Academics’ Alliance for Correcting Groundless Criticisms of Japan (不当な日本批判を正す学者の会, AACGCJ) is a group of conservative scholars founded in May 2017 to refute criticisms of Japan’s human rights records and historical responsibilities at United Nations and beyond, including U.N. special rapporteur David Kaye’s report on the suppression of freedom of press in Japan as well as various U.N. committees’ finding on the comfort women issue. Academics’ Alliance is a member of Japan NGO Coalition against Racial Discrimination (JNCRD), a fake human rights coalition of far-right groups.
Alliance board member and secretary general Eiji Yamashita (山下英次) frequently accompanies overseas delegations of the Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women.
Officers include:
- Hidemichi Tanaka (田中英道), president
- Eiji Yamashita (山下英次), board member and secretary general
- Takashi Ito (伊藤隆), board member
- Keiichiro Kobori (小堀桂一郎), board member
- Kanji Nishio (西尾幹二), board member
- Toshio Watanabe (渡辺利夫), board member
- Terumasa Nakanishi (中西輝政), board member
In August 2018, Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women sent its delegation to Geneva, Switzerland to attend the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which met to conduct the member state review of Japan over such issues as the rights of indigenous peoples, ethnic minorities, burakumin, and victims of military comfort women.
Over the last few delegations, the Alliance has expanded its mission to deny the indigenous status of Ainu and Okinawans at United Nations meetings, bringing members such as Hokkaido prefectural assembly member Masaru Onodera (小野寺まさる) and Satoru Nakamura (仲村覚) of Okinawa Policy Research Forum of Japan (日本沖縄政策研究フォーラム). During a lunch briefing at UNCERD, Nakamura gave a speech demanding the U.N. to retract the recognition of Okinawan people as an indigenous people.
The delegation included, among others:
United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) NGO Parallel Events are a series of events held around the United Nations building by non-governmental organizations from around the world working on women’s rights while the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women meets at its headquarters in New York.
Japanese right-wing groups first infiltrated the NGO Parallel Events in 2016 under innocuously named panels to promote Japanese nationalism and comfort women denial, after which they were banned from participation for an year.
When the ban expired in 2018, comfort women denier group Global Alliance for Historical Truth returned to the NGO Parallel Events with a panel titled “The Role of Women in Japan Now” on March 19, 2018. Presenters included Koichi Mera, Keiko Kawasoe, Moe Fukada (深田萌絵), and Shizuko Culpepper (カルペッパー静子).
According to Kiyoshi Hosoya of Global Alliance for Historical Truth, Kawase argued at the panel that Japanese women are not seeking gender equality or careers, but simply desire to become full-time homemakers, and the Japanese government’s policy is focused on fulfilling such wish of the vast majority of Japanese women.
Along with the panel at the NGO Parallel Event, Kawasoe held a separate lecture in Japanese on March 21, 2018 co-sponsored by Global Alliance for Historical Truth and New York Historical Issues Study Group.
In March 2018, Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women sent its delegation to Geneva, Switzerland to attend the United Nations Human Rights Council, taking advantage of the UN consultative status of the International Career Support Association.
At the UNHRC, Sharon Isac of the Alliance gave a speech calling the historical accounts of comfort women “depraved highly defamatory myth.” In addition, former member of the Parliament Takashi Tanuma (田沼隆志) simultaneously refuted the UN Special Rapporteur David Kaye’s report describing curtailing of press freedom in Japan by the government and also argued that there is a pervasive censorship of any conversations critical of China or Korea on the internet.
The delegation included, among others:
Yasuhiro Takasaki (高崎康裕) is a New York-based business consultant and the president of the far-right New York Historical Issues Study Group. He has an MBA from the American University and an extensive background in real estate and construction industries, having worked at Shimizu Corporation for 25 years.
Takasaki has been a speaker on panels organized by Himawari Japan, a comfort women denier group.
New York Historical Issues Study Group (ニューヨーク歴史研究会) is a group of Japanese nationalists living in New York area who were inspired by the 2011 visit of retired Japanese Air Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Toshio Tamogami (田母神俊雄), a darling of hard right nationalists. Since then, the Study Group has been holding meetings and events on a regular basis, covering such issues as comfort women, territorial disputes, Imperial Family, national defense, Constitution, etc.
The Study Group has co-sponsored nationalist events with Himawari Japan and Global Alliance for Historical Truth, including Himawari Japan lectures (2016) and Himawari Japan lectures (2017).
The president of the Study Group is Yasuhiro Takasaki (高崎康裕), a New York-based business consultant with an extensive background in real estate and construction industries.
Keiko Kawasoe (河添恵子) is a self-described “non-fiction writer” and a comfort women denier.
In the book “Women Fight the History War” (Rekishisen ha onna no tatakai), Kawasoe and co-author Mio Sugita propose bombing attacks against comfort women memorials erected in the United States. “Nearby residents will oppose further construction of comfort women memorials out of fear!” exclaims Kawasoe.
In the same book, Kawasoe warns readers of an “Illuminati conspiracy” aimed at turning Japan into a “gender-free communist state.”
Kawasoe has also provided a promotional blurb for a fake “spiritual interview” book published by Happy Science on “The Rape of Nanking” author Iris Chang in which Chang’s “spirit” confesses to fabricating historical accounts of Japanese military atrocities in Nanking to defame Japan.
In March 2018, Kawasoe joined Global Alliance for Historical Truth’s panel titled “The Role of Women in Japan” during the 2018 United Nations Commission on the Status of Women NGO Parallel Events in New York. While there, she also gave a talk at another event organized by GAHT and New York Historical Issues Study Group for Japanese audience.
Japan Forum for Strategic Studies (日本戦略研究フォーラム) is a Japanese conservative think tank founded in 1999 to promote “comprehensive research on national strategy encompassing politics, economy, military, and science and technology.” Board of directors of JFSS is composed of leading conservative figures in politics, businesses, and academy with close ties to Japan Conference.
In addition to Japanese conservative leaders like Taro Yayama (屋山太郎), JFSS boasts a number of American “special advisors” and research fellows including former U.S. Department of State officer Kevin Maher (who was forced to resign after accusing Okinawan movement against U.S. bases of extortion), director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for U.S.-Japan Studies and Cooperation James Auer, former U.S. Marine officer Grant Newsham (also Auer’s colleague at the USJC at Vanderbilt), and former U.S. Marine foreign policy officer in Okinawa Robert Eldridge (who was fired after leaking video recordings of anti-base activists). These American mouthpieces for Japan’s conservative movement frequently contribute their views in English media, for example Newsham publishing regular opinion pieces in Hong Kong/Thailand-based Asia Times.
