Institute of Moralogy

The Institute of Moralogy (モラロジー研究所) is a quasi-religious conservative think tank that “advances studies of ethics and morals and promotes social education” based on its belief in “supreme morality,” according to its website. In April 2021, the organization formally changed its name to the Moralogy Foundation (モラロジー道徳教育財団).

As one of the core organizations comprising the nationalist Japan Conference, the Institute and its Reitaku University employ a number of conservative commentators and collaborates with organizations that deny history of Japanese military atrocities and publish revisionist history textbooks.

Historical Awareness Research Committee is housed within the Historical Research Laboratory within the Institute of Moralogy.

Affiliated individuals include:

Faculty of Reitaku University include:

Reitaku University also houses “Japanese Civilization” Research Forum, whose board members include Jason Morgan and J. Mark Ramseyer.

Website: http://eng.moralogy.jp/

International Career Support Association

International Career Support Association (国際キャリア支援協会) is a non-governmental organization registered in Nara, Japan. It has the special consultative status with the United Nations and uses it to provide a platform for far-right Japanese nationalists and comfort women deniers at various United Nations meetings through Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women.

ICSA was founded by Masanori Kaneko (金子正則), who ran for the Nara Prefectural Council from the Party for New Generations, which is now known as the Party for Japanese Kokoro. He lost the election after receiving less than three hundred votes.

International Research Institute of Controversial Histories

International Research Institute of Controversial Histories (国際歴史論戦研究所, iRICH) is a pseudo-academic association of conservative Japanese scholars dedicated to the glorification of Japanese imperial history, including the denial of the history of “comfort women.” Its members mostly overlap with those of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform (JSHTR) and the Alliance for Truth About Comfort Women (ATACW).

In April 2021, iRICH hosted a symposium in defense of the “comfort women” denial paper written by Harvard Law professor J. Mark Ramseyer which was streamed live on JSHTR’s YouTube channel. Speakers included Yumiko Yamamoto, Tsutomu Nishioka, Nobukatsu Fujioka, Shiro Takahashi, among others, as well as Mark Ramseyer by pre-recorded video.

Leadership of the iRICH according to its website include:

Chairman:
Seishiro Sugihara (杉原誠四郎), JSHTR

Vice Chairperson:
Yumiko Yamamoto (山本優美子), ATACW, Nadeshiko Action

Dean:
Eiji Yamashita (山下英次), ATACW, Academics’ Alliance for Correcting Groundless Criticisms of Japan

Senior Research Fellows:
Nobukatsu Fujioka (藤岡信勝), JSHTR, ATACW
Hiromichi Moteki (茂木弘道), JSHTR, ATACW
Shunichi Fujiki (藤木俊一), ATACW, Texas Daddy Japan Secretariat
Kunitoshi Matsuki (松木國俊), JSHTR, ATACW, Japan National History Society
Tomoko Hifumi (一二三朋子)
Yoshiaki Yano (矢野義昭)

Director:
Toshiaki Okano (岡野俊昭), JSHTR, ATACW

Research Fellows:
Jun Juno (久野潤)
Haruka Ikeda (池田悠)

Research Fellow and Deputy Secretary General:
Takahiro Nonoda (野々田峰寛), ATACW

Guest Fellows:
Hidemichi Tanaka (田中英道), Japan National History Society
Shiro Takahashi (高橋史朗), Historical Awareness Research Committee
Genki Fujii (藤井厳喜),

Inspector: Osamu Arakida (荒木田修), JSHTR

Counselor:
Takashi Ito (伊藤隆), Japan Institute for National Fundamentals
Keiichiro Kobori (小堀桂一郎), Japan National History Society
Toshio Watanabe (渡辺利夫)

Secretary General:
Shuntaro Echigo (越後俊太郎), JSHTR

Website: iRICH

IWG Report (2007)

Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group Report (IWG Report), published in September 2007, is the final product of the Interagency Working Group within the U.S. government established by the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998 and expanded by Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act of 2001. The IWG reviewed and declassified 8.5 million pages of formerly classified documents from various branches of the government, about 140,000 pages of which related to the Pacific Theatre (i.e. documents about the War with Japan).

Comfort women denier Michael Yon is credited with calling attention to the report, which found little new documentary evidence on Japanese military comfort women system. A notable exception, which Yon fails to mention, is a report by a U.S. informant who “attested to the establishment by the Japanese army of occupation in Malaysia of ‘licensed public comfort houses,’ a practice which did not prevent abuse and rape of Malaysian women.”

That said, the IWG acknowledges that “while the ‘comfort women’ issue is of great current importance, the U.S. government did not systematically collect or create records related to the topic during or after the war. As a consequence, there are very few documents pertaining to the topic in the archives.” The IWG also points out that a large portion of documents pertaining to the Pacific Theatre had already been declassified decades ago, some of which document the Japanese military comfort women system, and were not under the purview of the IWG.

While Yon and other comfort women deniers argue that the IWG’s failure to identify new incriminating evidences “proves” that there was no wrongdoings on the part of Japanese military, the U.S. Congressional Research Service published its own report in April 2007 that cite previously available documents in support of the H.Res.121 calling on Japan to take responsibility for the treatment of comfort women during the WWII. In addition, staff at the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) do not question that Japanese military comfort women system was a form of sexual slavery, as evidenced by the phrase “the Japanese military used sex slaves, or ‘comfort women,’ during World War II.”

Link: Final Report of the IWG
Link: Researching Japanese War Crimes: Introductory Essays