2013 June 5 - 11 TOP3 [
TOKYO]
41 ‘super hawks’ to run in Tokyo metropolitan race
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Akahata on June 8 revealed that 41 candidates loyal to the Japan Conference (Nippon Kaigi), a right-wing organization often referred to as the Yasukuni sect, will run in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election slated for June 23.
Holding membership in the local assemblypersons’ league of the super hawkish Nippon Kaigi, 29 incumbents, four ex-assemblymen, and eight new candidates will run for seats in the election with the endorsement of any of the following parties: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), Japan Restoration Party (JRP), or Your Party.
Three assemblypersons of the Nippon Kaigi during a plenary session last year came under fire for having demanded that the present Constitution be nullified and that the prewar Constitution of the Emperor of Japan be revived.
Three years ago, Noda Kazusa, former LDP assemblyperson who will be running as a JRP candidate this time, praised the 1890 Imperial Rescript on Education presented by the Emperor Meiji to political leaders as “valuable as the heart of the Japanese public”. He denounced an apology expressed in a statement issued by the then DPJ government on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of Japan’s annexation of the Korean Peninsula as “a big mistake”.
One month before that, Nakaya Fumitaka on behalf of the LDP in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly demanded that the national government should not apologize or provide individual compensation in regard to the Japanese military “comfort women” issue.
Founded in 1997, Nippon Kaigi is at the helm of various groups within the Yasukuni sect, claiming that Japan’s past war of aggression was a just war for the liberation of Asia. JRP Co-leader Ishihara Shintaro, former Tokyo governor, is among the Nippon Kaigi executives. The local assemblypersons’ league of the Nippon Kaigi was established in 2005 aiming to enact another constitution along with another basic education law which will look up to the Emperor as the figure uniting the people.