2024/03/17

For Asahi, Kono is probably also a convenient politician who is easy to use to convey its own views.
The following is from an essay by Rui Abiru published in Bessatsu Seiron under the title “Asahi and Yohei Kono Are Birds of a Feather.”
As ever, the honeymoon—or rather, the cozy relationship and mutual dependence—between Asahi Shimbun and Yohei Kono, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, continues.
That was my impression after reading the extensive interview with Kono conducted by editorial board member Takashi Kokubun and published in Asahi’s March 5 morning edition.
The theme was “The Stumbling Blocks of Political Reform,” but, as expected, the discussion eventually drifted into Kono’s self-serving boasts.
Praising former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama of the Socialist Party, whom they had backed for the premiership, he said:
“Mr. Murayama was a special person with a sense of mission. It was truly good that we backed him for prime minister at that moment. We were also able to issue the statement marking the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war, which later became the foundation of the government’s understanding of history.”
The statement marking the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war refers to the “Statement by Prime Minister Murayama,” which expressed a heartfelt apology for Japan’s colonial rule and aggression.
While the prime minister from the Socialist Party’s left wing strongly reflected his own ideological outlook in it, the wording was vague about its referents, making it difficult to understand what it actually meant.
In fact, this unclear statement subsequently became a diplomatic card used by China and South Korea, tying the hands of Japanese diplomacy.
However, it was superseded by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s clear message, the “Statement on the Seventieth Anniversary of the End of the War,” and can now be described as having been rendered largely ineffective.
Nevertheless, Kono probably brings up the Murayama Statement because he considers it his own achievement.
In Asahi’s morning edition of July 29, 2009, Kono revealed the following:
“Murayama, Kono, and Takemura [Masayoshi, leader of the New Party Sakigake] joined forces and issued Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama’s statement marking the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the war.”
Murayama and Kono welcomed what they regarded as improvements in Japan’s relations with China and South Korea resulting from this statement, but the reality was entirely different.
China and South Korea began using the statement as a basis for exerting even stronger pressure over historical issues.
An Anachronistic View of Defense
Returning to the interview, Asahi’s Kokubun asks, “Have moderate, dovish politicians disappeared from the Liberal Democratic Party?” Kono responds by referring to Prime Minister Abe.
“Mr. Abe has long been enthusiastic about constitutional revision. Since the beginning of the Heisei era, most LDP prime ministers received no complaints from within the party even if they did not address constitutional issues. There is no doubt that forces favoring constitutional revision have always existed within the party, but when Mr. Abe brings up constitutional revision, it causes a surprising uproar.”
This makes it sound as though Prime Minister Abe’s advocacy of constitutional revision were something alien to the LDP’s history.
He seems to be suggesting that advocates of constitutional revision are a minority within the party, but is that really the case?
Since its founding in 1955, the LDP has upheld the establishment of a constitution of Japan’s own making as the “mission of the party.”
Rather, it is more unusual that a staunch defender of the existing Constitution such as Kono should belong to the LDP and even serve as its president.
Prime Minister Abe is trying to fulfill the party’s mission, while Kono, who has disregarded that purpose, speaks with an air of self-satisfaction.
Asahi, which eagerly relays his words, is also ridiculous and bizarre.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
In the interview, Kono expresses his anachronistic view of defense as follows:
“What concerns me most in the current Diet deliberations is the rapidly increasing defense budget. Japan is coming to possess aircraft-carrier-like vessels that it previously did not possess, in keeping with the constitutional spirit of an exclusively defense-oriented policy. What we have barely managed to hold back for thirty years may become a major problem for the next generation.”
The reality that Japan’s current security environment is more severe than ever is entirely absent from his field of vision.
Kono, who is also a leading figure in the pro-China camp, has been too lenient toward North Korea as well and has overlooked the rapid military buildup of China and North Korea.
What has happened to the situation in the Far East while he has been monitoring only Japan’s defense spending?
One can only conclude that he has no understanding of the situation at all.
Moreover, even South Korea, an ally of the United States, cannot be trusted at all and is now trying to join the side of China and North Korea.
Kono’s logic is that if Japan keeps quiet, the world will be peaceful.
The same is true of the preamble to the Constitution, but Kono may believe in a kind of “geocentric theory” in which the world revolves around Japan.
Asahi Shimbun spreads such immature opinions as though they were words of common sense spoken by a prominent politician.
Kono, meanwhile, is pleased that his views are being spread: that is the arrangement.
Kono and Asahi Shimbun thus maintain close cooperation and a synergistic relationship in which they complement each other.
According to a veteran political