“A memoir of South Korea’s previous president Lee Myung-bak reveals Japan and South Korea were about to agree on terms for settling the issue of “comfort women” serving Japanese troops before and during World War II.”
“China’s education minister has vowed to ban university textbooks which promote “Western values”, state media said, in the latest sign of ideological tightening under President Xi Jinping.”
“Speaking in Parliament, Mr. Abe pledged to increase efforts to fight what he called mistaken views abroad concerning Japan’s wartime actions, when the Japanese military conquered much of Asia.”
Conservative/Center-right newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun calls to end “misunderstanding due to ‘comfort women’ in textbooks.” The article closes by making two assertions: first, “doubts have been raised about the conventionally accepted theory that the overwhelming majority of comfort women were Korean,” and there…
Japanese government’s new budget includes a $5 million grant to Columbia University in New York to fund a position for a professor of Japanese politics and foreign policy, position presently occupied by Professor Gerald Curtis who is to retire this year.
Op-Ed by Chris Devonshire-Ellis: “All in all, last year was a mixed bag when it came to assessing China’s relations with the rest of Asia, including in its own backyard of Hong Kong. What can be expected in 2015?”
“Japan recently published a Korean language translation of the 2014 defense White Paper referring to Dokdo (Takeshima in Japanese) as belonging to Japan, the South Korean government discovered.”
“The comfort women issue is a negative legacy of Japanese history. This makes it even more important to provide students with accurate knowledge about the issue so that similar tragedies never happen again.”
On Monday, Nov. 24, South Korea conducted its annual or biannual defensive military drill around the Dokdo/Takeshima islets, triggering diplomatic protests from Japan. Click here for Korea Times article announcing the drill: “Joint Drill Planned Near Dokdo” Click here for…
“A 17-year-old Korean girl tortured to death for opposing Japanese colonial rulers nearly a century ago has become the latest touchstone of the nationalism that is shadowing Asia’s economic rise… Textbooks have become part of the front line in East Asia’s…
Analysis of current “recrudescence of self-righteous nationalism under PM Abe Shinzo,” by Jeff Kingston (Director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan) and other scholars.
Ideas and Insights from Explorer Joseph Hincks: “Peace Boat was founded in 1983 as a civil society response to government censorship of Japan’s past military aggression in the Asia Pacific. Disenchanted with the education he and other students were receiving…
In response to two petitions, one urging and the other opposing U.S. pronouncement over option of taking island dispute between South Korea and Japan to the ICJ, the White House “reiterated that it does not take a position regarding the dispute” (Kyodo)
Analysis of diplomatic language contained in document released Nov. 7. The document was intended to “smooth the way” for an ice-breaking meeting that took place Nov. 10 between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (By Hayashi Nozomu.)
Exhibition on Taiwanese “comfort women” opening in Taipei, in conjunction with International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
Article by Wakamiya Yoshibumi, former chief editor of the Asahi Shimbun: tri-national debate exercise within context of “Campus Asia” program at Dongseo University, Busan, fosters understanding of counterpart perspectives over key international relations issues between China, Korea and Japan.
Editorial from Taiwan-based branch of China Times: “Japan’s attempts to downplay or even deny its atrocities during World War II is the biggest obstacle in China-Japan relations. In this regard, the responsibility of improving bilateral ties between the two countries…
Article from Kyodo News International: Japanese Foreign Ministry asks New York-based publisher McGraw-Hill Companies to change description of wartime comfort women in one of their world history textbooks
Article on prospect of trilateral foreign ministerial summit: “Japanese and South Korean leaders have proposed holding a trilateral summit with their Chinese counterpart for the first time since 2012, their deputies said…”
Article from People’s Daily, November 13, 2014: China adopts middle school textbooks devoted on Nanjing Massacre one month ahead of national day of remembrance
Article from Japan Times, November 11, 2014: “Japan maintains there is no territorial row over Senkakus”
Article from the New York Times, October 12, 2014: By Michael Fitzpatrick TOKYO — Japan’s simultaneous embrace of nationalism and cosmopolitanism is generating ambiguous signals from its education policy makers. They are rewriting textbooks along what they call “patriotic” lines, alienating…
Article from Asahi Shimbun, October 02, 2014 : Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated he has no plans to issue a new statement to replace a landmark 1993 apology to former “comfort women” forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese soldiers. “I am…
This article in the Japan Daily Press looks how textbooks will likely change to reflect the Japanese government’s position on territorial disputes.