Citing a Sankei Shimbun column by Abiru Rui, this piece criticizes former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama for statements that, it argues, embolden South Korea over issues such as the comfort-women agreement foundation and rulings on wartime labor.
It warns that Hatoyama’s “former PM” status can fuel misunderstandings in Seoul, intensify unilateral claims, and deepen bilateral tensions.
It also references his remarks on Takeshima and the Senkaku Islands, framing seemingly “well-intentioned” rhetoric as potentially damaging to Japan’s national interests.

2019-01-29.
South Korea’s methods are childish and emotional, but I find it more frightening that Japanese politicians are the ones encouraging them.
A chapter I posted on 2018-11-22, titled “Those Who Learn for the First Time What Yukio Hatoyama Has Been Doing in South Korea Will Not Only Be Appalled but Feel Genuine Anger,” is now ranked No. 1 in Ameba’s search-count best list.
Anyone who read Abiru Rui’s serialized column in today’s Sankei Shimbun and learned for the first time what Yukio Hatoyama has been doing in South Korea must have felt not only astonishment but genuine anger.
This Yukio Hatoyama is also a graduate of the University of Tokyo.
This is perhaps the clearest proof imaginable that you must not assume a person has sound judgment simply because they entered and graduated from the University of Tokyo.
Former Prime Minister Hatoyama pushing South Korea from behind.
Just as one might have expected.
On the 21st, the South Korean government announced the dissolution of the foundation established under the Japan–South Korea agreement regarding the comfort women issue.
A country that cannot keep international agreements or promises no longer deserves to be dealt with, and in truth I do not even wish to mention it.
However, it is disgraceful that behind South Korea’s arrogance and self-serving behavior to this extent, there are Japanese people who push them from behind and egg them on.
The representative figure is former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who in South Korea is called a “conscientious politician.”
“Renegotiate” the Japan–South Korea agreement.
“The biggest problem is that two years ago the South Korean side should never have agreed to the phrase ‘finally and irreversibly resolved.’
Why did the South Korean government accept an agreement that carries the meaning, ‘We apologized, so we will never apologize again’?
Is it not natural that the South Korean people would be angry?”
These were the words Hatoyama wrote on his own Twitter in January of this year.
He is quibbling over the settlement achieved by the agreement and inflaming the South Korean side.
And this is coming from a person who, for better or worse, served as Japan’s prime minister.
According to a South Korean newspaper, at Pusan National University—which he visited in October to receive an honorary doctorate in political science—he again insisted the agreement “should be renegotiated,” and added:
“(The expression ‘irreversible’) gave the South Korean people the image of being high-handed, and it hurt the feelings of the South Korean people.”
Also, on the 16th of this month, at a symposium in Gyeonggi Province on issues including wartime labor, he said of the South Korean Supreme Court ruling ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation:
“Japanese companies and the government must take it seriously.”
If he keeps saying nothing but such fawning things, he will of course be welcomed and pampered in South Korea.
He may feel good about being able to play the “good person,” but is it not the case that the very existence of someone like Hatoyama has entangled and worsened Japan–South Korea relations?
Even if what he says is completely different from the Japanese government’s position, what happens when the South Korean side misconstrues Japan’s reality by saying, “Even a former Japanese prime minister says this,” and then repeats unilateral and unreasonable claims as it does now?
Japan will naturally strengthen its criticism and have no choice but to ignore what South Korea says, but that will again provoke backlash from South Korea, and the rift between the two countries will widen more and more.
What if, in a fit of rage, South Korea were to cause an incident such as firing on Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels or Japanese fishing boats around Takeshima (Oki no Shima Town, Shimane Prefecture)?
Japan–South Korea relations would not merely “cool”—it would be far worse than that.
As for Hatoyama, ever since his time as prime minister I have sensed something dangerous about him—a trickster-like quality that destroys the world order.
It is precisely Hatoyama’s words and actions, which at first glance seem like “goodwill,” that generate serious tension between Japan and South Korea.
“Takeshima is not Japanese territory.”
By the way, the Penal Code contains a grave crime that has never once been applied.
That is “Inducing Foreign Aggression” (Article 81), and it prescribes no punishment other than the ultimate penalty.
The provision reads as follows:
“A person who conspires with a foreign state and causes it to exercise armed force against Japan shall be punished by death.”
Of course, I am not saying Hatoyama’s current words and actions fall under this.
But can one truly say it could never be possible in the future?
Hatoyama also claims regarding Takeshima that “it is clear that it cannot be said to be Japan’s inherent territory,” and regarding the Senkaku Islands (Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture)—where the Japanese government’s position is that no territorial dispute exists—he even flattered Chinese dignitaries by calling them “disputed territory.”
South Korea’s methods are childish and emotional, but I find it more frightening that Japanese politicians are the ones encouraging them.
(Editorial writer and Political Desk editor)