Japan Family Value Society (FAVS, 家族の絆を守る会) is a conservative Japanese group dedicated to preserving “traditional Japanese families” through opposition to legislations aimed at improving the status of women such as anti-discrimination policies and legalized abortion. The organization also calls on Japan to withdraw from the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
At the founding in 2007, FAVS was part of the network of Japan Conference with Japan Conference’s Akiko Okamoto (岡本明子) as the Secretary General, although the organization appears to be less prominent under the leadership of Kiyoshi Hosoya today.
Under Okamoto, FAVS was one of the first Japanese right-wing groups to participate in the United Nations processes as an NGO along with “family values” and anti-abortion groups from around the world as a member of the World Congress of Families. More recently under Hosoya, FAVS focuses on comfort women denial at the United Nations level in collaboration with Global Alliance for Historical Truth, of which Hosoya is a board member, Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women, and Nadeshiko Action. It is unclear how much ties the organization maintains with the Japan Conference now.
Japan First Party (日本第一党) is a far-right political party founded in 2016 by Makoto Sakurai, the founder and former president of Zaitokukai. In addition to a host of far-right causes including the development of nuclear arsenal and hardline military stance toward neighbors China, South Korea, and North Korea, the party calls for the repeal of Kono Statement (1993), Japan-ROK Agreement (2015), and other reconciliatory positions on comfort women as well as severing diplomatic ties with South Korea.
Website: http://japan-first.net/
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.
JAPAN Forward is an English language news and opinion site operated by Sankei Shimbun through JAPAN Forward Association Inc. (一般社団法人ジャパンフォワード推進機構). It publishes articles translated from Sankei’s Japanese publications, including Sankei Shimbun and Seiron, including many on issues of history and national security.
Japan Forward solicits membership dues from its “supporters” which range from 10,000 yen (about US$100) to 1,000,000 yen (about US$10,000) annually.
Website: http://japan-forward.com/
Japan Institute for National Fundamentals (国家基本問題研究所) is a conservative think tank founded and led by Yoshiko Sakurai. The Institute has close ties to Japan Conference, and many of its board members, advisors, and fellows are members come from Japan Conference and/or textbook reform movement. Its priorities include a revision of the pacifist clauses of Japan’s constitution, continued use of nuclear power, and comfort women denial.
Affiliated individuals include, in addition to Sakurai:
- Tadae Takubo (田久保忠衛), Japan Conference
- Shintaro Ishihara (石原慎太郎), fmr Tokyo governor
- Takashi Ito (伊藤隆), Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform
- Taro Yayama (屋山太郎), Nippon Foundation, Society to Improve Textbooks
- Kazuo Ijiri (井尻千男), Japan Conference, Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform
- Shohei Umezawa (梅澤昇平)
- Masato Ushio (潮匡人), Japan Education Rebirth Institute
- Koichi Sugiyama (すぎやまこういち), Committee for Historical Facts, Society to Improve Textbooks
- Tsutomu Nishioka (西岡力)
- Akira Momochi (百地章), Japan Conference
- Yuzou Kabashima (椛島有三), Japan Conference
Website: https://jinf.jp/
Japan Mahoroba Station (JMS, 日本まほろば支援局), also known as Japan Mahoroba Support Agency is an online group founded in 2014 by New York-based Kaoli Koyasu to foster “better understanding of Japanese society and culture” starting among Japanese people. It promotes nationalistic views on Japan’s history and culture, including comfort women denial.
Mahoroba Station has co-sponsored various right-wing and comfort women denier events in the U.S., including Texas Night in NYC (2015), Texas Night in NYC (2016), and the Nadeshiko Action panel at the UN Commission on the Status of Women NGO Parallel Events (2016).
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jpnmahorobasupport/
Japan NGO Coalition against Racial Discrimination (JNCRD) is a fake human rights coalition comprised of far-right organizations that share nationalist, historical revisionist, and anti-indigenous philosophies. It was founded in 2018 to defend Japan against what they perceive as unfounded criticisms of its human rights records at the 10th and 11th periodic review of Japan by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Members of the NGO Coalition include:
JNCRD should not be confused with the NGO Network for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Japan (ERD-Net) which is a coalition of actual human rights groups.
Japan Policy Institute (日本政策研究センター) is a nationalist think tank founded by Tetsuo Ito, a board member of Japan Conference. It is described in Japanese media as a right-wing “brain” of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration. JPI’s focus areas include comfort women denial, history, and anti-feminism.
Website: http://www.seisaku-center.net
Japan-ROK Agreement (2015) is a bilateral agreement announced by foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea (Republic of Korea) at a press conference on December 28, 2015 to “finally and irreversibly” resolve the “issue of comfort women between Japan and the ROK.”
The agreement consists of two separate announcements by foreign ministers, followed up by a telephone exchange between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Geun-hye Park. There is no actual agreed-upon statement to be ratified or endorsed by parliaments in either country.
Under the agreement, Japanese government would contribute 1 billion yens (about $10 million USD) to a fund set up by the South Korean government, which would provide disbursement to South Korean former comfort women to “heal psychological wounds.” Japanese government insists that the payment is not a reparation, and does not represent an admission of legal liability.
In return, the government of South Korea acknowledged “the fact that the Government of Japan is concerned about the [comfort women] statue built in front of the Embassy of Japan in Seoul,” and promises that it “will strive to solve this issue in an appropriate manner.”
As soon as the agreement was announced, it was denounced by surviving victims of Japanese military comfort women system both because the governments did not consult them about the agreement and also because the agreement fell vastly short of survivors’ demands, or demands of the U.S. House of Representatives in H.Res.201 (2007), including the full acknowledgement of the Japanese military’s involvement in the trafficking of women, further investigation and prosecution of those involved in the crimes, formal apology through parliamentary resolution or cabinet statement, legal reparation to victims, and the inclusion of comfort women history in history textbooks. Survivors in Taiwan, the Philippines, and other countries also protested the agreement because it offered the disbursement of funds to South Korean survivors only.
In the political turmoil leading up to the impeachment of President Park in 2016, many opposition party leaders and presidential candidates are pledging to nullify the agreement. Meanwhile in Japan, fringe extremist groups such as Global Alliance for Historical Truth and Nadeshiko Action call for the repeal of the agreement, while some establishment conservative groups affiliated with Japan Conference applaud Abe’s successful deal with South Korea.
