Not a few people overseas have pointed out that the so-called historical issues related to Japan are badly perceived based on misunderstandings influenced by information manipulation.
If this situation continues, the honor of the Japanese nation will be severely damaged.
And, some have expressed their concern and requested us to focus on the Japan's international public relations system for historical awareness.
In response to this request, I would like to tentatively share the proposals by the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, as follows.
An anti-Japanese campaign with no basis in fact is still spreading in the international community.
In South Korea, in addition to a series of rulings violating international law ordering compensation for wartime workers and comfort women, the Moon Jae-in administration has used sophistry, such as judicial independence, to avoid resolving the issue domestically, and Japan-South Korea relations have reached the worst level.
China also continued its anti-Japan campaign, and in 2015, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) registered the "Nanjing Massacre Document" applied for by the Chinese government in the Memory of the World.
In January 2016, the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals made a proposal to "build an international public relations system for historical awareness".
It was inadequately but to some extent realized.
The registration of the comfort women issue in the UNESCO Memory of the World, which was planned by anti-Japanese forces in Japan, South Korea, China and others, has been blocked to date through counter-applications by volunteer groups and diplomatic efforts.
In 2019, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs began a full-scale, factual rebuttal of the lies that have disparaged the country of Japan, such as being moved forcibly, sexual slavery, and 200,000 victims, in a diplomatic blue paper and on its website.
Regarding Korean wartime labor, the government began using the term "workers from the former Korean peninsula" instead of "conscripted workers," and the Cabinet decided that the terms "being moved forcibly" and "forced labor" were not appropriate.
However, the government has not refuted the false campaign of slave labor that the South Korean public and private sectors and the anti-Japanese forces in Japan are working together to develop.
In addition, there is still no refutation of the historical perceptions regarding China.
In the case of the Nanjing Incident, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs only states on its website that "it cannot be denied that there were killings and looting of non-combatants," and does not refute China by stressing that "there was no genocide as claimed by China."
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