Historical Awareness Research Committee (歴史認識問題研究会) is a group consisting of far-right nationalists in Japan. It was first announced by Shiro Takahashi in his column on Sankei Shimbun newspaper on August 31st, 2016 and formally founded on October 1st, 2016. HARC aims to collect “evidences” that support its nationalist views, including comfort women and Nanking atrocities denial, and publish them in foreign languages to influence the international community.

At the time of founding, HARC distributes materials produced and previously distributed by Society for Dissemination of Historical Fact and Japan Policy Institute. Its office is housed at the Institute of Moralogy (モラロジー研究所), a semi-religious entity affiliated with Japan Conference.

Board members of HARC are:

• Shiro Takahashi – President
• Tsutomu Nishioka – Vice President and Secretary General
• Kanji Katsuoka (勝岡寛次) – Secretary
• Tetsuhide Yamaoka, Australia-Japan Community Network – Secretary
• Youichi Shimada (島田洋一), Japan Education Rebirth Institute – Auditor
• Takashi Ito (伊藤隆), Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform
• Yoshiko Sakurai, Japan Institute for National Fundamentals
• Hidemichi Tanaka (田中英道), Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform / Japan Education Rebirth Institute
• Toshio Watanabe (渡辺利夫)

Website: http://harc.tokyo/

Hideaki Kase (加瀬英明) is a foreign affairs commentator and the director of Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women, a revisionist group. He also leads Society for Dissemination of Historical Fact and is a leader of Japan Conference. Kase was interviewed in a 2007 documentary film about Iris Chang, the author of “The Rape o Nanking,” in which he argued that Nanking massacre did not take place.

Kase is said to be the author of “Minikui Kankoku-jin (Ugly Koreans),” which was published under the name of a fictitious Korean journalist. The book glorified the Japanese colonial rule of Korean peninsula, criticizing Korean people for their faulty remembrance of history. Some of his books are published by the Happy Science.