Published on July 17, 2019.
Based on a Sankei Shimbun column by Rui Abiru, this essay discusses former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s words and actions in South Korea regarding the comfort women issue, the wartime labor issue, and Takeshima, and criticizes the problem of Japanese politicians who encourage South Korea’s arrogance.

July 17, 2019.
However, what is shameful is that behind South Korea’s having grown this arrogant and behaving so selfishly, there are Japanese people who are pushing South Korea from behind and inciting it.
The following is a chapter published on 201//1/31.
The chapter I published on November 22, 2018, titled “Those who learned for the first time what Yukio Hatoyama is doing in South Korea must have felt not only utter astonishment but heartfelt anger,” is now, by a narrow margin, in second place in the search ranking on Ameba.
Today, after reading the serialized column by Sankei Shimbun reporter Rui Abiru, those who learned for the first time what Yukio Hatoyama is doing in South Korea must have felt not only utter astonishment but heartfelt anger.
This Yukio Hatoyama is also a graduate of the University of Tokyo.
It is surely the clearest possible proof that one must not think that a person has sound judgment simply because he entered and graduated from the University of Tokyo.
Former Prime Minister Hatoyama pushes South Korea from behind.
Should it be called just 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 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, what is shameful is that behind South Korea’s having grown this arrogant and behaving so selfishly, there are Japanese people who are pushing South Korea from behind and inciting it.
The representative example is former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who is called a “conscientious politician” in South Korea.
“Renegotiation” of the Japan-South Korea agreement.
“The biggest problem is that two years ago the South Korean side should never have made an agreement saying that the matter had been ‘finally and irreversibly resolved.’
Why did the South Korean government accept an agreement that carried the meaning, ‘We apologized, so we will never apologize again’?
Is it not natural that the South Korean people are angry?”
These are the words Hatoyama wrote on his own Twitter account in January of this year.
He is finding fault with the settlement reached through the Japan-South Korea agreement and is inciting the South Korean side.
And this is a man who, even if only in name, 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 said the following.
“(The expression ‘irreversible’) gave the South Korean people the impression of being high-handed and hurt the feelings of the South Korean people.”
Also, on the 16th of this month, at a symposium held in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, on the issue of wartime laborers and other matters, he said the following concerning the South Korean Supreme Court ruling ordering Japanese companies to pay compensation.
“Japanese companies and the Japanese government must take this seriously.”
If he keeps saying only such sycophantic things, he will certainly be welcomed and pampered in South Korea.
He himself may feel good about being able to play the role of a “good person,” but has not the existence of people like Hatoyama complicated and worsened Japan-South Korea relations?
No matter how completely different his view may be from that of the Japanese government, what will happen if the South Korean side misunderstands the actual state of Japan, saying, “A former Japanese prime minister also says this,” and continues to repeat unreasonable and arbitrary claims as it does now?
Japan will naturally strengthen its criticism of South Korea and will have no choice but to ignore what South Korea says, but that will again invite a backlash from the South Korean side, and the gulf between the two countries will continue to widen.
What would happen if the South Korean side, losing its temper, caused an incident in which it fired on Japan Coast Guard patrol vessels or Japanese fishing boats around Takeshima in Okinoshima Town, Shimane Prefecture?
Japan-South Korea relations would be far beyond merely cooling down.
Since Hatoyama’s days as prime minister, I have sensed something trickster-like and dangerous in him, something that destroys the world order.
It is precisely Hatoyama’s words and actions, which at first glance may appear to be “goodwill,” that create serious tension between Japan and South Korea.
Takeshima is “not territory.”
Incidentally, in the Penal Code there is a serious crime that has never once been applied until now.
It is “inducement of foreign aggression” under Article 81, and it prescribes no punishment other than the ultimate penalty.
The text of the article is as follows.
“A person who, in collusion with a foreign state, causes that state to use armed force against Japan shall be punished by death.”
Of course, I am not saying that Hatoyama’s present words and actions fall under this provision, but can one really say that it could never be the case in the future?
Regarding Takeshima as well, Hatoyama has argued that “it is clear that it cannot be called Japan’s inherent territory,” and concerning the Senkaku Islands in Ishigaki City, Okinawa Prefecture, on which the Japanese government takes the position that no territorial issue exists, he also fawned on Chinese dignitaries by calling them “disputed territory.”
The South Korean government’s way of doing things is childish and emotional, but I feel that the Japanese politicians who support it are more frightening.
Editorial writer and senior political department editor.