JAPAN Forward is an English language news and opinion site operated by Sankei Shimbun through JAPAN Forward Association Inc. (一般社団法人ジャパンフォワード推進機構). It publishes articles translated from Sankei’s Japanese publications, including Sankei Shimbun and Seiron, including many on issues of history and national security.
Japan Forward solicits membership dues from its “supporters” which range from 10,000 yen (about US$100) to 1,000,000 yen (about US$10,000) annually.
Website: http://japan-forward.com/
Hinomaru Gaisen Otome (日之丸街宣女子) is a right-wing nationalist manga/cartoon series by Akiko Tomita (富田安紀子). Episodes are first published in JAPANISM, a bimonthly magazine from Seirindo, and later compiled into comic books.
The first volume published in 2015 follows the main character, a middle school girl, who encounters an anti-Korean demonstration and “discovers” the “truth” that the mainstream media hide about the oppression of Japanese people by the Korean minority. The anti-Korean demonstration Tomita depicts are similar to those organized by Zaitokukai in reality, and many counter-demonstrators who protest them are also said to be based on real anti-fascist activists.
The second volume, published in 2016, explores yet another “hidden truth” of the comfort women issue. The chapter opens with a former classmate of the main character who had moved to Southern California discussing violent hate crimes and bullying that she is experiencing as a result of the construction of a comfort women memorial in Glendale. The storyline is based on the thoroughly debunked false claim of rampant bullying against Japanese children in that city.
The English translation of the second volume was also released as a self-published ebook on Amazon Kindle platform under the title “The Girls trying to bring about National pride 2.” The English version contains a special introduction titled “For Non-Japanese Readers” which declares “Japan’s nearby neighbors, China and Korea, have a habit of taking fiction and calling it history in order to make themselves look better.”
Comfort Women Not “Sex Slaves”: Rectifying the Myriad of Perspectives is a 2015 self-published book by Koichi Mera of the Global Alliance for Historical Truth. The book contains typical comfort women denier arguments that have been debunked decades ago.
Sankei Shimbun (産経新聞) is a daily newspaper in Japan with a distinct conservative and nationalistic slant. In 2015, Sankei had the seventh largest circulation after three major newspapers (Yomiuri, Asahi, and Mainichi) as well as some regional and specialized newspapers. Sankei Shimbun also publishes Seiron (正論), a monthly conservative opinion magazine, and Yukan Fuji (夕刊フジ), an evening daily.
Since April 2014, Sankei Shimbun began publishing a series of columns titled “History Wars” (歴史戦) that are aimed at overturning historical orthodoxy of Japan’s war crimes during the WWII, especially the comfort women system and the Nanking atrocities. Authors for the series include Yoshihisa Komori (古森義久), the newspaper’s Washington D.C. correspondent and a member of the editorial board; Rui Abiru (阿比留瑠比), the politics editor and a member of the editorial board; Takashi Arimoto (有元隆志), the politics editor; Katsushi Nakamura (中村将), the Los Angeles correspondent; and others.
Some of the early columns in the series were compiled and published in October 2014 as the book “History Wars,” which was then translated into English as “History Wars: Japan–False Indictment of the Century” in July 2015. It was one of the two books Parliament member Kuniko Inoguchi sent unsolicited to hundreds of foreign researchers and journalists covering Japan.
Following Akiko Okamoto’s earlier call to arms in the May 2012 issue of Seiron, Sankei views “history war” as a propaganda war waged by China and Korea against Japan at the United Nations and in the United States. Yoshiko Sakurai states in the blurb to the English edition of “History Wars”: “This is a war. Our enemy is China, and the main battle eld is the United States.” Sakurai further states, “The public opinion warfare that China has provoked is definitely a war without using weapons. Japan must make all-out efforts to counter the Chinese offensive.”
In addition to columns written by members of its own editorial team, Sankei Shimbun and Yukan Fuji publishes columns by noted history deniers including Koichi Mera, Tony Marano, Mio Sugita, Yumiko Yamamoto, and others. At least on one occasion, Sankei Shimbun formally sponsored a fundraising event for the Global Alliance for Historical Truth.
In 2017 Sankei Shimbun launched an English language news site Japan Forward, which publishes opinion pieces written by Michael Yon and other comfort women deniers.
JAPANISM (ジャパニズム) is a bimonthly magazine published by Seirindo. Founded by conservative journalist Kohyu Nishimura, JAPANISM prominently features writings of far-right nationalist commentators, many of whom are comfort women deniers.
JAPANISM is home to the right-wing manga (comic series) Hinomaru Gaisen Otome (日之丸街宣女子) by Akiko Tomita (富田安紀子) which glorifies anti-Korean hate groups and propagates a thoroughly debunked claim that the establishment of a comfort women memorial in Glendale, California have led to widespread bullying against Japanese children.
Recent contributors to JAPANISM include Toshiko Hasumi, Shunichi Fujiki, Mio Sugita, Mitsuhiko Fujii, Makoto Sakurai, and others.
“Sex-Slave” Report: The UN’s Global Hoax — Report from Japanese Delegations to the UN in Geneva (国連が世界に広めた「慰安婦＝性奴隷」の嘘 ジュネーブ国連派遣団報告) is a 2016 Japanese language publication that compiles activities of the Alliance for Truth about Comfort Women, which has sent three delegations to various United Nations committees between 2014 and 2016. The book is edited by Nobukatsu Fujioka of the Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform and features over a dozen contributors.
The website of the Society for Dissemination of Historical Fact provides the English translation of the forward and table of contents.
Contributors are:
See also:
“Comfort Women Issue: From Misunderstandings to Solution (慰安婦問題 誤解から解決に向けて)” is the title of a 2016 booklet published in both English and Japanese by Nadeshiko Action authored by Yumiko Yamamoto and Kiyoshi Hosoya and translated (badly) by Kiyoshi Hosoya and Sharon Isac.
The booklet starts with a revisionist overview of Japanese history which claims that “Japan is classless society. We have no history of slavery. We have very little sense of discrimination. We treat people at disadvantage with compassion and warmth, as did the Japanese military during WWII.” It reproduces the same old denier arguments that have been thoroughly debunked decades ago.
Hosoya and Yamamoto have been distributing copies of this booklet at the UN Commission on the Status of Women NGO Parallel Events (2016) and elsewhere.
