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.

Tomomi Inada

Tomomi Inada (稲田朋美) is a right-wing member of the parliament and the Minister of Defense under Abe administration (2016-). As a lawyer, Inada represented the families of Japanese soldiers executed as war criminals involved in Nanking atrocities against newspapers that reported the war crime. She was recruited by Shinzo Abe, then the acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, to run for the House of Representatives after Abe heard Inada give a talk on the topic at the headquarters of the party.

Recognized as among the most hard-line nationalists when it comes to the issue of Japan’s past, Inada signed on to both The Facts (2007) and Yes, we remember the facts. (2012), opinion ads published in U.S. media to dispute historical orthodoxy on comfort women. Her appointment to Defense Minister by Abe led to a widespread concern about the further militarization of Japan.

Interestingly, Inada is surprisingly pro-LGBT, having proposed a legislation to combat discrimination against the LGBT community. In 2016, Inada claimed that LGBT groups in San Francisco supported Japanese Consulate’s campaign to prevent the establishment of a comfort women memorial in the city as a reason to support LGBT rights, but there is no evidence that any LGBT group took a position on the issue, let alone an opposition to the memorial. On the contrary, prominent Asian American LGBT leaders endorsed the memorial along with other Asian American community members.

Inada is a member of the parliamentary Japan Conference caucus.