Keiko Kawasoe

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.

Sugita threatening to bomb U.S.

Kawasoe NYC Talk

Masanori Kaneko

Masanori Kaneko (金子正則) is the founder and president of International Career Support Association, a non-governmental organization with the special consultative status with the United Nations. ICSA partners with the Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women, providing a platform to far-right Japanese nationalists and comfort women deniers at various United Nations meetings.

In addition to being a conservative ideologue, Kaneko is an alternative medicine advocate. His latest research (as of May 2017) on the miraculous benefits of green sap (“aojiru” in Japanese) was published in a journal considered among “potential, possible, or probable predatory” publications by the so-called Beall’s List. On social media, Kaneko posits that aojiru could “eliminate breast cancer at once.”

In 2015 Kaneko 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.

Toshie Marinov

Toshie Marinov (マリノフ利江) is a Japanese woman from Ibaraki living in Toronto, Canada and a comfort women denier. Along with her husband Miroslav Marinov and fellow Toronto Seiron member Sharon Isac, she spearheads Japanese war crime denial in Toronto.

Marinov has been active in Japanese right-wing circles for a long time, with online commentaries dating back to at least 2011 and published articles in right-wing publications in more recent time. In addition, she translated her husband Miroslav’s article to Japanese, and Japanese right-wing activists’ speech at the United Nations to English.

Toronto Seiron

Toronto Seiron (トロント正論の会) is a group made up of Japanese nationalists and comfort women deniers in Toronto, Canada. Leaders include Sharon Isac and Toshie Marinov, both Japanese women married to Canadian citizens.

In August 2016, Toronto Seiron hosted Shiro Takahashi and Shinichi Tokunaga, who also spoke at Himawari Japan Lectures (2016) in New York City, to present about the comfort women issue and “preserving Japanese spirit” while living outside of Japan.

Earlier in the same month, members of Toronto Seiron also infiltrated a memorial tribute to the victims of Hiroshima atomic bomb attack with offensive signs calling for Japan’s re-armament and denying Nanking atrocities.

Hiromi Edwards

Hiromi Edwards (エドワーズ博美) is a translator, language instructor, and a comfort women denier. Edwards is a former member of Shinsei Bukkyo (新生佛教), a conservative religious group affiliated with Japan Conference, serving as its translator as well as a writer for Nippon Jiji Hyouron (日本時事評論) published by Shinsei Bukkyo. Edwards, who is a Japanese woman married to an American, studied at Japanese campuses of American universities and teaches Japanese at the Iwakuni U.S. base in Japan.

Since leaving Shinsei Bukkyo, Edwards has participated in comfort women denial as a member of the first Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women Geneva Delegation (2014), the translator for Yumiko Yamamoto’s press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan, and an attendant for Tony Marano during his visits to Japan.

Jikido Aeba

Jikido “Jay” Aeba (饗庭直道、あえば直道), also known as Hiroaki Aeba (饗庭浩明), is a political activist and comfort women denier. A follower of Happy Science, Aeba was the founding president of Happiness Realization Party, the political wing of the religious organization.

In 2010 Aeba migrated to the U.S. and began cultivating connections with conservative movements in the U.S. He claims to be the only Asian to become an advisor to the Republican National Committee, but media have questioned his actual title. Aeba also claims close ties with President Donald Trump, whom Happy Science openly supported in the 2016 campaign.

In 2015, Aeba resigned from the board of Happy Science and founded Japanese Conservative Union, which he views as a Japanese counterpart to the American Conservative Union, with Shun Eguchi (江口峻), a former editor and board member of the Sankei Shimbun company. JCU holds annual J-CPAC (later renamed to CPAC Japan) conferences.

In Japanese media, Aeba claims to be “the only Asian advisor” to the Republican National Committee, and uses this title prominently in his biography, even though such claim is missing from his English language biographies or at his appearances at American conservative events such as the annual CPAC conference. The 2016 investigation by BuzzFeed revealed that he has never held any official position with the Republican Party. At most, Aeba may have been an unpaid personal advisor to RNC co-chair (which is equivalent to vice chair) Sharon Day, according to BuzzFeed.

Aeba - Happiness Realization Party

Tetsuhide Yamaoka

Tetsuhide Yamaoka (山岡鉄秀), real name Hideyuki Okuda (also goes by “Hardi Odaka”), is the president of Australia-Japan Community Network, even though he actually live in Japan. In addition to leading AJCN’s effort to prevent the establishment of comfort women memorials in Australia, Yamaoka frequently contributes to conservative publications in Japan and speaks to the supporters of revisionists’ lawsuits against Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

In 2017 Yamaoka became a fellow at Historical Awareness Research Committee within the Institute of Moralogy, one of the core organizations comprising Japan Conference. He is also the author of “日本よ、もう謝るな! 歴史問題は事実に踏み込まずには解決しない” (2017) which he translates to “Make Apologies History: Letting the Facts Be Out Guide.”

Yamaoka was forced to resign from AJCN in late 2019 due to violations of internal ethics code. Around the same time, Yamaoka was accused of plagiarizing Ikuko Atsumi, a feminist turned nationalist writer and activist. In August 2020, AJCN announced that it was pressing charge against Yamaoka for embezzlement of its funds when he closed AJCN’s bank account in Japan.

Satoru Mizushima

Satoru Mizushima (水島総) is the founding president/director of right-wing television production company and internet station Channel Sakura and a comfort women denier.

In 2007, he spearheaded a protest letter against the U.S. House of Representatives for adapting H.Res.121 calling on Japan to formally acknowledge responsibility for the military comfort women system during the WWII. He signed on the letter as the director of the Japanese Citizens’ National Movement for the Historic Truth about the Comfort Women Issue (慰安婦問題の歴史的真実を求める日本国民運動の会), along with its affiliated groups.

Mizushima also signed onto an opinion ad by Committee for Historical Facts, Yes, we remember the facts. (2012) which was published in The Star-Ledger (New Jersey) in November 2012.