Comment by Vimy

April 29, 2007 @ 4:05 pm

All Komori does is constantly minimize Japan’s culpability. That’s not surprising since the Sankei shimbun is a nationalistic, right-wing newspaper. I laughed when he tried to link the comfort women to all the ODA Japan has given SE Asian countries. But we gave your country all this money, what re you complaining about? Idiot.

Pingback by Global Voices Online » Japan: Interview with Sankei Shimbun Editor about Comfort Women Issue

April 29, 2007 @ 5:39 pm

[…] Trans Pacific Radio reports on an interview with Sankei Shimbun Editor Yoshihisa Komori, conducted in late-March for the PBS series Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria, on the “Comfort Women” issue. TPR notes that “three things struck me [about Komori]: He looks off camera quite a bit, he brings up every red herring and irrelevant side issue he can think of, and he’s well fixated on playing the ‘victim’ game. I don’t think he was a wise choice at all for Japan to have speaking on its behalf.” Share This […]

Comment by ken

April 29, 2007 @ 5:40 pm

Vimy, thanks for your comment. The one point I agree with Komori on is that Abe might not have intended to bring up the topic, but that it came up due to his response to reporters. Komori did not mention that Abe should have held his tongue and essentially allowed the issue to explode.

I’m not sure what he’s talking about by the issue being ‘2 or 3 generations ago’

His comments on money are dishonest at best.

His grasp on the House of Representatives is either 1) Clueless on how the House works or 2) Flat out dishonest. His claim that the newspapers are basing their criticism on “Japanese DNA” is beyond absurd.

When he discusses the apologies and why they are not accepted, he seems to forget that a large group of politicians in Japan regularly say that Japan should not apologize and every once in a while bring up the idea of retracting the Kono statement.

Then he says that the burden of proof is on the accusers, those who say that the government was behind the comfort women need to provide the proof, when it’s all in government documents that have either been destroyed or are buried in secret. If there’s no issue, if the documents show Japan to not have done anything wrong, why not make them public.

Then, I think he might be right about seeing a new form of dialog coming from Japan. I really hope he’s right about this.

Comment by Mike

April 29, 2007 @ 11:38 pm

Wow…Zakaria was so easy on this guy. I wonder if he’s nice to people so they’ll come back on, or if he doesn’t have all the facts to counter the guy fed to him…

Comment by Vimy

May 1, 2007 @ 6:56 am

Ken,

I think the “2 or 3 generations ago” comment means: “This happened a long time ago, it’s not relevant to today.” The problem is not just Abe’s loose lips, but other bozos in government who regularly make asinine comments about China and comfort women that raises people’s hackles.

Comment by Ken

May 1, 2007 @ 3:11 pm

Vimy,

I agree, he seemed to have meant something like “…a long time ago.” It’s hard for that sentiment to carry much weight when survivors are still around and giving testimony as to what happened to them. It just comes across as dismissive.

The problem is not just what Abe says at all, and predates him by quite a bit - I hope you didn’t get the impression that I was thinking only Abe makes unhelpful comments on the issue - he’s just the tip of the iceberg. Nakayama and others have been quite vocal in their desire to have the Kono statement retracted. This is not helpful, since it makes gestures of apology seem less genuine. What they don’t get is that they can’t say one thing to a domestic audience and another to an international audience. They have to be consistent on message.

Comment by Vimy

May 2, 2007 @ 2:28 pm

No worries. It’s clear what you mean. I edited my post and cut out stuff so I wasn’t as precise as I should have been.

Comment by ken

May 3, 2007 @ 2:59 am

Vimy, got it. Have to say that I agree with your ‘bozos’ sentiment, but I think they are often expressing what they really believe since this is not a domestic political issue that gets discussed at polling time.

Comment by DeOrio

May 3, 2007 @ 5:30 am

Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be much of an election issue at all, at least not in a nuts and bolts way. Foreign policy in general seems to be a general feeling issue with the notable exception of North Korea.

I think certain groups of conservatives in all countries see any implication that their country has done wrong as an impugning of the country itself. You’re not likely to get someone of such a view to even listen to an outright accusation, even if it is well-supported. On the conservative side, in Japan as well as in the US, there is very real perception of bias on the part of academics and journalists, even when, as in Japan, the case for journalists being rather conservative in their reporting is more plausible.