Drawing on a serialized discussion between Shintaro Ishihara and Shizuka Kamei published in the monthly magazine WiLL, this chapter examines North Korea’s abductions of Japanese citizens, the Senkaku Islands, Takeshima, the Japan Coast Guard, and the inaction and conflict-avoidance diplomacy of Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Following the death of Shigeru Yokota, it questions the responsibility of the government and the Foreign Ministry for failing to secure further progress in rescuing abductees, and calls for politics capable of defending Japan’s territory, its people’s lives, and its national sovereignty.

July 20, 2020
The media and the Socialist Party, which initially defended North Korea and denied that the abductions had taken place, are beyond the pale, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also bears a heavy responsibility for having done nothing despite being part of the government.
The following is taken from a serialized discussion between Shintaro Ishihara and Shizuka Kamei published in the monthly magazine WiLL under the title “The Spineless Foreign Ministry Is an Obstruction.”
Kamei:
Let us establish an organization involving members of the Diet to exercise effective control over the Senkaku Islands.
Ishihara:
That sounds interesting.
Let us stir up a society left dispirited by the coronavirus restrictions.
The Foreign Ministry’s Inaction
Ishihara:
Shigeru Yokota has died.
I cannot help feeling deeply sorry for him.
Kamei:
In 1977, his daughter Megumi Yokota, who was thirteen years old at the time, was abducted by North Korea.
Forty-three years have passed since then.
We cannot possibly know how much anguish Mr. Yokota endured during those years, but all we can say is, “You have carried your burden for so long.”
Ishihara:
In recent years his health had deteriorated, and we often saw his wife, Sakie, holding the microphone at lectures and street speeches.
He died far too soon.
No—the government’s response was far too slow.
The media and the Socialist Party, which initially defended North Korea and denied that the abductions had taken place, are beyond the pale, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also bears a heavy responsibility for having done nothing despite being part of the government.
Kamei:
Resolving the abduction issue should take precedence over everything else.
Nevertheless, there has been no progress since five abductees returned to Japan under the administration of Junichiro Koizumi.
Ishihara:
Why did they limit the number of returnees to five?
At the time, the person conducting negotiations behind the scenes was Hitoshi Tanaka, director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, but his words and actions often appeared sympathetic toward North Korea.
Whenever Koizumi attempted to strengthen economic sanctions, Tanaka reportedly intervened to stop him for some reason.
Kamei:
Tanaka was even trying to send the five people we had finally recovered back to North Korea.
Fortunately, Shinzo, who was then deputy chief cabinet secretary, prevented it.
Ishihara:
There was also an occasion when an enraged right-wing activist placed an explosive device in Tanaka’s home garage.
Kamei:
Tanaka, who had been closely negotiating with North Korea’s “Mr. X,” has never disclosed the full picture of those negotiations.
Does the present Foreign Ministry still have any channel of communication with the North?
Ishihara:
Who knows?
The leadership changed from Kim Jong-il to Kim Jong-un, and it is possible that everyone involved was purged.
Kamei:
In that case, could we not simply use force to recover the abductees?
Ishihara:
There is no politician or bureaucrat with that kind of resolve.
Were it not for Article 9 of the Constitution, we could at least threaten them by saying, “Return them, or there will be war.”
The Price of Improvised Diplomacy
Kamei:
In early May, Chinese Coast Guard vessels came to the waters around the Senkaku Islands, repeatedly entered Japan’s territorial waters, and pursued a Japanese fishing boat for three days.
A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Ministry declared that “the Japanese fishing boat was operating illegally in Chinese waters.”
Japan is being treated with complete contempt.
Ishihara:
While enjoying diving on Ishigaki Island, I travelled farther out and visited the Senkaku Islands several times.
Large migratory fish arrive with the ocean currents, and many of the resident fish are also large.
The Senkaku Islands are excellent fishing grounds.
Kamei:
The fishermen must have been terrified to be chased by Chinese vessels equipped with machine guns.
The Japan Coast Guard should have video footage of what happened.
Shinzo should take the bold step of releasing it.
Ishihara:
The conflict-averse Foreign Ministry would probably object.
Kamei:
If the government continues showing deference to China, it will be no different from the former Democratic Party administration.
Whether the issue is the abductions or Japan’s territory, the bill for years of improvised diplomacy has now come due.
Those who suffer are the abductees’ families, the fishermen at sea, and the Coast Guard personnel on the front line.
When you were governor of Tokyo, you collected donations to purchase the Senkaku Islands.
But the national government intervened and decided to purchase them itself.
What has happened to the donations that were left in limbo?
Ishihara:
The 1.8 billion yen remains untouched.
Through an ordinance, we designated it as “funds for initiatives concerning the use of the Senkaku Islands by the national government,” ensuring that it could not be used for anything other than the Senkaku Islands.
Even now, my heart grows warm when I remember some of the letters enclosed with the donations.
One letter from a poor family in the Tohoku region said, “We are a very poor family of three, but each of us has donated 10,000 yen in the hope that it may be of service to our country.”
Kamei:
I would like to make politicians and bureaucrats read that aloud.
Reasons That Are No Reasons at All
Ishihara:
I was the first person to have a lighthouse built on the Senkaku Islands.
With the cooperation of the Seirankai group and businesspeople, I asked students from an adventure club at a university in the Kansai region to land on the islands.
They constructed a crude object resembling a lighthouse by attaching an umbrella and an exposed light bulb to a pole and connecting it to a battery.
I wanted, even through such a modest method, to make the surrounding world aware that the Senkaku Islands were Japanese territory.
Because of the island’s dangerous terrain, the work took time, and food supplies began to run short.
To support the students, we even flew an aircraft over the island and dropped sacks of rice from the sky.
On the night the work was completed and the bulb at the top of the pole was illuminated, strong winds struck the island.
A fisherman had apparently been sheltering from the wind behind the island, relying upon the light.
The following morning, he waved to the students and shouted, “The lighthouse saved me.”
The students later reported happily, “We had never experienced anything so moving.
It made us think again about the meaning of the nation and the people.”
Kamei:
Their hardships were worthwhile, then.
Ishihara:
Later, a political organization sharing the same aspirations, the Japan Youth Federation, came forward and built a full-scale lighthouse on the Senkaku Islands.
The Eleventh Regional Coast Guard Headquarters in Okinawa was initially reluctant, but gradually came to recognize the danger and supported them both openly and behind the scenes.
When I heard that the lighthouse had been completed, I contacted the Ministry of Transport and said, “Please identify any deficiencies that prevent it from qualifying as an official lighthouse.
Once those deficiencies have been corrected, please begin the procedure for registering it as an official lighthouse on nautical charts.”
Following proposals from the Hydrographic Department, the Japan Youth Federation made further improvements, and the lighthouse was eventually approved as an official facility.
However, an unexpected obstruction arose.
The Foreign Ministry opposed its inclusion on nautical charts.
When I asked why, the answer was, “The timing is premature.”
There Is No Need to Accommodate Kasumigaseki
Kamei:
That makes no sense.
It was simply a matter of placing a lighthouse that already existed on a map.
Ishihara:
They were worried about offending China.
There was no other reason.
Kamei:
The Ministry of Transport was pathetic as well.
It should simply have ignored what the Foreign Ministry said.
Ishihara:
As a former bureaucrat, Kame-chan, you will know that government ministries have an unspoken hierarchy.
The lower-ranking Ministry of Transport could not defy the higher-ranking Foreign Ministry.
At that time, the Foreign Ministry possessed enough power to move the entire government.
Kamei:
The public has no obligation to accommodate Kasumigaseki’s absurd power struggles.
Ishihara:
If the lighthouse was not shown on nautical charts, it posed an extreme danger to vessels sailing nearby in bad weather.
As a yachtsman who has participated in races at night, I understand that in my bones.
But for Foreign Ministry officials, avoiding diplomatic friction was apparently more important than protecting the lives of Japanese citizens.
Kamei:
Those people act as though they could not care less about the lives of the public.
Ishihara:
In 2003, my son Nobuteru became minister of land, infrastructure and transport.
As his father, I spoke to him forcefully and asked him to have the lighthouse formally approved.
Nobuteru also rose to the task, and the lighthouse was finally placed on nautical charts.
It is said that a metal plate bearing the words “The State of Japan constructed this” is now attached to the lighthouse.
However, it is no good placing the lighthouse in a location hidden behind rocks and difficult to see.
It must be built on the summit, where everyone can see it.
Kamei:
The Sea of Japan has not become, in the literal sense, “Japan’s sea.”
China, South Korea and North Korea behave as though they own it.
Takeshima is under South Korea’s effective control, but Japan should deploy the Self-Defense Forces and remove those who are illegally occupying it.
Ishihara:
Takeshima has been fortified, so you would have to be prepared for war.
Kamei:
So be it.
What is wrong with fighting to defend one’s territory?
“The Prime Minister’s Office View” Exploited by Bureaucrats
Ishihara:
When I was minister of transport, the commandant of the Japan Coast Guard came to me and said, “We will conduct our customary annual inspection of Takeshima.”
When I asked what they actually did, he replied, “We merely look at it.
When we approach to a certain distance, a warning cannon is fired.
If we move closer, another round lands nearby.
At that point, we turn back.”
As the responsible minister, I had a duty to understand accurately the actual condition of our territory and inform the public.
I said, “Let me come aboard as well,” and arrangements were made for me to join the voyage.
Then, suddenly, an extraordinary Cabinet meeting was scheduled, preventing me from going.
Someone must have arranged it to stop me from approaching Takeshima.
Kamei:
I would have liked you to board the vessel even if it meant being sunk.
Ishihara:
There are countless episodes demonstrating the cowardice of the Foreign Ministry.
On another occasion, again when I was minister of transport, I received an astonishing report from the director of rescue operations at the Japan Coast Guard.
A patrol vessel in the Kanto region had observed enormous columns of water rising off the Boso Peninsula after several shells struck the sea.
Several small Japanese fishing boats were sailing near those columns of water.
It was subsequently discovered that the live rounds had been fired by the USS Towers, an American destroyer that had sailed out of Tokyo Bay.
Finding the proper procedures troublesome, its crew had used the Coast Guard patrol vessel as a target and conducted live-fire exercises.
Naturally, the Coast Guard reported the matter to the Foreign Ministry so that it could protest the lawless conduct of the U.S. military.
However, it was reportedly dismissed with the words, “Such things happen frequently in Okinawa.
There is no need to make an issue of every incident.
That is the view of the Prime Minister’s Office.”
Kamei:
So the director of rescue operations came to you for help.
Ishihara:
Yes.
I immediately told him, “The term ‘Prime Minister’s Office’ in the phrase ‘the wishes of the Prime Minister’s Office’ means either the prime minister or the chief cabinet secretary.
Go back and determine which of them made the statement.
If it was Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita, I will submit my resignation and hold a press conference.
If it was Chief Cabinet Secretary Keizo Obuchi, I will go to the Prime Minister’s Office, denounce Obuchi and demand his dismissal.”
To make certain, I telephoned Obuchi, and he had not been informed of the incident at all.
Foreign Minister Sosuke Uno became furious and reprimanded the minor officials under his authority.
The spineless Foreign Ministry has obstructed politicians over the Senkaku Islands, Takeshima and the abduction issue.
The Origin Lies in “Chushingura”
Kamei:
There are energetic younger lawmakers in organizations formed by like-minded Liberal Democratic Party members, such as the Study Group for Considering Japan’s Future and the Association for Protecting Japan’s Dignity and National Interest.
They have called on the government to reduce the consumption tax and cancel Xi Jinping’s planned state visit to Japan.
They are an interesting group.
Let us involve them and establish an organization to exercise effective control over the Senkaku Islands.
Ishihara:
Interesting.
I had become bored during the coronavirus restrictions.
Let us create a stir in this dull society.
We could use the 1.8 billion yen in donations that has been left unused as operating funds.
Kamei:
We will make you the leader and me the adviser, and gather the Liberal Democratic Party’s “outsiders,” such as Minoru Kiuchi and Katsuei Hirasawa.
Yuichiro Tamaki, leader of the Democratic Party for the People, has a sound understanding of national security, so he would probably support us.
Precisely because Shinzo now dominates politics, a new wind is needed.
You established the Seirankai to overthrow Kakuei Tanaka’s money-driven politics.
Let us establish a second Seirankai.
Ishihara:
The members of the Seirankai had strong personalities.
Kamei:
Ichiro Nakagawa, Michio Watanabe and Koichi Hamada.
From the outside, no one could have regarded them as a collection of ordinary people.
They looked like arsonists, robbers, swindlers, thieves and gangsters.
Ishihara:
Call them a gathering of diverse talents.
The origin of the Seirankai lies in “Chushingura,” which may be described as a drama about fulfilling an unspoken promise.
Their lord, driven beyond endurance in the Matsu-no-Roka corridor of Edo Castle, drew his sword, was immediately confined, unilaterally ordered to commit seppuku, and died filled with indignation.
To avenge his grief, the forty-seven samurai led by Kuranosuke Oishi understood one another heart to heart without exchanging words.
They concealed themselves, changed their names and, after many years, fulfilled the promise of vengeance they had made as men through their spiritual bond with their dead lord.
There are few dramas so exhilarating and deeply moving.
It was not merely a tale of revenge.
To fulfil their unspoken promise to their lord, the men deceived their relatives, misled even their lovers, abandoned their own dreams and carried the promise through to the end.
In the complacent Genroku era, their fulfilment of that promise was like an arrow of sincerity piercing the forehead of the shogunate, and it moved the hearts of the people of the time like a great tsunami.
To be continued.