Originally published on March 1, 2019, this chapter draws on a column by Sankei Shimbun journalist Abiru Rui and sharply criticizes former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s conduct in South Korea, arguing that his remarks on the comfort women issue and wartime labor rulings have emboldened the South Korean side and further damaged Japan–South Korea relations.
By invoking Article 81 of the Penal Code, the crime of “incitement of foreign aggression,” the piece questions the danger of Japanese politicians aligning themselves with foreign governments at the expense of Japan’s national position, and presents the matter as one the Japanese people must never overlook.

2019-03-01
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.”

The chapter I published on 2018-11-22 under the title, Those Who Learned for the First Time What Yukio Hatoyama Has Been Doing in South Korea Must Feel Not Only Amazement but Anger from the Bottom of Their Hearts, is now running away with first place in Ameba’s Top 50 search rankings, far ahead of everything below second place.
Today, after reading journalist Abiru Rui’s serialized column in the Sankei Shimbun, those who learned for the first time what Yukio Hatoyama has been doing in South Korea must surely have felt not only astonishment, but anger from the bottom of their hearts.
This Yukio Hatoyama, too, is a graduate of the University of Tokyo.
Surely there can be no stronger proof than this that one must never assume that simply because a person entered and graduated from the University of Tokyo, he therefore possesses sound judgment.
Former Prime Minister Hatoyama pushing South Korea from behind.
Was it not exactly as expected.
On the 21st, the South Korean government announced the dissolution of the foundation established on the basis of the Japan–South Korea agreement concerning the comfort women issue.
A country that cannot keep either international agreements or promises no longer deserves to be dealt with, and in truth I would rather not even mention it.
But what is deplorable is that behind South Korea’s increasing arrogance and selfish behavior are Japanese people who push it forward and egg it on.
The leading example is former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who in South Korea is called a “politician of conscience.”
“Renegotiate the Japan–South Korea agreement.”
“The biggest problem is that two years ago the South Korean side should never have made an agreement saying the issue was ‘finally and irreversibly resolved.’
Why did the South Korean government accept an agreement carrying the meaning, ‘We apologized, so we will never apologize again.’
Is it not only natural that the Korean people should be angry?”
These were the words Hatoyama wrote on his own Twitter account this January.
He is finding fault with the settlement reached through the Japan–South Korea agreement and stirring up the South Korean side.
And this from a man who, however imperfectly, once served as Prime Minister of Japan.
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 that the Japan–South Korea agreement “should be renegotiated,” and also said the following.
“(The expression ‘irreversible’) gave the Korean people the impression of being high-handed, and it hurt the feelings of the Korean people.”
Moreover, on the 16th of this month, at a symposium held in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, on themes including the wartime labor issue, he said the following regarding the South Korean Supreme Court ruling ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation.
“Japanese companies and the Japanese government must take it very seriously.”
If one says nothing but such fawning things, one will naturally be welcomed and flattered in South Korea.
He himself may feel good playing the role of a “good man,” but is it not precisely people like Hatoyama who have complicated and worsened Japan–South Korea relations.
No matter how completely different his remarks may be from the position of the Japanese government, what will happen if the South Korean side, saying “Even a former Japanese prime minister says this,” misunderstands the reality of Japan and keeps repeating the kind of unreasonable and arbitrary claims we see today.
Japan will naturally intensify its criticism of South Korea and conclude that it has no choice but to ignore what South Korea says, but that in turn will provoke further backlash from South Korea, and the gulf between the two countries will continue to widen.
What if, in a fit of rage, the South Korean side were to cause an incident such as firing on Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels or Japanese fishing boats near Takeshima, Oki-no-shima Town, Shimane Prefecture.
At that point, it would be far beyond a mere cooling of Japan–South Korea relations.
As for Hatoyama, ever since his time as prime minister, I have sensed in him a dangerous, trickster-like quality capable of destroying the world order.
It is precisely Hatoyama’s words and actions, which at first glance may appear to be “goodwill,” that create grave tension between Japan and South Korea.
“Takeshima is not Japanese territory.”
Incidentally, there is a grave crime in the Penal Code that has never once been applied.
It is “incitement of foreign aggression,” Article 81, and no punishment other than the death penalty is prescribed for it.
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 that Hatoyama’s present conduct falls under this provision, but can one truly say with certainty that such a possibility will never arise in the future.
Hatoyama has also argued regarding Takeshima that “it is clear that it cannot be called Japan’s inherent territory,” and with regard to the Senkaku Islands, Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, over which the Japanese government maintains that no territorial dispute exists, he ingratiated himself with Chinese dignitaries by calling them “disputed territory.”
The methods of the South Korean government are childish and emotional, but I find the Japanese politicians who encourage them even more frightening.
(Editorial Writer and Political Desk Editorial Board Member)