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

CPAC Japan

CPAC Japan is the Japanese affiliate of Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one of the largest conferences of American conservatives held annually by American Conservative Union (ACU). Jikido Aeba, formerly the head of Happiness Realization Party, launched Japanese Conservative Union (JCU) and put on the first J-CPAC in partnership with the ACU in 2017, which was renamed CPAC Japan since 2020.

In 2019, Andy Chan Ho-tin of the Hong Kong National Party, the group being outlawed by the Chinese government for its advocacy of independence of Hong Kong, was arrested at the airport as he was about to travel to Japan to speak at J-CPAC 2019.

Speakers for the inaugural 2017 J-CPAC include:

  • Steve Bannon, former White House Chief Strategist and Breitbart executive
  • Matt Schlapp, President, American Conservative Union
  • Robert Eldridge, retired Marin Corps civilian staff
  • Genki Fujii (藤井厳喜)
  • Kohyu Nishimura (西村幸祐)
  • Masahisa Sato (佐藤正久), LDP member of the House of Councilors
  • Eitaro Ogawa (小川榮太郎), author and commentator
  • Toshio Tamogami (田母神俊雄), Chief of Staff, Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (ret.)
  • Naoki Hyakuta (百田尚樹), author
  • Takashi Arimoto (有元隆志), Sankei Shimbun

Speakers for the 2018 J-CPAC include:

  • Mick Mulvaney, Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget
  • Tomomi Inada (稲田朋美), LDP member of the House of Representatives
  • Akira Amari (甘利明), LDP member of the House of Representatives
  • Shigeharu Aoyama (青山繁晴)
  • Takashi Arimoto (有元隆志)
  • Eitaro Ogawa (小川榮太郎)
  • Genki Fujii (藤井厳喜)
  • Tsutomu Nishioka (西岡力)
  • Matt Schlapp

Speakers for the 2019 J-CPAC include:

  • Takashi Arimoto (有元隆志), Sankei Shimbun
  • Eitaro Ogawa (小川榮太郎)
  • Genki Fujii (藤井厳喜)
  • Sara A. Carter, FOX News contributor
  • Matt Schlapp

Speakers for CPAC Japan 2020 include:

  • U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
  • U.S. Senator Mike Lee
  • Dan Brouillette, U.S. Secretary of Energy
  • K.T. McFarland, U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor
  • Andrew Wheeler, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • Gen Nakatani (中谷元), LDP member of the House of Representatives and former Minister of Defense
  • Takashi Nagao (長尾敬), LDP member of the House of Representatives
  • Matt Schlapp
  • Eitaro Ogawa (小川榮太郎)
  • Hiroaki Aeba (あえば浩明)
  • Shigeharu Aoyama (青山繁晴)

Japan NGO Coalition against Racial Discrimination

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.

Academics’ Alliance for Correcting Groundless Criticisms of Japan

Academics’ Alliance for Correcting Groundless Criticisms of Japan (不当な日本批判を正す学者の会, AACGCJ) is a group of conservative scholars founded in May 2017 to refute criticisms of Japan’s human rights records and historical responsibilities at United Nations and beyond, including U.N. special rapporteur David Kaye’s report on the suppression of freedom of press in Japan as well as various U.N. committees’ finding on the comfort women issue. Academics’ Alliance is a member of Japan NGO Coalition against Racial Discrimination (JNCRD), a fake human rights coalition of far-right groups.

Alliance board member and secretary general Eiji Yamashita (山下英次) frequently accompanies overseas delegations of the Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women.

Officers include:

  • Hidemichi Tanaka (田中英道), president
  • Eiji Yamashita (山下英次), board member and secretary general
  • Takashi Ito (伊藤隆), board member
  • Keiichiro Kobori (小堀桂一郎), board member
  • Kanji Nishio (西尾幹二), board member
  • Toshio Watanabe (渡辺利夫), board member
  • Terumasa Nakanishi (中西輝政), board member

New York Historical Issues Study Group

New York Historical Issues Study Group (ニューヨーク歴史研究会) is a group of Japanese nationalists living in New York area who were inspired by the 2011 visit of retired Japanese Air Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Toshio Tamogami (田母神俊雄), a darling of hard right nationalists. Since then, the Study Group has been holding meetings and events on a regular basis, covering such issues as comfort women, territorial disputes, Imperial Family, national defense, Constitution, etc.

The Study Group has co-sponsored nationalist events with Himawari Japan and Global Alliance for Historical Truth, including Himawari Japan lectures (2016) and Himawari Japan lectures (2017).

The president of the Study Group is Yasuhiro Takasaki (高崎康裕), a New York-based business consultant with an extensive background in real estate and construction industries.

Group that will convey the correct history

Group that will convey the correct history (正しい歴史を伝える会) is a historical revisionist group founded in 2012 by Wako Katsura (桂和子) to hold panel exhibits across Japan that deny Japan’s war atrocities, especially the comfort women system. Co-sponsors for the Group’s panel exhibits and lectures include Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, Nadeshiko Action, as well as chapters of Japan Conference and Zaitokukai.

Website: http://tutaerukai.com/

Shinjitsu no Tane

Shinjitsu no Tane (真実の種) is the shorthand of a historical revisionist organization Shinjitsu no Tane o Sodateru Kai (「真実の種」を育てる会), or the Society to Grow Seeds of Truth. It was launched in September 2017 as a revisionist counterpart to Kibou no Tane (Seeds of Hope) Foundation (希望のタネ基金), which was founded earlier in the year to promote awareness of the comfort women issue among young people in Japan and to build a world without sexual violence.

Shuntaro Echigo (越後俊太郎) of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform serves as the Secretary General of Shinjitsu no Tane. The organization is housed within the Society.

Officers:

Website: http://shinjitsunotane.org/

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.

Party for Japanese Kokoro

Party for Japanese Kokoro (日本のこころを大切にする党) is a ultra-conservative political party representing constituency further to the right of the ruling (and conservative) Liberal Democratic Party. It was formed as the Party for Future Generations in 2014 by former Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara and others as they split from the Japan Restoration Party. The party changed its name to the Party or Japanese Kokoro in 2015.

In December 2013, members of Restoration Party visited California to urge local Japanese Americans to oppose the Comfort Women memorial in Glendale. The delegation consisted of Mio Sugita, Hiromu Nakamaru, and Yuzuru Nishida. Japanese American representatives rejected their historical revisionism.

The party was founded with 22 incumbents in the Parliament, but was decimated over the next two elections to only two members.

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.