Published on August 7, 2019.
This is a republication of chapters originally posted on November 22, 2018, and January 7, 2019.
Introducing a column by Sankei Shimbun journalist Abiru Rui, the article criticizes former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s remarks in South Korea concerning the comfort women issue, the wartime laborer issue, the Japan-South Korea agreement, Takeshima, and the Senkaku Islands.
It discusses South Korea’s dissolution of the comfort women foundation, the wartime laborer court ruling, the deterioration of Japan-South Korea relations, and Article 81 of Japan’s Penal Code, “inducing foreign aggression,” while arguing that the words and actions of a former prime minister pose a danger to Japan’s diplomacy and national security.

August 7, 2019.
In the Penal Code, there is a grave crime that has never once been applied until now.
It is “inducing foreign aggression,” Article 81, and it prescribes no punishment other than the ultimate penalty.
The text is as follows.
“A person who conspires with a foreign state and causes it to use armed force against Japan shall be punished by death.”
Regarding the Senkaku Islands, in Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, where the Japanese government takes the position that no territorial issue exists, he also flattered Chinese dignitaries by calling them a “disputed area.”
This is a chapter posted on January 7, 2019, under that title,
and also a chapter posted on November 22, 2018, under the title, “Those who first learned what Yukio Hatoyama is doing in South Korea must have felt not only astonishment but heartfelt anger.”
Those who read Sankei Shimbun journalist Abiru Rui’s serial column today and first learned what Yukio Hatoyama is doing in South Korea must have felt not only astonishment but heartfelt anger.
This Yukio Hatoyama, too, is a graduate of the University of Tokyo.
It is probably the clearest proof that one must not think that merely because someone entered and graduated from the University of Tokyo, he possesses sound judgment.
Former Prime Minister Hatoyama, pushing South Korea from behind.
Should one say that this was just as expected?
On the 21st, the South Korean government announced the dissolution of the foundation established based on the Japan-South Korea agreement over the comfort women issue.
There is no longer any need to deal with a country that cannot keep international agreements or promises, and in truth I do not even want to mention it.
However, it is shameful that behind South Korea’s becoming this arrogant and behaving so selfishly, there are Japanese people who push South Korea from behind and incite it.
The representative example is former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who is called a “conscientious politician” in South Korea.
“Renegotiate” the Japan-South Korea agreement.
“The biggest problem is that the South Korean side should not have made an agreement two years ago saying that the issue was ‘finally and irreversibly resolved.’
Why did the South Korean government accept an agreement that meant, ‘We apologized, so we will never apologize again’?
Is it not only natural that the South Korean people are angry?”
These are words Mr. Hatoyama wrote on his own Twitter in January of this year.
He is finding fault with the settlement by the Japan-South Korea agreement and stirring up the South Korean side.
And this from a person 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 argued that the Japan-South Korea agreement “should be renegotiated,” and also stated the following.
“The expression ‘irreversible’ gave the South Korean people an image of being overbearing and hurt the feelings of the South Korean people.”
Also, on the 16th of this month, at a symposium held in Gyeonggi-do, South Korea, on themes including the wartime laborer issue, he said the following concerning the South Korean Supreme Court ruling ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation.
“Japanese companies and the government must take this seriously.”
If he keeps saying only such things that sound like pandering, he will surely be pleased and pampered in South Korea.
He himself may feel good because he can play the role of a “good person,” but is it not people like Mr. Hatoyama who have complicated and worsened Japan-South Korea relations?
Even though his view is completely different from that of the Japanese government, what will happen if the South Korean side misunderstands the actual state of Japan by saying, “A former Prime Minister of Japan also says this,” and continues to repeat unreasonable and arbitrary claims as it does now?
Naturally, Japan will have no choice but to strengthen its criticism of South Korea and ignore what South Korea says, but that will again invite反発 from the South Korean side, and the rift between the two countries will widen further and further.
What would happen if, in a fit of逆ギレ, the South Korean side were to cause an incident such as firing on Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels or Japanese fishing boats around Takeshima, in Okinoshima Town, Shimane Prefecture?
All readers should be surprised that this proves Abiru Rui is one of the world’s leading postwar journalists, succeeding Takayama Masayuki.
Moreover, Mr. Abiru originally comes from a family that became the core of the sakimori, those who defended Japan from foreign enemies.
That is because the radar irradiation incident against a Self-Defense Forces aircraft is precisely the realization of Mr. Abiru’s concern.
Japan-South Korea relations are not merely cooling.
Ever since his time as Prime Minister, I had felt in Mr. Hatoyama something dangerous, like a trickster who destroys the world order.
It is precisely Mr. Hatoyama’s words and actions, which at first glance may appear to be “good intentions,” that create serious tension between Japan and South Korea.
Takeshima is “not territory.”
Incidentally, in the Penal Code there is a grave crime that has never once been applied until now.
It is “inducing foreign aggression,” Article 81, and it prescribes no punishment other than the ultimate penalty.
The text is as follows.
“A person who conspires with a foreign state and causes it to use armed force against Japan shall be punished by death.”
Of course, I am not saying that Mr. Hatoyama’s present words and actions fall under this provision, but can one really declare that they never could in the future?
Since it is already beginning to become reality, we should realize that, in order to correct people like Hatoyama as well, Article 81, “inducing foreign aggression,” should be applied to Hatoyama and he should be sentenced to death.
At that moment, Japan-South Korea relations should instantly settle down.
Or rather, unless Japan properly shows an attitude of correcting things, the time has long since come for us to realize that we cannot correct a country of bottomless evil and plausible lies.
Did not our predecessors state the truth simply?
A fool cannot be cured unless he dies.
In other words, a fool can be cured only by death.
Only when death is thrust before him does he learn the truth; that is what a fool is.
Unless Article 81, “inducing foreign aggression,” is applied to people like Hatoyama, neither Japan-South Korea nor Japan-China relations can build normal relations.
Mr. Hatoyama has also asserted regarding Takeshima that “it is clear that it cannot be called Japan’s inherent territory,” and regarding the Senkaku Islands, in Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, where the Japanese government takes the position that no territorial issue exists, he also flattered Chinese dignitaries by calling them a “disputed area.”
The South Korean government’s methods are childish and emotional, but I feel that the Japanese politicians who support them are more frightening.
(Editorial writer and political department editorial committee member)