Based on a Sankei Shimbun report dated October 18, 2015, this chapter examines the reality that Japanese experts have been almost entirely excluded from UNESCO’s Memory of the World review structure, and sharply questions both the political use of the system by China and South Korea and the silence of Japanese media such as the Asahi Shimbun.
Focusing on the controversy over the registration of documents related to the so-called Nanjing Massacre, it points to a structure in which Japanese specialists have had almost no role in either the International Advisory Committee or the regional committees, despite Japan’s long-standing financial contributions and support to international institutions.
The passage further argues that fabricated reporting on issues such as Nanjing and the comfort women provided China and South Korea with material for anti-Japan propaganda on the global stage, and notes Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s determination to do everything possible to block any renewed joint application concerning comfort-women materials.
It is a critique that links together UNESCO’s institutional framework, anti-Japan political maneuvering, and the responsibility of Japan’s domestic media.

2019-04-22
Regarding the fact that China and South Korea are showing signs of jointly resubmitting materials on the comfort-women issue…
He has expressed his determination to block the registration, saying, “What matters is to do everything possible from this moment.”

This is a chapter originally published on October 19, 2015.
The Sankei Shimbun of October 18, 2015, reported something that, for some reason, the Asahi Shimbun did not report at all.
Zero Japanese in the Memory of the World review section.
Only one in the past.
UNESCO.
Concerning the review of UNESCO’s Memory of the World, which became a problem after China’s “Nanjing Massacre documents” were registered, it was learned on the 17th through interviews with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology that, since the program began in 1992, only one Japanese expert has ever been appointed to UNESCO’s review body, which effectively decides whether registration is approved.
At present there are no Japanese experts at all in the review body, and opinions have arisen from the Liberal Democratic Party and others that Japan should urge UNESCO to appoint Japanese experts in order to block the political use of the Memory of the World system by China and South Korea.
Registration in the Memory of the World is reviewed by the International Advisory Committee, IAC, under UNESCO, and for items recommended for registration, the Director-General of UNESCO decides whether registration will be approved.
However, it is customary for the Director-General simply to endorse the recommendation.
According to UNESCO’s website, the IAC has a total of fourteen members, with five from Europe, including Bulgaria, Germany, and the Czech Republic, and three from Africa.
In Asia, there is only one member from Cambodia, and no experts from Japan, China, or South Korea are included.
The appointment of committee members is decided through consultation between the UNESCO Secretariat and member states, but since the Memory of the World program began in 1992, the only Japanese ever appointed to the IAC was Masanori Aoyagi, now Commissioner of the Agency for Cultural Affairs, who served from 2007 to 2011.
The boldface emphasis and the passages between the asterisks are mine.
In addition to the International Register, which carries the items reviewed by the IAC, the Memory of the World program also has regional registers carrying items reviewed by three regional committees: “Africa,” “Asia-Pacific,” and “Latin America and the Caribbean.”
In the Asia-Pacific regional committee, the reality is that a Chinese expert serves as chair, and one of the four vice-chairs is South Korean, while Japanese are kept entirely outside the framework.
Not only do China and South Korea virtually pay nothing in the way of assessed contributions to the United Nations, but they are countries that reached their present economic condition with enormous financial assistance from Japan, and yet they swagger through and trample over the United Nations as if it were their own.
And the mass media such as Asahi have reported none of this at all.
Masayuki Takayama, a true journalist…
Was the first to let us know that, under the GHQ occupation policy and its brainwashing policy…
Large numbers of resident Koreans entered the Japanese mass media, led by Asahi and NHK…
And this fact proves that what I have long said…
That it is no exaggeration to say that Asahi and Mainichi are already being manipulated by South Korea and China…
Was entirely correct.
It is a completely unbelievable story…
And it clearly proves that Asahi has indeed continued committing unforgivable grave sins against sound Japan and the Japanese people.
They are…
A newspaper company that has continued selling Japan and the Japanese people to South Korea and China.
“Japan did evil things.”
“The Japanese are an evil race.”…
With such foolish ideas, brainwashed into them by GHQ…
They have…
Helped South Korea and China to slander Japan and the Japanese people.
More than that…
Katsuichi Honda fabricated the Nanjing Massacre and the like…
Takashi Uemura fabricated the comfort-women issue…
And they have furnished them with materials to attack Japan before the world.
If something is recognized as worthy of registration as a Memory of the World item in the “Asia-Pacific” region, it takes on the form of having received a kind of UNESCO seal of approval, and for that reason opinions have arisen within the Liberal Democratic Party and elsewhere that not only the IAC but also the regional committees should have Japanese experts sent to them so that Japan can exercise influence.
Following the registration of the Nanjing Massacre documents in the Memory of the World, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the 15th instructed the Liberal Democratic Party to examine the process by which the registration took place.
Furthermore, regarding the fact that the comfort-women materials, whose registration had been postponed this time, are now being prepared for joint resubmission by China and South Korea, he expressed his determination to block the registration, saying, “What matters is to do everything possible from this moment.”