US.

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THE ROK-US ALLIANCE: FACING MISSILE AND NUCLEAR THREATS ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA. 6/8, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Speakers: Thomas Karako, Director, Missile Defense Project, CSIS; Choi Kang, Vice President for Research, Asan; Woo Jung-Yeop, Director, Asan Washington Office.

NEW WAYS TO MEASURE THE IMPACT OF COUNTRY HEALTH PROGRAMS. 6/8, 4:00pm. Sponsors: UN Foundation; World Bank. Speakers: Jennifer Adams, Deputy Assistant, USAID’s Bureau for Global Health; Ties Boerma, Director, World Health Organization’s Department of Measurement and Health Information Systems; Tim Evans, Senior Director of Health, Nutrition and Population, World Bank; Elizabeth Cousens, Deputy CEO, UN Foundation. 

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THE POST-WWII TRADE SYSTEM: A PILLAR OF FREEDOM. 6/8, 4:30-6:00pm. Sponsor: Institute of World Politics (IWP). Speaker: author, Douglas A. Irwin, John Sloan Dickey Third Century Professor in the Social Sciences, Dartmouth College.


FROM STARVATION IN NORTH KOREA TO SALVATION IN AMERICA. 6/8, 6:30-9:00pm. Sponsor: Korean Economic Institute (KEI). Speaker: author Joseph Kim, North Korean Refugee.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule January 19-25, 2015

June 7, 2015, 2:27 pm

≫ Next: Monday in Washington, June 15, 2015

≪ Previous: Monday in Washington June 8, 2015

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Monday, January 19, 2015

AM

(Local time in Israel)

View Holocaust History Museum

Joint press release at Prime Minister’s Office

Conference with Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu

PM

(Local time in Israel)

Perform courtesy call to President of Israel Reuven Rivlin at President’s Office

View Jewish sacred place Western Wall in Old City of Jerusalem

Receive courtesy call from Leader of opposition Labor Party Isaac Herzog at David Citadel Hotel

Attend class reunion of Joint Invitation Program for Israeli and Palestinian Youth Leaders at lodging David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem City

Receive courtesy call from US Senator John Sidney McCain III (R – AZ)

Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister Netanyahu at Beit Aghion

Stay night at David Citadel Hotel

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

AM

(Local time in Israel)

Press conference with domestic and foreign media at Waldorf Astoria Hotel

Arrive at David Citadel Hotel

PM

(Local time in Israel)

Offer flowers at Mausoleum of Yasser Arafat within President’s Office at Palestinian Authority in Ramallah

Reception event at President’s Office

Conference with President of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas

Attend meeting of economic mission with President Abbas

Joint press release

Lunch meeting hosted by President Abbas

Arrive at David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem City

Phone conference with King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al Hussein and President of TurkeyRecep Tayyip Erdoğan

Phone conference with President of Egypt Abdel Fattah el-Sisi

Depart from Ben Gurion International Airport on outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

AM

(In transit)

PM

04:26 Arrive at Haneda Airport on private government aircraft, completing tour to four Middle Eastern countries

04:36 Depart from airport

04:57 Arrive at Imperial Palace. Register return to Japan

05:04 Depart from Imperial Palace

05:11 Arrive at office

05:20 Meet with Deputy Prime Minister Aso Taro, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries Kato Katsunobu, Seko Hiroshige, and Sugita Kazuhiro, Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management Nishimura Yasuhiko, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka, and colleagues

05:47 End meeting with Mr. Aso, Mr. Suga, Mr. Kato, Mr. Seko, Mr. Sugita, Mr. Yachi, Mr. Nishimura, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Saiki, and colleagues

05:48 Ministerial Council Meeting on Warning of Japanese Nationals’ Execution in Syria

06:00 Council Meeting ends

06:01 Interview open to all media: When asked “From here on what will be your interaction with ISIS?” Mr. Abe answers “Up to this point we have cultivated every diplomatic channel to the maximum potential. Towards the release of both people we will exhaust every option.”

06:03 Interview ends

08:45 Depart from office

08:47 Arrive at official residence

11:40 Receive phone report from State Minister for Foreign Affairs Nakayama Yasuhide. Mr. Suga and Mr. Kato also attend

11:45 Finish receiving report

Thursday, January 22, 2015

AM

01:00 At official residence (no visitors)

08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)

09:22 Depart from official residence

09:24 Arrive at office

09:40 Meet with President of Assembly to Energize Japan Matsuda Kouta and Chairman of Assembly to Energize Japan Diet Affairs Committee Inoue Yoshiyuki

09:58 End meeting with Mr. Matsuda and Mr. Inoue

09:59 Meet with Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Kawano Katsutoshi

10:24 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano

10:25 Meet with Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Miyazawa Yoichi; Commissioner of Agency for Natural Resources and Energy Ueda Takayuki; and Director-General of Manufacturing Industries Bureau Kuroda Atsuo

10:55 End meeting with Mr. Miyazawa, Mr. Ueda, and Mr. Kuroda

11:45 Meet with Indonesia’s Minister of Trade Rahmat Gobel

PM

12:00 End meeting with Mr. Gobel

12:02 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu

12:42 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki

02:00 Phone conference with Prime Minister of Australia Tony Abbot. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries Kato Katsunobu and Seko Hiroshige also attend

02:14 Phone conference ends

02:36 Speak with Chief Justice of Supreme Court Terada Itsuro

02:45 Finish speaking with Mr. Terada

02:46 Meet with former Minister for Reconstruction Nemoto Takumi

03:09 End meeting with Mr. Nemoto

03:13 Regional Revitalization Plan Certification Ceremony

03:30 Ceremony ends

03:59 Depart from office

04:09 Arrive at hotel Grand Hyatt Tokyo in Roppongi, Tokyo. Attend New Year’s Party hosted by Japan Association of New Economy (JANE) in banquet hall Grand Ballroom within hotel, deliver address

04:24 Depart from hotel

04:33 Arrive at office

05:03 Minister for Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of European Affairs Bureau Hayashi Hajime enter

05:36 Mr. Hayashi leaves

05:42 Mr. Kishida and Mr. Saiki leave

05:46 Depart from office

05:52 Arrive at Hotel New Otani in Kioi-cho, Tokyo. Attend Awards Ceremony for Japan Venture Grand Prize in banquet hall Tsuru within hotel, deliver address

06:25 Depart from hotel

06:32 Arrive at office

06:33 Meet with Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, Mr. Kato, Mr. Seko, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Sugita Kazuhiro, Mr. Yachi, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management Nishimura Yasutoshi, Mr. Kitamura, and Mr. Saiki

07:00 End meeting with Mr. Suga, Mr. Kato, Mr. Seko, Mr. Sugita, Mr. Yachi, Mr. Nishimura, Mr. Kitamura, and Mr. Saiki

07:01 Speak with Mr. Kitamura

07:05 Finish speaking with Mr. Kitamura

07:15 Phone conference with Prime Minister of UK David Cameron. Mr. Kato, Mr. Seko, and Mr. Yachi also attend

07:25 Phone conference ends

07:35 Depart from office

07:37 Arrive at official residence

09:50 Meet with Mr. Suga, Mr. Kato, Mr. Seko, and Mr. Sugita

10:41 End meeting with Mr. Suga, Mr. Kato, Mr. Seko, and Mr. Sugita

Friday, January 23, 2015

AM

12:00 At official residence (no visitors)

08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)

08:51 Depart from official residence

08:52 Arrive at office

09:05 Speak with Chairman of LDP Administrative Reform Promotion Headquarters Kono Taro and Chairman of New Komeito Administrative Reform Promotion Headquarters Uozumi Yuichiro

09:16 Finish speaking with Mr. Kono and Mr. Uozumi

09:27 Strategic Headquarters for Promotion of an Advanced Information and Telecommunications Network Society (IT Strategic Headquarters) meeting

09:42 Meeting ends

09:48 Cabinet Meeting begins

10:03 Cabinet Meeting ends

10:06 Drill for Countermeasures against New Strains of Influenza and Other Diseases

10:22 Drill ends

10:23 Speak with Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ohta Akihiro

10:36 Finish speaking with Mr. Ohta

11:06 Robot Revolution Realization Council meeting

11:36 Council meeting ends

11:49 Meet with Governor of Yamaguchi Prefecture Muraoka Ysugumasa and and Yamaguchi Prefectural Assembly President Yanai Shungaku

PM

12:04 End meeting with Mr. Muraoka and Mr. Yanai

01:03 NSC meeting opens. Chairperson of National Public Safety Commission Yamatani Eriko also attends

01:46 NSC meeting closes

01:47 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro

01:50 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso

02:35 Meet with Minister in charge of Administrative Reform Arimura Haruko

02:57 End meeting with Ms. Arimura

02:58 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Cabinet Office’s Vice-Minister Matsuyama Kenji and Director-General for Policies on Cohesive Society Tawa Hiroshi

03:15 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Matsuyama, and Mr. Tawa

03:16 Speak with Minister in charge of Economic Revitalization Mr. Amari and Acting Director of Bureau of Headquarters for Japan’s Economic RevitalizationSugawara Ikuro

03:30 Finish speaking with Mr. Amari and Mr. Sugawara

03:39 Presentation Ceremony of Prime Minister’s Certificate of Appreciation for Saving Another Person’s Life to Yamaguchi Shizuko

03:48 Finish presenting certificate to Ms. Yamaguchi

04:01 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru

04:33 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura

04:45 Ministerial Council on Monthly Economic Report and Other Relative Issues meeting

04:49 Council meeting ends

06:00 Meet with Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide

06:15 End meeting with Mr. Suga

07:22 Depart from office

07:23 Arrive at official residence

Saturday, January 24, 2015

AM

12:00 At official residence (no visitors)

08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)

Stay at official residence throughout morning

PM

05:35 Phone conference with Queen of Jordan Rania Al Abdullah. Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries Kato Katsunobu and Seko Hiroshige also attend

05:55 Phone conference ends

Sunday, January 25, 2015

AM

12:30 Depart from official residence

12:31 Arrive at office

01:15 Ministerial Council Meeting

01:24 Council Meeting ends

01:27 Interview open to all media: When asked “What did you talk about in the meeting?” Mr. Abe answers “The Government of Japan will continue as before to actively contribute to the peace and stability of the international community, undaunted by terrorism.”

01:29 Interview ends

01:44 Depart from office

01:45 Arrive at official residence

02:00 At official residence (no visitors)

08:32 Depart from official residence

08:37 Arrive at NHK Chiyoda Broadcasting Hall in Kioi-cho, Tokyo

09:00 Appear on news program

09:30 News program ends

09:39 Arrive at official residence

11:33 Meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka, and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa

PM

12:01 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Saiki, and Mr. Uemura

01:00 Depart from official residence

01:05 Arrive at Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Roppongi, Tokyo

01:07 Register condolence call for the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud

01:08 Finish registry

01:09 Interview open to all media: Mr. Abe said of the late King Abdullah “For many years he greatly contributed to the development of Japanese-Saudi Arabian relations.”

01:10 Interview ends

01:15 Depart from Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia

01:19 Arrive at official residence

03:20 Phone conference with President of US Barack Obama. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries Kato Katsunobu, and Seko Hiroshige, and Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro also attend

03:30 Phone conference ends

Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones

Monday in Washington, June 15, 2015

June 14, 2015, 5:10 pm

≫ Next: Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule January 26-February 1, 2015

≪ Previous: Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule January 19-25, 2015

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AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA: TELLING FACTS FROM MYTHS. 6/15, 9:00am-5:00pm. Sponsor: World Bank. Speakers: Karen Brooks; Paul Dorosh; Maximo Torero; Etherl Sennhauser; Shenggen Fan; Stan Wood; Chris Barrett; Gero Carletto.

COMMERCIAL ESPIONAGE AND BARRIERS TO DIGITAL TRADE WITH CHINA. 6/15, 9:00am. Sponsor: US-China Economic and Security Review Commission. Speakers: Samm Sacks, China Analyst, Eurasia Group; Matthew Schruers, Vice President for Law and Policy, Computer and Communications Industry Association; Paul Tiao, Partner, Hunton and Williams; Dennis Poindexter, Author; Jen Weedon, Manager of Threat Intelligence and Strategic Analysis, FireEye and Mandiant Inc. 

KOREA AND THE TPP: THE INEVITABLE PARTNERSHIP. 6/15, 12:15-1:30pm. Sponsor: Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). Speakers: Jeffrey Schott, PIIE senior fellow; Cathleen Cimino, PIIE research associate; Marcus Noland, executive vice president and director of studies at PIIE.

BLOOD YEAR: TERROR AND THE ISLAMIC STATE. 6/15, 12:15 pm. Sponsor: New America Foundation (NAF). Speakers: Author, David Kilcullen, NAF senior fellow and chairman of Caerus Global Solutions; and Peter Bergen, NAF vice president and director of its International Security Program.

GLOBAL COOPERATION UNDER THREAT: ADAPTING THE UN FOR THE 21ST CENTURY. 6/15, 1:30-3:00pm. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: United Nations Chef de Cabinet Susana Malcorra and former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickerting, distinguished fellow for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution.

U.S. PRIORITIES FOR THE ADDIS ABABA CONFERENCE ON FINANCING FOR DEVELOPMENT. 6/15, 2:00-4:00pm. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: Paul O’Brien, ‎Vice President for Policy and Campaigns, Oxfam America; Eric Postel, Acting Associate Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development; Alexia Latortue, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Development Policy and Debt, U.S. Department of the Treasury; George Ingram, Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development, Development Assistance and Governance Initiative; Beth Tritter, Vice President, Department of Policy and Evaluation, Millennium Challenge Corporation; Shaida Badiee, Managing Director, Open Data Watch; Daniella Ballou-Aares, Senior Adviser for Development to the U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Department of State.

SINGAPORE’S FOREIGN MINISTER. 6/15, 2:30-3:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS Sumitro Chair, Southeast Asia Studies. Speaker: K Shanmugam, His Excellency Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law, Republic of Singapore.

2015 EIA ENERGY CONFERENCE. 6/15-16. Sponsor: U.S. Energy Information Administration.

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Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule January 26-February 1, 2015

June 14, 2015, 5:15 pm

≫ Next: Japan World Heritage Island

≪ Previous: Monday in Washington, June 15, 2015

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Translator’s note: As of 2015 names of National Diet facilities will be slightly different to more closely resemble the translations of facility names on the House of Councillors and House of Representatives websites. (Upper House Plenary Session Hall will now be Upper House Chamber, Lower House 1st Committee Members’ Room will now be Lower House Committee Room No. 1, etc.)

Monday, January 26, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
08:55 Depart from official residence
08:56 Arrive at office
09:04 Extraordinary Session Cabinet Meeting begins
09:11 Cabinet Meeting ends
09:14 Meet with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
09:57 End meeting with Mr. Aso
10:18 Meet with Ministery of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT)’s Minister Shimomura Hakubun and Vice-Minister Yamanaka Shinichi
10:33 End meeting with Mr. Shimomura and Mr. Yamanaka
11:26 Depart from office
11:28 Arrive at Diet
11:29 Enter Lower House Waiting Room No. 14
11:30 General Meeting of LDP Upper and Lower House Members
11:39 Meeting ends
11:40 Speak with LDP Vice-President Komura Masahiko
11:50 Finish speaking with Mr. Komura
11:51 Gathering of LDP Diet Members
11:54 Gathering ends
11:55 Speak with Chairperson of LDP General Council Nikai Toshihiro and Chairperson of LDP Policy Research Council Inada Tomomi
11:56 Finish speaking with Mr. Nikai and Ms. Inada
11:57 Leave Lower House Waiting Room No. 14
11:58 Enter Lower House Chamber

PM
12:02 Lower House Plenary Session opens
12:07 Lower House Plenary Session recess
12:08 Leave Lower House Chamber
12:09 Depart from Diet
12:11 Arrive at office
12:37 Depart from office
12:38 Arrive at Diet
12:39 Enter State Minsters’ Room
12:51 Leave room
12:52 Enter Upper House Chamber
01:00 Opening Ceremony for 189th Ordinary Diet Session
01:07 Ceremony ends
01:09 Leave Upper House Chamber
01:12 Depart from Diet
01:13 Arrive at office
01:39 Depart from office
01:40 Arrive at Diet
01:42 Enter Lower House Speaker’s Office. Greet Lower House Speaker Machimura Nobutaka and Vice-Speaker Kawabata Tatsuo. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu also attend
01:49 Leave room
01:51 Enter Upper House President’s Office. Greet President of Upper House Yamazaki Masaaki. Mr. Suga and Mr. Kato also attend
01:53 Leave room
01:54 Enter Upper House Vice-President’s Office. Greet Vice-President of Upper House Koshiishi Azuma
01:55 Leave room
01:57 Enter Lower House Speaker’s Drawing Room
02:00 Leave room, enter Lower House Chamber
02:02 Lower House Plenary Session reconvenes
02:08 Lower House Plenary Session adjourns
02:09 Leave Lower House Chamber
02:10 Enter State Ministers’ Room
02:25 Leave room
02:26 Enter Upper House President’s Reception Room
02:28 Leave room, enter Upper House Chamber
02:29 Speak with Mr. Aso
02:30 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
02:31 Upper House Plenary Session reconvenes
02:37 Upper House Plenary Session adjourns
02:38 Leave Upper House Chamber
02:39 Depart from Diet
02:41 Arrive at office
02:55 Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru and Director of Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center Shimohira Koji enter
03:10 Mr. Shimohira leaves
03:26 Mr. Kitamura leaves
04:22 Meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka, Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa, and Director-General of Consular Affairs Bureau Miyoshi Mari
04:51 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Saiki, Mr. Uemura, and Ms. Miyoshi
04:52 Depart from office
04:54 Arrive at Diet
04:55 Enter LDP Secretary-General’s Conference Room. Endorse candidates for Nara Prefecture and Fukuoka Prefecture gubernatorial elections
05:00 Leave room
05:02 Enter LDP President’s Office
05:03 LDP Officers Meeting
05:19 Meeting ends
05:27 Leave room
05:28 Enter State Ministers’ Room
05:29 Meet with Chairman of LDP Election Strategy Committee Motegi Toshimitsu
05:44 End meeting with Mr. Motegi
05:45 Leave room
05:46 Depart from Diet
05:48 Arrive at office
05:50 Administrative Reform Promotion Council meeting
05:54 Council meeting ends
06:06 Speak with young participant representatives of Cabinet Office’s Global Leaders Development Program
06:18 Finish speaking with representatives of Global Leaders Development Program
07:58 Depart from office
07:59 Arrive at official residence

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
08:16 Depart from official residence
08:18 Arrive at office
08:20 Speak with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:25 Finish speaking with Mr. Kato
09:27 Ministerial Council on Promotion of Policies for Dementia Care meeting
09:35 Council meeting ends
09:40 Cabinet Meeting begins
09:53 Cabinet Meeting ends
09:56 Ministerial Council on Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games
10:09 Council meeting ends
10:15 Depart from office
10:21 Arrive at ANA InterContinental Hotel Tokyo in Akasaka, Tokyo
10:23 Speak with Chairman of The Nippon Foundation Sasakawa Yohei in banquet room Luminous within hotel. Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Shiozaki Yasuhisa also attends
10:30 Finish speaking with Mr. Sasakawa
10:31 Attend Global Appeal 2015 Announcement Ceremony addressing Leprosy with wife Akie in banquet hall Prominence, deliver address
10:39 Leave ceremony
10:40 Depart from hotel
10:46 Arrive at office
11:22 Meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka, and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa
11:53 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Saiki, and Mr. Uemura

PM
12:52 Depart from office
12:53 Arrive at Diet
12:55 Enter Lower House Speaker’s Drawing Room
01:00 Leave room, enter Lower House Chamber
01:02 Lower House Plenary Session opens
03:13 Lower House Plenary Session adjourns
03:14 Leave Lower House Chamber
03:15 Depart from Diet
03:16 Arrive at office
03:29 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Cabinet Office’s Vice-Minister Matsuyama Kenji and Director-Generals for Policies on Cohesive Society Maekawa Mamoru, Habuka Shigeki, and Tawa Hiroshi
03:52 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Matsuyama, Mr. Maekawa, Mr. Habuka, and Mr. Tawa
03:56 Receive courtesy call from Mayor of Hofu City (Yamaguchi Prefecture) Matsuura Masato of Education Rebuilding Leaders Council and other council members
04:08 Courtesy call ends
04:33 Council on National Strategic Special Zones meeting
04:53 Council meeting ends
05:10 Exchange of opinions with patients concerning dementia policies. Mr. Shiozaki also attends
05:35 Finish exchanging opinions
06:04 Receive courtesy call from First Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Rustam Sadikovich Azimov
06:26 Courtesy call ends
07:32 Depart from office
07:33 Arrive at official residence

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

AM
12:25 Meet with Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide
12:42 End meeting with Mr. Suga
01:50 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
08:25 Depart from official residence
08:26 Arrive at office
08:27 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
09:24 End meeting with Mr. Seko
09:25 Speak with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka, and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa. Mr. Suga also attends
09:35 Finish speaking with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Saiki, and Mr. Uemura
09:37 Ministerial Council meeting
09:43 Council meeting ends
09:44 Interview open to all media: When asked “What did you talk discuss in the Ministerial Council meeting?” Mr. Abe answers “In these grave circumstances, the government is coming together as one to take direction and strive deliberately toward Mr. Goto Kenji’s swift release.”
09:45 Interview ends
09:51 Depart from office
09:53 Arrive at Diet
09:54 Enter Upper House President’s Reception Room
09:58 Leave room, enter Upper House Chamber
10:01 Upper House Plenary Session opens
11:24 Upper House Plenary Session recess
11:25 Leave Upper House Chamber
11:26 Depart from Diet
11:28 Arrive at office

PM
12:53 Depart from office
12:54 Arrive at Diet
12:56 Enter Upper House President’s Reception Room
12:58 Leave room, enter Upper House Chamber
01:01 Upper House Plenary Session reopens
02:11 Speak with Mr. Suga
03:37 Speak with Mr. Kishida
03:38 Finish speaking with Mr. Kishida
03:55 Upper House Plenary Session adjourns
03:56 Leave Upper House Chamber
04:00 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
04:02 Lower House Budget Committee convenes
04:06 Budget Committee adjourns
04:07 Leave room
04:09 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
04:13 Upper House Budget Committee convenes
04:18 Budget Committee adjourns
04:19 Leave room
04:22 Depart from Diet
04:23 Arrive at office
05:27 Education Rebuilding Implementation Council meeting
05:47 Council meeting ends
07:34 Depart from office
07:36 Arrive at official residence



Thursday, January 29, 2015

AM
01:40 At official residence (no visitors)
07:27 Depart from official residence
07:28 Arrive at office
07:29 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:29 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:42 Depart from office
08:43 Arrive at Diet
08:44 Enter State Ministers’ Room
08:45 Speak with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio and Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide
08:51 Finish speaking with Mr. Kishida and Mr. Suga
08:52 Leave room
08:53 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
08:59 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:00 Lower House Budget Committee recess
12:01 Leave room
12:03 Depart from Diet
12:05 Arrive at office
12:32 Ministerial Council meeting
12:35 Council meeting ends
12:53 Depart from office
12:54 Arrive at Diet
12:56 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
05:03 Lower House Budget Committee adjourns
05:04 Leave room
05:06 Depart from Diet
05:08 Arrive at office
05:13 Speak with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro
05:16 Finish speaking with Mr. Kimura
05:17 Meet with Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Kawano Katsutoshi
05:41 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano
06:06 Industrial Competitiveness Council meeting
06:45 Council meeting ends
07:52 Depart from office
07:53 Arrive at official residence

Friday, January 30, 2015

AM
01:40 At official residence (no visitors)
06:40 At official residence (no morning visitors)
07:00 Depart from official residence
07:02 Arrive at office
07:03 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:02 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:03 Headquarters for Promoting Decentralization Reform meeting
08:08 Meeting ends
08:14 Meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihida also attends
08:43 End meeting with Mr. Kishida
08:50 Depart from office
08:51 Arrive at Diet
08:53 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
08:55 Speak with Mr. Suga
08:56 Finish speaking with Mr. Suga
08:59 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:02 Lower House Budget Committee recess
12:03 Leave Lower House Committee Room No. 1
12:05 Depart from Diet
12:07 Arrive at office
12:08 Meet with Mr. Kato
12:27 End meeting with Mr. Kato
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
12:58 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
12:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
04:18 Lower House Budget Committee adjourns
04:19 Leave Lower House Committee Room No. 1
04:20 Speak with Minister of Defense Nakatani Gen
04:21 Finish speaking with Mr. Nakatani
04:22 Depart from Diet
04:24 Arrive at office
04:25 Speak with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu
04:28 Finish speaking with Mr. Tanigaki
04:54 Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy meeting
05:31 Council meeting ends
05:32 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
06:02 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
06:21 Depart from office
06:23 Arrive at Diet
06:24 Enter Lower House Speaker’s Drawing Room
06:30 Leave room, enter Lower House Chamber
06:32 Lower House Plenary Session opens
07:12 Speak with Minister in charge of Overcoming Population Decline and Vitalizing Local Economy in Japan Ishiba Shigeru
07:13 Finish speaking with Mr. Ishiba
07:14 Lower House Plenary Session adjourns
07:15 Leave Lower House Chamber
07:16 Make rounds to Lower House Speaker Machimura Nobutaka, Vice-Speaker Kawabata Tatsuo, Chairman of Lower House Committee on Rules and Administration Hayashi Moto, New Komeito, and LDP. Mr. Aso, Mr. Kato, and Chairman of LDP Diet Affairs Committee Sato Tsutomu also attend
07:24 Depart from Diet
07:25 Arrive at official residence

Saturday, January 31, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
Stay at official residence throughout morning (no vistors)

PM
05:00 Meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio, Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary for Crisis Management Nishimura Yasuhiko, Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, and MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa
05:40 End meeting with Mr. Kishida, Mr. Suga, Mr. Nishimura, Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Saiki, and Mr. Uemura

Sunday, February 1, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
06:15 Depart from official residence
06:16 Arrive at office
06:42 Interview open to all media: Concerning the video of the killing of Goto Kenji being open to the public, Mr. Abe says “These circumstances came to a truly sorrowful extreme. I will never forgive these terrorists. Japan will steadfastly fulfill its responsibility in the international community combatting terrorism.”
06:44 Interview ends
07:04 Ministerial Council meeting
07:11 Council meeting ends
07:31 NSC meeting commences. Chairperson of National Public Safety Commission Yamatani Eriko also attends
07:44 NSC meeting closes
07:45 Meet with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kishida Fumio and MOFA’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide also attends
08:22 End meeting with Mr. Kishida and Mr. Hiramatsu
08:23 Depart from office
08:24 Arrive at official residence

PM
01:30 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
03:34 End meeting with Mr. Seko
06:43 Phone conference with Queen of Jordan Rania Al Abdullah. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretaries Kato Katsunobu and Mr. Seko, MOFA’s Administrative Vice-Minister Sugiyama Shinsuke and Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa also attend
06:58 Phone conference ends

Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones

Japan World Heritage Island

June 21, 2015, 7:36 am

≫ Next: Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule February 2-8, 2015

≪ Previous: Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule January 26-February 1, 2015

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Island of Horror: Gunkanjima and Japan’s Quest for UNESCO World Heritage Status

by Mark Siemons, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Introduction by William Underwood, Independent Scholar

First appeared in JapanFocus, June 22, 2015

Seventy years after the end of World War Two, Germany enjoys mostly excellent relations with the rest of Europe, where the history of wartime hostilities is largely a non-issue. The same cannot be said for Japan and its neighbors in Northeast Asia. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee will begin meeting in Bonn on June 28 to consider this year’s nominations for World Heritage status, and a Tokyo-sponsored package called “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution” is attracting intense attention. Seven of the two dozen properties that make up Japan’s proposal, carefully defined as covering the years from 1850 to 1910, later became the scene of wartime forced labor by Koreans, Chinese and Allied POWs, a history unmentioned in the proposal. For this reason South Korea and China are urging that the UNESCO committee reject the Japanese nomination.

The article below appeared in German in the May 17, 2015, issue of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, as the Sunday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (or FAZ) is known. The FAZ is said to have the widest overseas circulation of any German newspaper, and Berlin-based reporter Mark Siemons formerly served as an East Asia correspondent. The Asia-Pacific Journal is providing this English translation of the article, which explores why Japan’s World Heritage bid has become so divisive. The piece focuses on the undersea coal mine beneath Nagasaki’s Hashima Island, popularly known as Gunkanjima (Battleship Island) due to its distinctive shape.

Three days after the FAZ article was published, the German government announced it plans to pay a total of 10 million euros (about $11 million) in symbolic compensation to some 4,000 surviving soldiers of the Soviet Union who became prisoners of war under Nazi Germany. Each survivor is set to receive 2,500 euros (about $2,800) for his suffering. Postwar Germany has reportedly paid out more than 72 billion euros (roughly $80 billion) in total damages for Nazi wrongdoing, with much of the compensation going directly to individuals. Indeed, in recent years it has seemed as if Germany is running out of victim groups to compensate. Japan, on the other hand, has largely evaded facing up to the legacy of the Asia Pacific War. Not surprisingly there is much less warmth in the neighborhood. –William Underwood

Japanese government photo of Gunkanjima in Nagasaki Bay included in “Evaluations of Nominations of Cultural and Mixed Properties to the World Heritage List” (ICOMOS Report for the World Heritage Committee,” 39th ordinary session, Bonn, June - July 2015). During the war hundreds of Koreans and Chinese were forced to work, with either partial payment or no payment at all, at depths of up to 600 meters.

World War II ended in 1945, but there is a place where it still continues.

The South Korean and Japanese governments are engaged in disputes over the proposed inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List of a place where Koreans were exploited in forced labor during World War II. Japan emphasized that the site is a memorial of its industrialization.

UNESCO is to make a decision on this matter at the end of this coming June in Bonn, Germany.

There is a legitimate reason that Hashima Island was described as the "Island of Horror" in the James Bond film, Skyfall. These ruins soaring from the sea served as an inspiration for the lair of the villain, Raoul Silva, in the film. It is a perfect location to represent an enigmatic place that harbors all kinds of scary secrets. It is no wonder that many companies have found this forgotten island off the coast of the Japanese mainland suitable for their purposes. When filming for Street View, Google showed footage of a lone Google employee wearing a camera on his head and groping his way out of the ruins, which could collapse at any time. Sony chose this island as a location to show how well its aerial drone could function even in an extremely hazardous place.

The Japanese government actually intends to use Hashima Island for a different purpose: a cultural project. It wants to list 22 industrial facilities from the 19th century as UNESCO World Heritage sites. These include the island as well as coal mines operated by Mitsubishi from 1890 to 1974. The final decision on whether to accept them as World Heritage sites will be made in a UNESCO Committee meeting in late June in Bonn, Germany. About 15 km from the coast of Nagasaki, the island is now deserted as it had been before industrial facilities were built here. In its heyday, it was inhabited by more than 5,000 workers who lived in the high-rises constructed in 1916. They were the first high-rise buildings built in Japan. The Japanese government is pressing for the island's designation as a World Heritage site because this and other such industrial facilities provide excellent evidence of the industrial revolution achieved by Japan during the Meiji period. Japan was the first non-Western nation to introduce European technology, economy, and social principles. It achieved the most rapid modernization in the 19th century and emerged as a leader in East Asia.

Nevertheless the tragic fact remains that Hashima Island has a completely different significance to some East Asian nations. On Hashima and at six other facilities proposed for World Heritage listing, Korean and Chinese laborers [as well as Allied POWs] were brought in and forced into labor under deplorable conditions. Many of them did not survive World War II, which is why the South Korean government officially opposes Japan’s proposal.

The South Korean government takes the position that, “designating such a place as a World Heritage site violates the dignity of the survivors of forced labor as well as the spirit and principles of the UNESCO Convention. World Heritage sites should be of outstanding universal value and be acceptable by all peoples across the globe.”

This incident is much more than a matter of academic discussion among historians. It represents the ever-intensifying conservative shift and historical revisionism that have occurred in Japan since the inauguration of the Abe administration as well as the vigilance of the nations once ruled by Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Abe and his cabinet insist on paying respects to Japan's war dead at the Yasukuni Shrine, where a number of Class A war criminals of World War II are enshrined. They are publicly declaring a “new Japan,” according to which view, “Japan should dismiss a historical viewpoint that ideologically torments it.” The Abe government is also attempting to strip its Constitution of the peace clause that was required of Japan after 1945.

Vague, contradictory arguments are ongoing in Japan over the criminal acts by Japan against Korea, China, and other nations starting in the late 19th century. During his visit to the US in late April this year, Abe was unable to offer anything more than uncertain "feelings of deep remorse” over Japan’s role during the Second World War. Just a short time before the US visit, he criticized the description in US textbooks of the comfort women of the Japanese military, namely, the Korean women who were forced into prostitution within the military during the war. It seems that historical revisionism is now widely accepted in Japanese society.

Under undisguised pressure, one Japanese prefecture has already removed a memorial stone that honored Korean forced laborers who died. The stone had been erected in 2004 by a civilian human rights organization and bore the following inscription: “We solemnly pledge that we will not repeat this kind of mistake and remember and deeply ponder the fact that our nation inflicted horrible pain on Koreans in the past.” Apparently, such determination and views are now retreating. In no other country in the world does the Second World War remain an ongoing issue and disputes over the war are yet to be resolved.

A Chinese survivor of forced labor at Mitsubishi’s Hashima coal mine tosses flowers into Nagasaki Bay in 2004, during a shipboard memorial ceremony for fellow Chinese workers who died at the site that Japan wants to see recognized as a world cultural landmark. The prefectural government rejected the mourners’ request to hold the service on Hashima Island. (Photo by Nagasaki Support Group for Chinese Forced Labor Lawsuits)

The latest front of these disputes is, of all places, an organization that symbolizes solidarity among nations and upholding of mankind’s universal values: UNESCO. On this past May 8 when all of Europe commemorated the end of the war, on this day when it seemed that the war could not assume any more significance, an envoy presented in Berlin South Korea’s position on one of the unresolved disputes from the war. The true measure of the great significance the South Korean government places on this issue can be discerned from the fact that Choi Jong-mun, former ambassador and presently a special aid to the South Korean Foreign Affairs Minister, has handled all matters involving UNESCO since March.

He has travelled around the world to meet politicians, diplomats, and members of the press to let them know about the Korean forced laborers. The Committee session in late June will be attended by 19 nations in addition to Japan and South Korea. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which offers advice to UNESCO on World Heritage sites, already made a recommendation last week to accept Japan’s proposal. Thus, the South Korean government still has much persuasion to do. This is why not only Ambassador Choi but also an appropriate Foreign Affairs Ministry official, and a councilor and two staff members of the South Korean Embassy in Germany, came to an interview with just one German journalist to fully explain the issue. This testifies to the importance of the issue to South Korea.

Ambassador Choi emphasized the case of Germany. The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (German Zeche Zollverein) in Essen was listed as a World Heritage site in 2001. There, many people were forced into labor during the war. According to Choi, however, there is a difference between Germany and Japan. Germany has squarely faced the injustices it had committed during the war and strived to compensate the victims for their sufferings. Ambassador Choi's intent in mentioning this difference is to show that Japan’s proposal is being called into question not merely because of historial truths. This is related to South Korea’s criticism of Japan: that is, if Japan does not use the island only as an instrument of propaganda about its past glory as it does now and instead recognizes its complex history, the name of Hashima Island will be cleared.

In 2012, the South Korean Supreme Court found invalid the argument by Japanese companies that the right to claim compensation by Korean forced laborers had been rescinded through the South Korea-Japan treaty in 1965, which normalized bilateral diplomatic relations. Since this ruling, many Koreans have claimed damages from Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi and Nippon Steel and South Korean courts have already ruled in favor of some of them.

The South Korean government said in a statement that these compensations for Korean forced laborers are “not related” to Japan’s World Heritage proposal but reveal an aspect of Japan’s attitude toward its history.

Not only disregarding these claims by Koreans, Japan argues that the criticism against its proposal is logically flawed. Several ministers of the Japanese government attribute the blame for the criticism to South Korea and they nonchalantly put a “political spin” on it. They argue that the proposal for Hashima only concerns the time period until 1910, not what happened afterwards. Like China, South Korea also has made efforts to normalize relations with Japan over the last few months. Thus, a polite suggestion was made to Japan to have a bilateral dialogue about the World Heritage proposal. “We hope Japan will appropriately respond to our flexible suggestion,” remarked Ambassador Choi.

Western nations also have a role in the dispute between South Korea and Japan on this issue. The success of Japan in the 19th century was attributable to its acceptance of European technology and modernity. Initially defeated by the Western powers, Japan vigorously pushed forward under the banner of national prosperity and military power. China ventured along the same path as Japan only decades later. Some time later, after having learned from European imperialism, Japan proceeded to expand its sphere of influence by annexing other nations. Now, in 2015, Japan is only inclined to talk about its history of modernization in a very selective way; negative aspects are swept under the rug. Furthermore, Japan argues that others do not properly understand it. Consequently, Hashima Island, also called Gunkanjima (“Battleship Island”), remains a dismal place.

This article originally appeared in German as “Insel des Grauens” (Island of Horror) in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (www.faz.net) on May 17, 2015. English translation posted at The Asia-Pacific Journal on June XX, 2015. The original German article is available here.

Mark Siemons is a Berlin-based reporter for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. William Underwood is a California-based independent researcher of reparations movements for forced labor in wartime Japan.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule February 2-8, 2015

June 21, 2015, 7:51 am

≫ Next: Monday in Washington, June 22, 2015

≪ Previous: Japan World Heritage Island

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Monday, February 2, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:50 Depart from official residence
07:51 Arrive at office
08:04 Ruling Party Liaison Conference
08:13 Conference ends
08:14 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
08:44 End meeting with Mr. Seko
08:53 Depart from office
08:55 Arrive at Diet
08:57 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
09:02 Upper House Budget Committee opens
11:54 Upper House Budget Committee recess
11:55 Leave room
11:57 Depart from Diet
11:59 Arrive at office

PM
12:54 Depart from office
12:56 Arrive at Diet

12:58 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
01:00 Upper House Budget Committee reopens
05:01 Upper House Budget Committee adjourns
05:02 Leave room
05:05 Enter LDP Secretary-General’s Conference Room. Endorse Shimane Prefecture gubernatorial candidate. Commemorative photo session
05:07 Leave room
05:08 Enter LDP President’s Office
05:11 LDP Officers Meeting
05:33 Meeting ends
05:34 Speak with LDP Vice-President Komura Masahiko, LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu, Chairman of LDP General Council Nikai Toshihiro, Chairperson of LDP Policy Research Council Inada Tomomi, and colleagues
05:40 Finish speaking with Mr. Komura, Mr. Tanigaki, Mr. Nikai, Ms. Inada, and colleagues
05:42 Leave room
05:44 Depart from Diet
05:45 Arrive at office
06:02 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
06:29 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
06:30 Speak with Cabinet Advisor Furusawa Mitsuhiro
06:34 Finish speaking with Mr. Furusawa
07:07 Depart from office
07:08 Arrive at official residence

Tuesday, February 3, 2015
AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:16 Depart from official residence
07:17 Arrive at office
07:18 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
08:26 End meeting with Mr. Seko
08:28 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:36 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:53 Depart from office
08:55 Arrive at Diet
08:56 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
09:00 Upper House Budget Committee opens
11:52 Upper House Budget Committee recess, leave room
11:54 Depart from Diet

11:56 Arrive at office

PM
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
01:00 Upper House Budget Committee reopens
04:05 Upper House Budget Committee adjourns, leave room
04:08 Depart from Diet
04:10 Arrive at office
04:36 Director of National Security Council (NSC) Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, and Director of Cabinet Satellite Intelligence Center Shimohira Koji enter
04:46 Mr. Yachi and Mr. Shimohira leave
05:03 Mr. Kitamura leaves
05:04 Receive courtesy call from Myanmar’s opposition party leader and others
05:30 Courtesy call ends
05:32 Depart from office

05:41 Arrive at Federation of Economic Organizations [Keidanren] Assembly Hall in Otemachi, Tokyo. Attend 100th Anniversary Party for Establishment of Iron and Steel Institute of Japan, deliver address 
05:51 Depart from Keidanren Assembly Hall
06:01 Arrive at office
06:15 Phone Conference with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
06:30 Phone Conference ends
06:48 Depart from office
06:49 Arrive at Diet
06:51 Enter Upper House President’s Reception Room
06:52 Leave room, enter Upper House Chamber
06:56 Upper House Plenary Session opens
07:41 Leave seat during proceedings, enter Upper House President’s Reception Room
07:45 Leave room
07:46 Make rounds to President of Upper House Yamazaki Masaki, Vice-President of Upper House Koshiichi Azuma, Chairman of Upper House Committee on Rules and Administration Nakagawa Masaharu, and majority and minority political parties
07:56 Finish making rounds
07:58 Depart from Diet
08:06 Arrive at Tokyo Prince Hotel in Shiba Park, Tokyo. Attend New Year’s Party of LDP policy group Kisaragi-kai [きさらぎ会] in banquet hall Sun Flower Hall, deliver address
08:28 Depart from hotel
08:48 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo



Wednesday, February 4, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
07:11 Depart from private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
07:23 Arrive at office
07:24 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kato Katsunobu
08:14 End meeting with Mr. Kato
08:49 Depart from office
08:51 Arrive at Diet
08:52 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
08:53 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
08:56 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
08:58 Lower House Budget Committee opens

PM
12:04 Lower House Budget Committee recess
12:05 Leave room
12:06 Depart from Diet
12:08 Arrive at office
12:18 Informal talk with President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s son. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige also attends
12:21 Finish talk
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Lower House Committee Room No. 1
01:00 Lower House Budget Committee reopens
04:32 Lower House Budget Committee adjourns
04:33 Leave room
04:34 Depart from Diet
04:35 Arrive at office
04:40 Meet with Chairman of LDP Headquarters for Promotion of Revision to the Constitution Funada Hajime. Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Isozaki Yosuke also attends
05:00 End meeting with Mr. Funada
05:22 Meet with Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro, and Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Kawano Katsutoshi
05:56 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano
06:01 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
06:32 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
06:33 Depart from office
06:34 Arrive at official residence
06:35 Meet with Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Reconstruction Koizumi Shinjiro, Parliamentary Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Akama Jiro, and colleagues. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, Mr. Kato, and Mr. Seko also attend
07:45 End meeting with Mr. Koizumi, Mr. Akama, and colleagues

Thursday, February 5, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
07:32 Depart from official residence
07:34 Arrive at office
07:35 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
08:45 End meeting with Mr. Seko
08:53 Depart from office
08:54 Arrive at Diet
08:56 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
08:57 Speak with Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ohta Akihiro
08:58 Finish speaking with Mr. Ohta
09:02 Upper House Budget Committee opens
11:55 Upper House Budget Committee recess
11:56 Leave room
11:57 Enter State Ministers’ Room

PM
12:09 Leave room
12:10 Enter Lower House Chamber
12:12 Lower House Plenary Session opens
12:18 Lower House Plenary Session adjourns
12:19 Leave Lower House Chamber
12:20 Depart from Diet
12:22 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:55 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
01:00 Upper House Budget Committee reopens
05:31 Upper House Budget Committee adjourns
05:32 Leave room
05:33 Enter LDP Secretary-General’s Conference Room. Endorse candidate for Mie Prefecture gubernatorial election. Commemorative photo session
05:35 Leave room
05:36 Depart from Diet
05:38 Arrive at office
05:40 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
06:04 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
06:05 Speak with Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Vice-Minister of Finance for International Affairs Yamasaki Tatsuo and Director-General of International Bureau Asakawa Masatsugu
06:15 Finish speaking with Mr. Yamasaki and Mr. Asakawa
06:18 Depart from office
06:21 Arrive at LDP Party Headquarters
06:22 Attend Japan Lawyers Association for Freedom (JLAF) New Year’s Party
06:28 New Year’s Party ends
06:29 Depart from LDP Party Headquarters
06:41 Arrive at Hotel Grand Palace in Iidabashi, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Chairman of Yomiuri Group Watanabe Tsuneo at Japanese restaurant Chiyoda within hotel
08:35 Depart from hotel
08:48 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Friday, February 6, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
07:12 Depart from private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo
07:24 Arrive at office
07:25 Meet with Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige
08:22 End meeting with Mr. Seko
08:23 Cabinet Meeting begins
08:35 Cabinet Meeting ends
08:53 Depart from office
08:55 Arrive at Diet
08:57 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
08:58 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
08:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
09:00 Upper House Audit Committee opens
11:56 Upper House Audit Committee recess
11:57 Leave Upper House Committee Room No. 1
11:59 Depart from Diet

PM
12:01 Arrive at office
12:54 Depart from office
12:56 Arrive at Diet
12:57 Enter Upper House Committee Room No. 1
12:58 Speak with Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Takaichi Sanae
12:59 Finish speaking with Ms. Takaichi
01:00 Upper House Audit Committee reopens
05:04 Upper House Audit Committee adjourns
05:05 Leave Upper House Committee Room No. 1
05:07 Depart from Diet
05:09 Arrive at office
05:35 Meet with former US Secretary of Treasury Robert Rubin, former US resident Ambassador to Japan John Roos, and Chairman of Rebuild Japan Initiative Funabashi Yoichi
06:07 End meeting with Mr. Rubin, Mr. Roos, and Mr. Funabashi
06:08 MOFA’s Vice-Minister Saiki Akitaka, Administrative Vice-Minister Sugiyama Shinsuke, and (Foreign Nationals’ Affairs Division) Director-General of Intelligence and Analysis Service Oka Hiroshi enter
06:15 Mr. Oka leaves
06:16 MOFA’s Director-General of European Affairs Bureau Hayashi Hajime joins
06:25 Mr. Hayashi leaves
06:26 State Minister for Foreign Affairs Nakayama Yasuhide and MOFA’s Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa join
06:45 Everyone leaves
06:46 Meet with Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF)’s Minister Nishikawa Koya and Vice-Minister Minagawa Yoshitsugu
07:07 End meeting with Mr. Nishikawa and Mr. Minagawa
07:12 Speak with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
07:16 Finish speaking with Mr. Kitamura
07:20 Depart from office
07:21 Arrive at official residence

Saturday, February 7, 2015

AM12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
10:00 Depart from official residence
10:12 Arrive at salon HAIR GUEST in Shibuya, Tokyo. Haircut
11:42 Depart from salon
11:51 Arrive at Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Public Hall in Hibiya Park, Tokyo. Attend National Rally to Demand Return of Northern Territories, deliver address

PM
12:17 Depart from Tokyo Metropolitan Hibiya Public Hall
12:21 Arrive at The Capitol Hotel Tokyu in Nagata-cho, Tokyo. Dinner with secretaries at restaurant ORIGAMI within hotel
01:26 Depart from hotel
01:30 Arrive at LDP Party Headquarters
01:31 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu
01:57 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
02:00 LDP National Secretary-General Conference
02:17 Conference ends
02:18 Depart from LDP Party Headquarters
02:20 Arrive at official residence
03:12 Film for Nippon TV program
03:26 Finish filming

Sunday, February 8, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
10:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
Stay at official residence throughout morning

PM
02:01 Depart from official residence
02:21 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo


Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones

Monday in Washington, June 22, 2015

June 21, 2015, 3:20 pm

≫ Next: Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule February 9-15, 2015

≪ Previous: Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule February 2-8, 2015

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POLITICAL POLARIZATION: FINDING SOLUTIONS. 6/22, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC). Speakers: Nate Persily, Editor, Solutions to Political Polarization in America, Professor, Stanford Law School; Matthew Green, Associate Professor, Politics, Catholic University, President-elect, NCAPSA; John Fortier, Director, BPC’s Democracy Project.

SHARED WATER RESOURCES IN A WARMING WORLD: CONFLICT AND COOPERATION. 6/22, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsors: Wilson Center, Stimson. Speakers: Anders Jägerskog, Counselor for Middle East and North Africa Regional Water Issues, Embassy of Sweden, Amman, Jordan; Aaron Salzberg (TBC), Special Coordinator for Water Resources, US Department of State; Eileen Burke, Senior Water Resources Specialist, Nile Program, World Bank; David Michel, Director of the Environmental Security Program, Stimson Center.

IOSCO CHAIRMAN: GLOBAL REGULATORS WERE WRONG. 6/22, 10:00am. Sponsor: National Press Club (NPC) Newsmaker Program. Speaker: Greg Medcraft, Chairman, International Organization of Securities Commissions.

A NEW FOREIGN POLICY FOR AMERICA. 6/22, Noon-1:00pm. Sponsor: Wilson Center (WWC). Speakers: Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn; Aaron David Miller, Vice President of New Initiatives, WWC.

AT A CROSSROADS: THE FUTURE OF AMERICA’S MILITARY INSTALLATIONS AND COMMUNITIES. 6/22, Noon – 6/24. Sponsor: Association of Defense Communities. Speakers: Sen. Jerry Moran (KS): Sen. Dan Sullivan (AK); Congressman Adam Smith (WA); Congressman Joe Courtney (CT).

A NEW CLIMATE FOR PEACE: TAKING ACTION ON CLIMATE AND FRAGILITY RISKS. 6/22, 3:00-5:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Wilson Center's (WWC) Environmental Change and Security Program. Speakers: Alexander Carius, Co-founder and Managing Director, Adelphi; Geoffrey Dabelko, Senior Advisor, Environmental Change and Security Program, Professor and Director, Environmental Studies, Ohio University; Roger-Mark De Souza, Director, Population, Environmental Security and Resilience, WWC; Richard Engel, U.S. Air Force (retired), Director, National Intelligence Council's Environment and Natural Resources Program; Alice Hill, White House Senior Advisor, Preparedness and Resilience; Christian Holmes, Deputy Assistant Administrator, U.S. Agency, International Development's Bureau, Economic Growth, Education and Environment; David McKean, Director, Policy Planning, State Department; Andrew Selee, Executive Vice President and Senior Advisor, Mexico Institute; Navy Rear Adm. Jonathan White, Oceanographer and Navigator, Navy, Director, Task Force Climate Change.

INDIA'S NUCLEAR COMMAND AND CONTROL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR STRATEGIC STABILITY IN SOUTH ASIA. 6/22, 3:30-5:00pm. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speaker: Brigadier Arun Sahgal, Director, Forum for Strategic Initiative.

ALLEVIATING POVERTY BY FREEING THE WORLD OF ECONOMIC DISTORTIONS. 6/22, 4:30-6:00pm. Sponsor: Institute of World Politics (IWP). Speaker: Shanker A. Singham, Managing Director, Competitiveness and Enterprise Cities Project at Babson Global.

A NEW TRANSATLANTIC TRADE DEAL: GOOD FOR AMERICA? 6/22, 5:30-7:00pm. Sponsor: McCain Institute. Speakers: Ted Bromund, Senior Research Fellow, Heritage; Jon Decker, White House Correspondent, Fox News; Shaun Donnelly, Vice President, Investment and Financial Services, USCIB; Jim Kolbe, Senior Transatlantic Fellow, German Marshall Fund; Thea Lee, Deputy Chief of Staff, AFL-CIO.

BETWEEN RECOVERY AND DECLINE? OBSERVATIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HISTORIAN ON THE OBAMA YEARS AND BEYOND. 6/22, 6:30-8:30pm. Sponsor: German Historical Institute (GHI). Speaker: Hartmut Berghoff, GHI Washington.

Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule February 9-15, 2015

June 22, 2015, 5:33 pm

≫ Next: Monday in Washington, June 29, 2015

≪ Previous: Monday in Washington, June 22, 2015

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Monday, February 9, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
09:18 Depart from private residence
09:32 Arrive at office
10:40 Receive courtesy call from UN Special Representative of Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction Margareta Wahlström. Ambassador in charge of Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction Suganuma Kenichi also attends
10:57 Courtesy call ends
11:02 Speak with Headquarters for Accelerating Reconstruction after Great East Japan Earthquake’s LDP Chairman Oshima Tadamori and New Komeito Chairman Inoue Takahiro, Governor of Miyagi Prefecture Murai Yoshihiro, and Mayor of Sendai City Okuyama Emiko
11:13 Finish speaking with Mr. Oshima, Mr. Inoue, Mr. Murai, and Ms. Okuyama
11:46 Speak with Plum Mission from Daizaifu Tenmangu Shrine including Chief Priest Nishitakatsuji Nobuyoshi, and Shrine Maidens Usuma Tomoka and Wakiyama Kanako
11:53 Finish speaking with Mr. Nishitakatsuji, Ms. Usuma, and Ms. Wakiyama

PM
12:08 Ruling Party Liaison Conference
12:21 Conference ends
12:22 Speak with LDP Executive Acting Secretary-General Hosoda Hiroyuki, Chairman of LDP Election Strategy Committee Motegi Toshimitsu, and Secretary-General for LDP in Upper House Date Chuichi
12:25 Finish speaking with Mr. Hosoda, Mr. Motegi, and Mr. Date
12:27 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru
12:46 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
01:24 Meet with incoming Commissioner-General of National Police Agency Kanetaka Masahito and outgoing Commissioner-General Yoneda Tsuyoshi
01:40 End meeting with Mr. Kanetaka and Mr. Yoneda
01:56 Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Cabinet Office’s Vice-Minister Matsuyama Kenji, and Director-Generals for Policies on Cohesive Society Habuka Shigeki and Tawa Hiroshi enter
02:23 Mr. Matsuyama, Mr. Habuka, and Mr. Tawa leave
02:29 Mr. Amari leaves
02:30 Meet with Ministry of Finance (MOF)’s Vice-Minister Kagawa Shunsuke, Director-General of Budget Bureau Tanaka Kazuho, and Director-General of Tax Bureau Sato Shinichi
03:07 End meeting with Mr. Kagawa, Mr. Tanaka, and Mr. Sato
03:08 Speak with Chairman of LDP Research Commission on Regional Diplomatic and Economic Partnership Eto Seishiro
03:13 Finish speaking with Mr. Eto
04:53 Depart from office
04:54 Arrive at Diet
04:55 Enter LDP Secretary-General’s Conference Room
04:56 Endorse candidate for Tottori gubernatorial election
04:57 Finish endorsing candidate
04:58 Leave room
04:59 Enter LDP President’s Office
05:00 LDP Officers Meeting
05:14 Meeting ends
05:17 Depart from Diet
05:19 Arrive at office
06:01 Summit Conference with Acting Prime Minister of Thailand military government Prayut Chan-o-cha commences
06:50 Summit Conference closes
06:55 Witness Signing Ceremony, Joint Press Release
07:11 Press Release ends
07:12 Depart from office
07:13 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and his wife. Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Shiozaki Yasuhisa also attends
08:27 See off Prime Minister Prayut and his wife together with wife Akie
08:28 Finish seeing off Prime Minister Prayut and his wife

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
08:19 Depart from official residence
08:20 Arrive at office
08:22 Nine Ministers’ Group of National Security Council (NSC) meeting
08:30 Meeting ends
08:38 Headquarters for Japan’s Economic Revitalization meeting
08:49 Meeting ends
08:52 Cabinet Meeting begins
09:34 Cabinet Meeting ends
10:12 Speak with Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kimura Taro
10:18 Finish speaking with Mr. Kimura
10:20 Meet with Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro, Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)’s Director-General of Foreign Policy Bureau Hiramatsu Kenji, Ministry of Defense (MOD)’s Director-General of Bureau of Defense Policy Kuroe Tetsuro and Chief of Staff for Joint Staff Council Kawano Katsutoshi
10:45 End meeting with Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, Mr. Hiramatsu, Mr. Kuroe, and Mr. Kawano
11:35 Receive courtesy call from President of International Committee of Red Cross Peter Maurer
11:53 Courtesy call ends

PM
12:04 Depart from office
12:05 Arrive at official residence. Lunch meeting with 1st-time elected LDP Lower House members. Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide and Mr. Kimura also attend
12:54 Depart from official residence
12:55 Arrive at office
12:57 Meet with Chairman of LDP General Council Nikai Toshihiro
01:20 End meeting with Mr. Nikai
01:46 Informal talk with editorialists and others from all newspapers and news companies
02:14 Finish talk
02:15 Informal talk with commentary committee members of all broadcasting companies in Tokyo and others
02:38 Finish talk
02:39 Informal talk with all top reporters of Cabinet Kisha Club
03:00 Finish talk
03:05 Speak with South Korea’s Governor of Gyeonggi Province Nam Kyung-pil
03:15 Finish speaking with Governor Nam
03:37 Central Advancement Committee of “Movement to Make Society Brighter” meeting
03:50 Committee meeting ends
03:59 Mr. Yachi, Mr. Kitamura, and MOD’s Director of Defense Intelligence Headquarters Miyagawa Tadashi enter
04:09 Mr. Yachi and Mr. Miyagawa leave
04:22 Mr. Kitamura leaves
04:24 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
04:50 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
05:03 Cyber Security Strategic Headquarters meeting
05:06 Meeting ends
05:23 Depart from office
05:29 Arrive at Hotel New Otani. Attend Gathering of Economic Community and LDP Officials, deliver address
06:06 Depart from hotel
06:12 Arrive at office
06:32 Summit Conference with Prime Minister of Mongolia Chimed Saikhanbileg
07:02 Signing Ceremony and Joint Press Release
07:16 Ceremony and Press Release end
07:17 Depart from office
07:18 Arrive at official residence. Dinner meeting hosted by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo
08:30 See off Prime Minister Saikhanbileg
08:31 Depart from official residence
08:35 Arrive at Japanese restaurant Sato in Akasaka, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with former Prime Ministers Mori Yoshiro, Koizumi Junichiro, Fukuda Yasuo, and others
09:15 Depart from restaurant
09:32 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

AM12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
10:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
Stay at private residence throughout morning (no visitors)

PM
Stay at private residence throughout afternoon and evening (no visitors)

Thursday, February 12, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
08:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
08:53 Depart from private residence
09:08 Arrive at office
09:14 Extraordinary Session Cabinet Meeting
09:22 Cabinet Meeting ends
09:24 Meet with Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira, Cabinet Office’s Vice-Minister Matsuyama Kenji, and Directors for Policies on Cohesive Society Maekawa Mamori, Habuka Shigeki, and Tawa Hiroshi
09:50 End meeting with Mr. Amari, Mr. Matsuyama, Mr. Maekawa, Mr. Habuka, and Mr. Tawa
09:51 Meet with Director of NSC Yachi Shotaro
10:04 End meeting with Mr. Yachi

PM
12:51 Depart from office
12:53 Arrive at Diet
12:54 Enter Lower House Speaker’s Drawing Room
01:00 Leave room, enter Lower House Chamber
01:02 Lower House Plenary Session opens. Give policy speech
02:33 Lower House Plenary Session adjourns
02:34 Leave Lower House Chamber
02:36 Enter State Ministers’ Room
02:54 Leave room
02:55 Enter Upper House President’s Reception Room
02:57 Leave room, enter Upper House Chamber
02:58 Speak with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Aso Taro
02:59 Finish speaking with Mr. Aso
03:01 Upper House Plenary Session opens. Give policy speech
04:23 Upper House Plenary Session adjourns
04:24 Leave Upper House Chamber
04:26 Depart from Diet
04:28 Arrive at office
05:04 Speak with Commissioner of Agency for Natural Resources and Energy Ueda Takayuki and MOFA’s Director-General of Middle Eastern and African Affairs Bureau Uemura Tsukasa
05:14 Finish speaking with Mr. Ueda and Mr. Uemura
05:15 Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy meeting
06:03 Council meeting ends
06:05 Depart from office
06:13 Arrive at Dai-ichi Hotel Tokyo in Shinbashi, Tokyo. Attend meeting of Prime Minister supporters’ group formed by psychiatrists Shinsei-kai [晋精会] in banquet hall Lumière within hotel, panel discussion. Special Advisor to President of LDP Hagiuda Koichi also attends
06:47 Depart from hotel
06:54 Arrive at official residence. Meet with Chairman of General Assembly of LDP Members in Upper House Mizote Kensei, Secretary-General for LDP in Upper House Date Chuichi, and colleagues. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seko Hiroshige also attends
08:32 Everyone leaves



Friday, February 13, 2015

AM
12:00 At official residence (no visitors)
08:00 At official residence (no morning visitors)
09:51 Depart from official residence
09:52 Arrive at office
10:02 Cabinet Meeting begins
10:08 Cabinet Meeting ends
10:10 Speak with Minister of the Environment Mochizuki Yoshio
10:20 Finish speaking with Mr. Mochizuki
10:35 Meet with Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF)’s Vice-Minister Minagawa Yoshitsugu and Director-General of Management Improvement Bureau Okuhara Masaaki
11:02 End meeting with Mr. Minagawa and Mr. Okuhara
11:03 Meet with LDP Lower House member Takeda Ryota
11:20 End meeting with Mr. Takeda
11:51 Speak with LDP Lower House member Yamaguchi Tsuyoshi

PM
12:01 Finish speaking with Mr. Yamaguchi
12:02 Meet with LDP Secretary-General Tanigaki Sadakazu
12:50 End meeting with Mr. Tanigaki
01:25 Meet with LDP Policy Research Council’s Chairperson Inada Tomomi, Executive Acting Chairman Shionoya Ryu, and Acting Chairman Matsumoto Jun
01:56 End meeting with Ms. Inada, Mr. Shionoya, and Mr. Matsumoto
02:00 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Kitamura Shigeru, and Councillor of Cabinet Secretariat Kitamura Hirofumi
02:33 End meeting with Director Kitamura and Councillor Kitamura
03:00 Phone Conference with Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Tan Dung
03:20 Phone Conference ends
03:25 Meet with Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Saiki Akitaka
03:45 End meeting with Mr. Saiki
03:46 Meet with Minister of State for Special Missions Yamaguchi Shunichi
04:01 End meeting with Mr. Yamaguchi
04:02 Meet with MOF’s Vice-Minister Kagawa Shunsuke and Vice-Minister for International Affairs Yamasaki Tatsuo
04:21 End meeting with Mr. Kagawa and Mr. Yamasaki
04:52 Meet with Director of Cabinet Intelligence Mr. Kitamura
05:18 End meeting with Mr. Kitamura
05:29 Headquarters on Creating Dynamism through Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery Industries and Local Communities meeting
05:33 Meeting ends
05:56 Meet with US Deputy Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Sung Kim, and resident US Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy
06:19 End meeting with Mr. Blinken, Mr. Kim, and Ms. Kennedy
06:25 Depart from office
06:32 Arrive at Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Kioi Building in Kioi-cho, Tokyo. Dinner meeting with Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal’s Honorary Chairman Imai Takashi and Chairman Muneoka Shoji at Kioi Club within building
08:30 Depart from building
08:48 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Saturday, February 14, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
06:52 Depart from private residence
07:14 Arrive at JR Tokyo Station
07:17 Depart from station on Hayate no. 111
09:43 Arrive at JR Mizusawa-Esashi Station
09:46 Depart from station. Minister for Reconstruction Takeshita Wataru, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Reconstruction Koizumi Shinjiro, and Governor of Iwate Prefecture Tasso Takuya accompany
10:16 Arrive at roadside station Taneyamagahara in Sumita Town, Iwate Prefecture. Buy dried wood ear mushrooms from shop
10:24 Depart from roadside station
11:16 Arrive at aquatic products manufacturing company Morishita Suisan in Ofunato City, Iwate Prefecture. Reception by Lower House member Hashimoto Hidenori and Mayor of Ofunato City Toda Kimiaki. View factory
11:44 Depart from Morishita Suisan
11:51 Arrive at Ofunato Fish Market in Ofunato City. View market. Lunch meeting with Mr. Takeshita, Mr. Koizumi, Mr. Tasso, Mr. Hashimoto, and Mr. Toda at multi-purpose hall within market

PM
12:58 Depart from Ofunato Fish Market
01:51 Arrive at knitting manufacturing and sales company Kesennuma Knitting in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture
02:16 Depart from Kesennuma Knitting
02:18 Arrive at Nango District Emergency Housing in Kesennuma City. Exchange of opinions with residents
02:55 Interview open to all media
02:59 Interview ends
03:01 Depart from emergency housing
03:55 Arrive at roadside station Kawasaki in Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture. Buy fruit mix flavored ice cream at shop
04:06 Depart from roadside station
04:25 Arrive at JR Ichinoseki Station
04:37 Depart from station on Hayate no. 118
06:51 Arrive at JR Tokyo Station
06:55 Depart from station
07:25 Arrive at private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo

Sunday, February 15, 2015

AM
12:00 At private residence (no visitors)
10:00 At private residence in Tomigaya, Tokyo (no morning visitors)
Stay at private residence throughout morning

PM
Stay at private residence throughout afternoon and evening


Provisional Translation by: Erin M. Jones

Monday in Washington, June 29, 2015

June 28, 2015, 8:49 am

≫ Next: Unesco and the story of Japan's Meiji Era

≪ Previous: Prime Minister of Japan’s Schedule February 9-15, 2015

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DEGRADE AND DEFEAT: EXAMINING THE ANTI-ISIS STRATEGY. 6/29, 9:00-10:30am. Sponsor: CSIS, Transnational Threat Project. Speakers: David Ignatius, Columnist, Washington Post, Associate Editor, Author, The Director; Stephen Kappes, Deputy Director, Operations, Former Deputy Director, CIA; Tom Sanderson, Director and Senior Fellow, CSIS Transnational Threats Project.

REVITALIZATION OF THE JAPANESE ECONOMY AND THE JAPAN-US RELATIONSHIP. 6/29, 10:00-11:00am. Sponsor: US Chamber of Commerce (USCC). Speaker: Sadayuki Sakakibara, Chairman of Keidanren, the Japanese Business Federation. 

CAN RUSSIAN-WESTERN COOPERATION IN THE ARCTIC SURVIVE THE CURRENT CONFLICT? 6/29, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Wilson Center (WWC). Speakers: Irvin Studin, Founder, Global Brief magazine, President, Institute for 21st Century Questions, Toronto; Hon. Kenneth S. Yalowitz, Global Fellow, Former U.S. Ambassador, Republic of Belarus and Georgia.

INDIA-BANGLADESH RELATIONS IN THE WAKE OF MODI’S VISIT TO BANGLADESH. 6/29, 10:30am-Noon. Sponsor: Carnegie Endowment (CEIP). Speakers: Farooq Sobhan, President and CEO, Bangladesh Enterprise Institute; Frederic Grare, Director, South Asia Program, CEIP. 

FIFTY YEARS AFTER THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS: ARE GERMAN-ISRAELI RELATIONS STILL “SPECIAL”? 6/29, 12:30-9:00pm. Sponsor: American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS). Speakers: Harald Kindermann, Ambassador, Republic of Germany; Mitchell Barak, KEEVOON Global Research; Nora Müller, Körber Stiftung; Shlomo Shpiro, Bar-Ilan University; Eric Fusfield, B'nai B'rith International; Michael Borchard, Konrad Adenauer Foundation – Israel; Jeffrey Herf, University of Maryland; Hadas Cohen, Israeli Political Scientist, Author and Germany Close Up Alumna; Lily Gardner Feldman, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University; Katharina von Münster, U.S. Communications Director of Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, former Israel Program Director.

DIPLOMACY BEYOND THE NATION-STATE. 6/29, 2:00-4:00pm. Sponsor: Atlantic Council, Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security. Speakers: H.E. Rachad Boulal, Ambassador, Embassy, Kingdom of Morocco; Paula Dobriansky, Senior Fellow, Future of Diplomacy Project, Harvard University; H.E. Ashok Kumar Mirpuri, Ambassador, Embassy of Singapore; Thomas Perriello, Special Representative for the Quadrennial Diplomacy, Development Review, US Department of State; H.E. Juan Gabriel Valdes, Ambassador, Embassy of Chile.

THE RESULTS WE NEED IN 2016: POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE NUCLEAR SECURITY SUMMIT. 6/29, 2:30-4:00pm. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Andrew Bieniawski, Vice President for Material Security, Nuclear Threat Initiative; James Doyle, Former Nuclear Policy Specialist, Los Alamos National Laboratory; Sharon Squassoni, Director, Proliferation Prevention Program, CSIS.

Unesco and the story of Japan's Meiji Era

July 4, 2015, 12:36 pm

≫ Next: UNESCO and Japan’s Act of Forgetting

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Front Gate Fukuoka #2 POW Camp - Mitsubishi Shipyards Nagasaki

If badly handled, the World Heritage listing could serve to recouple the impressive Meiji industrial revolution to the slumbering concept of Japan as the glorious "light of Asia".

BY WILLIAM UNDERWOOD

Independent scholar and APP member who completed his PhD at Kyushu University on reparations movements for forced labour in wartime Japan.

THE STRAITS TIMES, June 29, 2015

THE Unesco World Heritage Committee yesterday began considering this year's nominations to the World Heritage List. The 10-day session is normally quiet, and acceptance of the proposals - already vetted by an advisory body called the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) - is considered routine.

The 500-page Icomos advisory report provides a flavour of the 40-plus nominations slated for approval: rock art sites in Saudi Arabia and Uganda, Viking sites in northern Europe, a bridge in Britain, Spanish missions in the United States, an aqueduct in Mexico, a monastery in Georgia and the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Then there is Japan's ambitious - even audacious - Unesco bid.

"Sites of Japan's Meiji Industrial Revolution" seek World Heritage status for two dozen mines, factories, ports and shipyards located mainly in the nation's south-west. The Icomos report released last month notes the properties represent the "first successful transfer of industrialisation from the West to a non-Western nation".

The governments of South Korea and China, however, have expressed opposition to the listing, and vigorous lobbying campaigns on both sides of the issue have injected international politics into the upcoming discussion about cultural landmarks.

Critics of the Japanese package view Meiji Era (1868-1912) nation-building as inseparable from 20th-century empire-building, which led inexorably to Japanese colonialism and the Asia-Pacific War. History is never easy in North-east Asia.

Resistance to Japan's plan stems from the fact that some 700,000 Koreans, 40,000 Chinese and 35,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) performed forced labour for private industry in wartime Japan.

But there have been almost no corporate acknowledgments, no apologies and no compensation to individual victims.

Fully one-third of Japan's would-be Unesco sites can be directly connected to forced labour, and groups representing US and British former POWs are also sceptical about Tokyo's application.

These nominated venues include port facilities at Moji in Fukuoka prefecture, through which tens of thousands of workers bound for the Kyushu coal mines involuntarily passed. Their toil produced profits for companies like Mitsui and Mitsubishi, the zaibatsu twin pillars of wartime production that owned - or still own - several of the properties slated for Unesco's imprimatur. In fact, Mitsubishi has operated the Nagasaki shipbuilding yard - where hundreds of forced labourers perished in the American atomic bombing that ended the war - for the past 128 years.

Yawata (or Yahata) Steel Works, originally known as Imperial Steel Works, was built by the central government using hefty indemnity payments extracted from China following the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. The mills were later taken over by Nippon Steel, which ran the enterprise using forced labourers during the war and runs it today as Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. The inclusion in a World Heritage application of working sites belonging to private firms is considered atypical.

Japan's initiative to showcase the remarkable industrial achievements of the Meiji Era represents a focused, sustained public-relations effort. Its stated theme being "From a small Asian nation to world economic power", the Kagoshima-based official website for the global push (with an English version at www. kyuyama.jp/e) recounts the rise of modern Japan beginning with the Opium Wars, which presaged a regional geopolitical upheaval that rightly alarmed the foundering Tokugawa shogunate.

"Emergence of Industrial Japan: Kyushu-Yamaguchi" is a 20-page summary of the original Unesco proposal prepared by Japan in 2009. Japan at the dawn of the Meiji Restoration, according to the promotional piece, "chose rapid industrialisation as a strategy to preserve national independence, free from foreign political and economic subordination. Japan was determined to join the modern world economy on its terms rather than those of a colonial power. It was to become the master of change rather than its victim".

The World Heritage submission bookends the histories of the proposed sites at 1850 and 1910, with the latter year marking (perhaps coincidentally) the start of Japan's formal annexation of Korea. Since the Meiji emperor reigned until 1912, this bracketing may seek to sidestep the contentious history of colonialism on the Korean peninsula, which set the stage for the annexation of Manchuria in 1931 and eventually for total war with China and the West.

To some observers, the nature of Japan's unusual "serial nomination" of 23 sites spread across eight prefectures, intended to highlight 60 years of relatively recent national emergence, suggests an ulterior motive. So does the pending listing of Shokasonjuku Academy in Yamaguchi prefecture. This property, according to the Icomos report, was "one of the bases of the respected royalist teacher, Shoin Yoshida, who aspired to progressive ideas based on Western education, science and industry but with respect to Japanese traditions".

Yoshida himself was executed for his revolutionary activities by the Tokugawa regime in 1859, but he provided the philosophical compass for the core of young samurai leaders who engineered the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Later, however, ideas first expounded at Shokasonjuku Academy morphed into a wellspring of motivation and justification for Japanese militarism and expansion on the Asian mainland - and beyond. Yoshida and his followers were held up as a dynamic contrast to the "backwardness" of other Asians who had not successfully responded to the challenge of Western domination.

There may be a mismatch between the Icomos finding that Japan's package meets the Unesco requirement for "outstanding universal value" and the portrayal in Japan's own pitch of a "unique and exceptional affirmation of the cutting-edge, living, industrial cultural tradition of this small Asian nation".

Similarly, the Japanese website's headline for the boosterish section on Imperial Steel Works reads: "Mighty national enterprise remains testimony to dauntless Meiji spirit."

Unesco is set to confirm the Meiji industrial sites at a moment when historical revisionism related to the Asia-Pacific War is increasing under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has challenged interpretations of Japan's imperialism, colonialism and prosecution of the war that have been accepted as mainstream since 1945.

The World Heritage application was originally submitted during the premiership of Mr Taro Aso, the current Cabinet member who wrote a 2007 book called Japan The Tremendous. In the book, Mr Aso contends Japan is a "fount of moral lessons" for Asia.

The Icomos advisory report, while urging approval of the Japanese bid, also calls on Japan to prepare an interpretive strategy that "allows an understanding of the full history of each site".

By holistically depicting the forced labour-linked sites and adopting best practices for inclusive historical narration, Tokyo's Unesco project could potentially become a model for transnational exchange, understanding and reconciliation.

If badly handled, the World Heritage listing could serve to recouple the impressive Meiji industrial revolution to the slumbering concept of Japan as the glorious "light of Asia". The story of modern Japan might then degenerate into a nationalistic narrative about Imperial Japan's overseas aims and actions. That's the last thing the region needs now.

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UNESCO and Japan’s Act of Forgetting

July 4, 2015, 1:15 pm

≫ Next: Monday in Washington, July 6, 2015

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Baron Mitsui hosting a dinner for senior POW officers from Fukuoka #17, the Miike Omuta Mine, after the war

Designation of Japan’s Meiji-era sites overlooks some important history.

By Mindy Kotler, APP Director
The Diplomat, July 3, 2015

For more on the American POW experience with Imperial Japan see the APP blog American POWs of Japan

This is Karel Aster’s year. In April, the Czech Republic granted the 95-year-old Florida resident the nation’s highest honor, the Gratias Agit, for his valor and bravery during World War II. Aster had volunteered to fight with the Americans in 1941 to defend the Philippines against the Japanese invasion. He survived the battle, the Bataan Death March, a hell ship to Japan, and years as a slave laborer at a Mitsui coal mine at Omuta, Kyushu Island.

Also at the Mitsui site were American Lester Tenney and Australian Tom Uren. Tenney, another survivor of the Bataan Death March, persuaded the Japanese government in 2009 to apologize to the American POWs of Japan. Uren, who died last January, was a leading Labor Party politician who secured supplementary payment to Australia’s 900 surviving prisoners from World War II and the Korean War.

Account by a Scottish POW of Mitsui's Miike coal mine click to order

This coming weekend, UNESCO will designate the Mitsui Miike coal mine as a World Heritage site of Japan’s early modernization. The Japanese nomination, however, makes no mention of the history of any WWII POWs or of the thousands of Asian slave laborers at this site.

UNESCO is expected to approve 23 similar Japanese-nominated sites. Absent will be any accounting of the dark histories associated with these mines, foundries, and shipyards. Silence about the full history of these would-be global landmarks undermines UNESCO’s international goals and the U.S.-Japan alliance.

Lester Tenney's account of being a  POW at Mitsui's Miike coal mine

Currently there are 1,007 sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List. They are to serve as “instruments of international understanding and international cooperation.” The World Heritage accolade brings prestige and international attention to unique cultural accomplishments.

World Heritage sites often become tourist attractions and many nations view the designation as a path to reviving fading regions and cities. That is one motive behind Japan’s nomination of its sites. But the selective telling of their history is part of the Abe administration’s broader policy of restoring Japanese pride in their past.

Dr. Thomas Hewlett Mitsui Omuta POW Camp doctor click to read his account of conditions

The regions of Japan’s UNESCO nominations are in search of tourist dollars as they are among the hardest hit by the country’s economic downturn. Tourism is a growth industry in Japan with visitors from China nearly doubling and Korea not far behind. Many of the nominated sites are also located in the home districts of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, and Agriculture Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

The family companies of Aso and Hayashi, The Aso Group and Ube Industries respectively, used Allied POW slave labor at company sites included among the nominations. Of the eight industrial areas nominated, five held 26 POW camps with nearly 13,000 Allied POWs providing slave labor to Japan’s industrial giants, including Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, Aso Group, Ube Industries, Tokai Carbon, Nippon Coke & Engineering, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, Furukawa Company Group, and Denka. The POWs came from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, New Zealand, Norway, Jamaica, Portugal, South Africa, Malaya, Arabia, and Czechoslovakia.

In addition, the nominated ports at Kitakyushu, then called Moji, and Nagasaki, were the entry points for nearly 35,000 Allied POWs, of which approximately 11,000 were American. Over 7,000 American and Allied POWs died traveling to Japan aboard the aptly called “hell ships,” and 3,500 more perished in Japan, 25 percent within the first 30 days of arrival.

Slave labor in Japan did not begin with World War II. Forced and conscripted labor was a critical part of the mining and manufacturing industries in nineteenth-century Meiji Japan. From late Meiji (1868-1912) onward, Japan used “industrial prisons” to supply labor to factories and mills at private companies. Up until the 1930s, the majority of the miners were convicts with the rest being peasants made landless by Meiji land reforms and “outcastes.” One-third were women. Chinese and Korea labor became important in Japan’s mines and factories, and on the docks.

Tokyo’s World Heritage nominations fail to address the full historical significance of these sites. Japan’s industrialization included Japanese and foreigners, nobles and outcasts, POW slaves and conscripted Koreans, as well as women and children. Without taking these into account, the story Japan wants to tell fails to meet UNESCO criteria of “universal value and meaning.”

Japan and UNESCO should look to the perhaps surprisingly positive experience of other World Heritage sites that do acknowledge their darker histories. The Liverpool-Maritime Merchant City site is a striking case in point. The Liverpool port served a key role in the triangular transatlantic slave trade of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Liverpool has acknowledged its substantial role in a deplorable (and what would today be a criminal) business. Liverpool opened in 2007 the International Slavery Museum on the dock and, in 2006, a Centre for the Study of International Slavery at the University of Liverpool. Identical memorials to the victims of slavery stand on the docks of Liverpool, Richmond, Virginia, and Cotonou, Benin, linking this shared memory among them. These resources have drawn scholars and others and have in fact bolstered Liverpool’s reputation has a place where history – both good and bad – can be studied and understood.

Of the 21 nations represented on today’s UNESCO World Heritage committee, nationals from six were World War II POWs held on mainland Japan. These are: India, Malaysia, Jamaica, Finland, Poland, Portugal, and South Korea. A seventh, South Korea, had hundreds of thousands of its men and women conscripted to work in near slavery conditions.

The U.S. does not have a vote in UNESCO. But Washington can speak to its Japanese ally to remind them of the debt they owe American veterans for defending their freedom.

On the morning of August 9, 1945, all the POWs in Omuta saw the red cloud rise from Nagasaki across the bay. Although a very modern weapon ended their ordeal at the Miike mine, they had experienced labor in Japan that had changed little since Meiji times. They would not want such forced labor to be repeated and certainly none would want it forgotten.

As it stands, Japan’s nomination of Meiji industrial sites is an act of forgetting. It omits the full history of Japan’s industrialization. For UNESCO to accept this is a disservice to its charter and to the memory of the thousands that slaved for Imperial Japan.

Monday in Washington, July 6, 2015

July 5, 2015, 10:11 am

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STATE OF U.S. PATENT REFORM. 7/6, 1:00-2:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS, Strategic TechnologiesProgram. Speakers: Michelle K. Lee, Under Secretary, Commerce for Intellectual Property, Director, United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO); Victoria A. Espinel, President and CEO, BSA, Software Alliance; Michael A. Waring, Executive Director, Federal Relations, University of Michigan.

REFORMING THE MANAGEMENT OF INDONESIA’S ENERGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES SECTOR: AN UPDATE. 7/6, 2:30-4:00pm. Sponsor: The United States-Indonesia Society (USINDO). Speaker: H.E. Sudirman Said, Indonesia’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources. 

COMBATING ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND POVERTY IN WESTERN CHINA. 7/6, 3:00-4:30pm. Sponsor: Woodrow Wilson Center (WWC). Speakers: Jin Jiaman, Executive Director of the Global Environment Institute; Boahua Zheng, Director or Rural Development Institute; Ling Du, Director of the Chengdu Shuguang Community Capacity-Building Center. 

PUTTING AMERICA BACK ON THE FAST TRACK: TRADE PROMOTION AUTHORITY PASSES THE HOUSE AND SENATE. 7/6, 4:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: Association of Women in International Trade (WIIT). Speakers: Eva Hampl, Director of Investment Trade and Financial Services, United States Council for International Business; Adeline Hinderer Sayers, Trade Counselor and Deputy Head of Section, Delegation of the European Union to the US.

Abe's apologies: a boneless corpse

July 12, 2015, 12:31 pm

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The politics and pitfalls of war memory and apology

BY Jeff Kingston, director of Asian Studies, Temple University Japan

THE JAPAN TIMES, July 11, 2015

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s handling of history issues during this 70th anniversary of Japan’s World War II defeat came under critical scrutiny at the recent Japanese Studies Association of Australia conference hosted by La Trobe University in Melbourne.

Arthur Stockwin, the University of Oxford’s eminent political scientist on Japanese politics, assessed the arc of apology from 1995 to 2015, highlighting the counterproductive backsliding that has occurred during Abe’s tenure.

Although there has been no shortage of Japanese apologies for wartime misdeeds, an unwarranted apology fatigue has taken hold. Unwarranted because, as Stockwin argues, every official apology has been undermined by countervailing comments aimed at repudiating or dismissing the contrition expressed. This undermines any potential goodwill because Japan looks like it is wriggling out of its war responsibility and downplaying the horrors that it inflicted on Asia.

Stockwin also believes that Abe has been duplicitous in his “handling of war apology issues that combines apparent agreement with official apologies made in the past, while at the same time by various means throwing doubt on their veracity.”

Abe’s misgivings about the Murayama statement are well-known so when he says that he accepts it in general he underscores that in certain specifics he doesn’t. Stockwin related that in February 2009 Abe gave an interview in the journal Will, saying, “It is a big mistake to teach the Murayama statement as historical understanding.”

That same month, in the right-wing journal Seiron, Abe commented: “Japan is not bound forever by the personal historical understanding of Mr. Murayama. The Murayama statement was too one-sided, and I should like to come up with something more balanced.”

In April, Abe said there was no point in repeating the Murayama and Koizumi war apologies, saying he inherited them and wants to leave it at that. Shinichi Kitaoka, a well-known academic who is one of Abe’s foremost advisers and apologists, maintains that Abe can inherit past statements without repeating them.

“It is natural that what is said 50 years after the war and what is said 70 years after the war should differ to some extent,” Kitaoka says. Stockwin’s rejoinder is withering: “Kitaoka’s analysis sounds confused, and appears to imply that it is acceptable to repeat earlier war apologies so long as their content is removed. It is surprisingly difficult to see that this could carry serious intellectual conviction.”

Stockwin senses a strategy, saying that Abe pays lip service to war apologies that have stood the test of time and served Japan well while at the same time slagging them. Instead of outright repudiation of the 1993 Kono statement on “comfort women,” Abe has gutted it, something Stockwin refers to as honenuki ni suru (taking the bones out, while leaving the outward shape).

In Stockwin’s view, Abe’s maneuvering on war apology has been counterproductive and worsened relations with China and South Korea, thereby irking the United States.


Akiko Hashimoto, a professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, recently published an excellent book titled, The Long Defeat: Cultural Trauma, Memory, and Identity in Japan, which explores the contentious politics of divisive war memories. She draws our gaze to intertwined narratives of nationalism, pacifism and reconciliation, and the long shadow of defeat that animates the politics of national identity. She calls on Japan to relinquish the “comfort zone of ambiguity in the amorphous middle ground between guilt and innocence in WWII” and to embrace “imaginative concessions and innovative compromise to break the logjam of historical grievances.” Forgetting, denying or downplaying, she says, is no longer an option in a “globalizing culture of memory.”

“Japan’s moral recovery cannot be complete without constructing a new collective self, and a political identity that extends beyond the alliance with the U.S.,” she argues.

Hashimoto points out that apology is “an ennobling act” and Abe can do much to enhance Japan’s dignity and moral stature if he takes the measure of Japan’s wartime history. A forthright apology is a “pathway to transcend stigma,” but Japanese revisionists lack the courage to admit wartime “evildoing” and therefore close off possibilities of rapprochement and achieving a shared sense of justice with its victims. Nationalism in East Asia has turned “war memory into a contest of national interests and identity, and a stew of national resentments” that fuel mistrust and suspicion. It is up to Japan to show the way forward, but Abe’s vision is focused on the past in ways that jeopardize the future.

Hashimoto notes that Abe is unlikely to repeat Murayama’s condemnation of Japanese colonial and wartime aggression as a “mistaken national policy” because it would mean condemning the wartime record of his grandfather Nobusuke Kishi and, thereby, dishonoring his family. Kishi was indicted as a Class-A war criminal by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East due to his role in mobilizing labor in Manchuria and as wartime munitions minister for Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Hashimoto also believes Abe’s efforts to expand Japan’s security role are misguided and ignore public sentiments that draw on grass-roots wartime memories. Expecting that the forthcoming Abe statement will shirk the burdens of history, Hashimoto wants to remind Japan’s victims, and the world, that most Japanese don’t support his exonerating and valorizing narrative of Japan’s wartime record.

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Akiko Takenaka, a professor of history at the University of Kentucky, her astute insights on historical controversies in her new book, Yasukuni Shrine: History, Memory, and Japan’s Unending Postwar. She focuses on Yasukuni Shrine’s role in terms of national identity and war memory and the dilemma of how to remember those who died in Japan’s attempt to subjugate Asia.

“(Abe’s) record on historical issues in 2015 has been dismal,” Takenaka says. “I believe he’s managed to reach a new low as far as Japanese prime ministers’ records on the issues.”

In his much-anticipated statement on Aug. 15, she says Abe “should most certainly declare support of the Kono statement, apologize for the violence inflicted on others, and also acknowledge the wrongs of the past.”

She adds that acknowledging past wrongdoings is just the first step in reconciliation.

“But mere acknowledgment won’t change the past. Nor will it speak to the growing number of Japanese who embrace the revisionist myths,” she says.

To address this trend, Takenaka calls for the inclusion of peace education in the school curriculum, but Team Abe is busy white-washing textbooks and promoting patriotic education.

As perpetrator’s fatigue gains momentum among Japanese amid a heightened sense of victimization, she wonders, “Who is going to take action to improve Japan’s strained relations with China and South Korea, which are deeply rooted in the wartime past?”

None of these experts thinks Abe is the man for the job.

Monday in Washington, July 13, 2015

July 12, 2015, 12:38 pm

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THE FUTURE OF THE U.S.-INDIA PARTNERSHIP: TEN YEARS AFTER THE CIVIL NUCLEAR COOPERATION INITIATIVE. 7/13, 8:15am-4:30pm. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: William J. Burns, Chandrajit Banerjee, Arun Singh, Nisha Biswal, R. Nicholas Burns, Shyam Saran, Ronen Sen, Philip Zelikow, Stephen Biegun, Sumit Mazumder, Rajiv Modi, Deep Kapuria, Kaushik Basu, Edward Luce, Stephen Hadley, M.K. Narayanan, Shivshankar Menon, Thomas Donilon, Robert Scher, Eliot Cohen, Vikram Singh, David Sanger.

US-CHINA COOPERATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST. 7/13, 10:00-11:30am. Sponsor: Center for American Progress (CAP). Speakers: Yang Jiemian, Chairman of Academic Affairs, Shanghai Institute for International Studies; Wu Chunsi, Deputy Director for Department of American Studies, Shanghai Institute for International Studies; Alan Wong, Executive Director of the China-US Exchange Foundation; Vikram Singh, Vice President for National Security and International Policy, CAP; Rudy deLeon and Brian Katulis, CAP Senior Fellows. 

WHY HUMAN RIGHTS MATTER IN POLICY TOWARD NORTH KOREA. 7/13, Noon-2:00pm, Lunch. Sponsors: International Forum for Democratic Studies, National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Speakers: Yoshihiro Makino, Visiting Fellow, International Forum for Democratic Studies, Senior International Correspondent, Asahi Shimbun; Bruce Klingner, Heritage Foundation.

HOW TO AVOID A FROZEN CONFLICT: TRANSATLANTIC APPROACHES TO THE UKRAINE AND RUSSIA. 7/13, 12:30pm. Sponsor: The Friedrich Ebert Foundation. Speakers: Niels Annen, member of the German Parliament; Matthew Rojansky, Director of the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute; John Hudson, Senior Reporter at Foreign Policy. 

DEFENSE POLICY PRIORITIES IN AN AGE OF RAPID CHANGE. 7/13, 1:30-2:30pm. Sponsor: CSIS, International Security Program. Speaker: Christine E. Wormuth, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE ARCTIC. 7/13, 3:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsors: State Department and the Polar Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Speakers: Karen Florini, State Department Deputy Special Envoy for Climate Change; Stephanie Pfirman, Co-chair of the Department of Environmental Science, Columbia University. 

WOMEN IN COMBAT: LESSONS LEARNED FROM CULTURAL SUPPORT TEAMS. 7/13, 3:30-5:00pm. Sponsor: Women in International Security (WIIS). Speakers: Former Members, U.S. Department of Defense’s cultural support teams (CSTs).

Monday in Washington, July 20, 2015

July 19, 2015, 9:51 pm

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RALLY AND MARCH TO THE WHITE HOUSE: VICTIMS OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES TESTIFY ON CRIMES AGAINST THE FILIPINO PEOPLE BY AQUINO III. 7/20, 9:30am-1:00pm. Sponsor: The International People’s Tribunal.

THE NEW SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDG) FRAMEWORK: SECURING THE FUTURE THJROUGH INCLUSIVE ECONOMIC GROWTH. 7/20, 2:00pm, Washington, DC. Sponsor: Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE). Speakers: Trevor Davies, Global Head of International Development Assistance at KPMG; Christopher Jurgens, Chief of USAID’s Global Partnerships Division; Louise Kantrow, Permanent Representative to the UN at the International Chamber of Commerce; Kamran Khan, Vice President of the Department of Compact Operations at the Millennium Change Corporation; Sarah Thorn, Senior Director of International Reade at Walmart; John Sullivan, Executive Director of CIPE. 

GLOBAL DIGITAL POLICY: VIEWS FROM THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTH KOREA. 7/20, 3:00pm. Sponsor: CEAPS, Brookings Institution. Speakers: Ambassador Ahn Ho-Young, Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to the United States; Ambassador Daniel Sepulveda, Deputy Assistant Secretary and U.S. Coordinator, International Communications and Information Policy, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Min Wonki, Assistant Minister, ICT and Future Planning, Ministry of Science, Republic of Korea; Chairman, 2014 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference; Moderator: Darrell West, Douglas Dillon Chair; Vice President and Director, Governance Studies; Founding Director, Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE 2016 ELECTION. 7/20, 3:00-5:00pm. Sponsor: Center for Global Development. Speakers: Nancy Birdsall, President, Center for Global Development; Michael Elliott, President and CEO, ONE Campaign; Steve Hadley, former National Security Advisor, President George W. Bush, 2005–2009; Tom Nides, Vice Chairman, Morgan Stanley, Deputy Secretary of State, 2011–2013.