Japan Press Weekly

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2014 March 26 - April 1 [POLITICS]

Ishihara: I want China as communist to collapse

Outspoken far-right Ishihara Shintaro, in front of foreign journalists, again used derogatory terms in regard to China and said, “I want China, the communist regime, to come to an end.”

Ishihara, co-leader of the rightwing Japan Restoration Party and former Tokyo Governor, on March 26 gave a talk at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo and expanded on his own theory denying the legitimacy of the Tokyo Tribunal of War Criminals.

The aging politician justified Japan’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula by saying, “Japan had no choice but to take action for the sake of its self-defense.”

In response to a question as to why Japan is turning to nationalism and historical revisionism to justify the new defense policy, he answered, “I don’t believe that Japan promotes revisionism but just wants people to have a correct understanding of history,” adding, “People who are patriotic and are great politicians are all nationalists.”

Regarding hate speech directed against Korean residents, he said, “It is understandable that Korean people feel resentment about the past colonial control by Japan, but holding ever to this past is not beneficial to either country,” defending the acts of racial discrimination.