Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2014 February 19 - 25 [HISTORY]

JCP Kira urges NHK chair to resign

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Councilors Kira Yoshiko demanded on February 19 that NHK President Momii Katsuto, who made remarks justifying the Imperial Japanese Army’s sex slavery (“comfort women”) system during World War II, resign from his post.

In his first press conference in late January after assuming the presidency of the public broadcaster, Momii said that the practice of Japan’s wartime comfort women system was “common practice for any country at war”. He went on to say, “When the government says something should be ‘right’, NHK cannot say it should be ‘left’.” These remarks drew fierce criticism from both inside and outside the nation, and the chair later retracted his remarks.

That day, the Upper House held a General Affairs Committee meeting summoning Momii as an unsworn witness. At the meeting, Kira took up a series of contentious remarks made by Momii and some NHK governors.

Kira questioned Momii if he realizes that what he said violates the Broadcast Act, which stipulates the neutrality of broadcasting. The NHK chair persisted in his refusal to admit that his remarks were against the act, saying, “I took back my comments because they are my personal view.”

Kira pointed out that the Broadcast Law was enacted after the war based on reflection on the fact that during the prewar and wartime period the government-controlled predecessor of NHK worked as a tool to mobilize the public for Japan’s war of aggression. She urged Momii to resign from his position as president immediately, saying, “Independence from the government is essential as the public broadcaster. A person like you who disregards the basic spirit of public broadcasting is not fit to act as NHK chair.”

The JCP legislator also referred to the fact that NHK governor Hasegawa Michiko praised an extreme rightist who had been involved in acts of terrorism, and that author Hyakuta Naoki, another NHK governor, insisted that the 1937 Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese military was “made up”. Kira argued that the NHK Board of Governors should remove the two from their posts because they lack the qualifications required to make fair and impartial decisions.


Past related article:
> Public anger growing at NHK president’s remarks [January 28, 2014]