Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2015 January 21 - 27 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Civic movement helps university fight against blackmailers

A citizens’ movement has encouraged Hokusei Gakuen University (Sapporo City, Hokkaido Prefecture) to fight against threats which tried to intimidate the university into terminating its contract with a part-time teacher.

In September 2014, the university announced that it had received threatening letters urging the university not to renew a part-time lecturer contract with Uemura Takashi, a former Asahi Shimbun journalist who was involved in news reports on the so-called “comfort women” issue. Following this announcement, a civil group was formed to support the university.

Many academics and legal professionals joined the group. A group of lawyers across the country took to the Sapporo District Public Prosecutor’s Office their concern regarding the threatening letters and intimidating phone calls.

Gaining support from the general public, Hokusei Gakuen, which was initially reluctant to renew Uemura’s contract, decided to renew his contract at the end of last year.

Lawyer Saito Ko, an initiator of the civil group, said that it was a great contribution of the group that the university renewed the lecturer’s contract to teach. He also said that citizens’ support for universities is increasingly important to secure academic freedom and university autonomy.

Shinzai Takashi, another initiator, pointed out that the blackmailers may want to deny Japan’s wrongdoing during the past war of aggression, such as denying the existence of the “comfort women” system and the occurrence of the Nanjing Massacre. He said he will counter their distortions of history through his activity to increase public understanding of established historical facts.


Past related article
> Group formed to support blackmailed university regarding ‘comfort women’ Asahi reports [October 1, 2 & 7, 2014]