Japan, Inside Out

Japan’s reconciliation with its former adversaries and colonies is not simply about aligning historical memories. The failure of these issues to go away, and in some cases become shriller, suggests that something else is at play. Among the explanations may be a disappointment in Japan’s contemporary behavior. In late May, Japan received some unusual scrutiny for a number of its traditional political judgments and legal practices. These criticisms suggest that Japan appears out of sync with other contemporary, industrialized, democratic countries.

For example, on May 23rd, Amnesty International released its 2007 Annual Report. The section on Japan cites Japan for maintaining the death penalty and secret executions; continuing the daiyo-kangoku system of pre-trial detention that allows police to hold suspects in police cells without charge for up to 23 days, a practice that facilitates the extraction of "confessions" under duress; limiting the number of refugees (only 26 in 2006); introducing amendments to immigration law to fast-track procedures to deport "possible terrorists" that breached international human rights standards; and continuing to deny full reparations and justice to the surviving Comfort Women. Amnesty‘s president implied in her opening remarks that it was strange for these things to exist alongside “calls for changes to Japan's anti-war constitutional provisions.” Amnesty International’s overall message was to call upon “governments to reject the politics of fear and invest in human rights institutions and the rule of law at the national and international level.”

Also on May 23, the UN Committee Against Torture issued its country report on Japan. It recommended that Japan take steps to change its long-criticized practice of using police cells to detain suspects and to overhaul other questionable criminal investigation procedures. The committee presented Japan with detailed prescriptions for each problematic practice and demanded a feedback report within a year on improvements made. On the death penalty, the committee said all executions should be halted immediately and all death sentences should be appealed.

Interestingly, the committee touched on the unresolved issue of Comfort Women. It expressed dissatisfaction with "the inadequate remedies for the victims of sexual violence, including in particular survivors of Japan's military sexual slavery practices during World War II." The survivors of wartime abuses, which predate Japan’s entry into World War II, “experience continuing abuse and retraumatization as a result of the state party’s official denial of the facts, concealment or failure to disclose other facts, failure to prosecute those criminally responsible for acts of torture, and failure to provide adequate rehabilitation to the victims and survivors,” the committee said in its recommendations.

On May 29 The International Whaling Commission (IWC) rejected Japan’s efforts to secure a small commercial catch of minke whales for four of its coastal communities with a history and culture of whaling. Anti-whaling countries regarded this as a breach of the 21-year moratorium on commercial hunting, which it voted to continue. Japan’s efforts toward a compromise were scorned by the anti-whaling countries as dishonest and disingenuous. When Japan then threatened to pull out of the IWC, Australia’s Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull accused Japan Sunday of a "dummy-spit" -- a childish tantrum -- over its failure to lift the ban on commercial whaling. "I think their huge dummy-spit at the end will not reflect well on Tokyo," Turnbull told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. I think the Japanese government really has to sit back and ask itself, looking at the debacle that was Japan's outcome at the whaling conference... 'Can we continue to fly in the face of world opinion on this issue?'.”

And May ended with the publication of a scholarly article in JapanFocus detailing the involvement of Foreign Minister Taro Aso’s family company, Aso Mining, in using Allied prisoners of war for forced labor. The research used archival documents and accounts of survivors of the mine. The Foreign Ministry had previously called these charges “far-fetched.” As of this writing, no comment from the FM or Ministry has been made on the confirmation of the Aso company’s use of slave laborers. The continued refusal to acknowledge the practice or to compensate the victims of brutal forced labor remains one of Japan’s lingering war crimes’ issues.

Japan’s Foreign Minister is a champion of shared values for binding Japan to other democracies and in encouraging emerging democracies. In March, FM Aso declared an “arc of freedom and prosperity” through Europe to Asia that Japan will work to cultivate market economies and democracies that values rule of law and basic human rights. He observed, “Japan, having cast off the peace and tranquility of the Edo era, joined the age of imperialism underway around the globe, finally settling on democracy after having wavered among a number of approaches. The fact that Japan had to go through so much to reach that point is why Japanese are second to no one in how greatly they value democracy.” It will be the “infrastructure of the heart--upon which Japanese diplomacy will advance the Arc of Freedom and Prosperity.”

With the above in mind, the reader should watch carefully an upcoming test for Japan’s commitment to contemporary universal values. In October, Japan is to join the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Court created in 2002, is an independent, permanent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. The ICC is based on a treaty, joined by 104 countries.

Among the first cases that Japan may hear, will be one that is the result of an investigation announced on May 22nd. It is an investigation in the Central African Republic on sexual violence during the country’s civil war (2002-2003): ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo reported “My Office has carefully reviewed information from a range of sources. We believe that grave crimes falling within the jurisdiction of the Court were committed in the Central African Republic.” This is the first time the Prosecutor is opening an investigation in which allegations of sexual crimes far outnumber alleged killings. According to the Prosecutor, “The allegations of sexual crimes are detailed and substantiated. The information we have now suggests that the rape of civilians was committed in numbers that cannot be ignored under international law.” This is the same law that Japan has chosen to ignore in denying the Comfort Women official apologies and compensation.

May 2007 was particularly bruising for the Abe Administration’s efforts to step beyond the history issues lingering from Imperial Japan. This was not caused by the usual litany of accusations or denials of war atrocities. Instead, the month highlighted Japan’s failure to keep pace with contemporary legal norms and responsibilities. It could be argued that none of the international reprimands Tokyo experienced would have been necessary if greater efforts had been made to confront issues of historical reconciliation and benefited from the values necessary to achieve this transformation.