Published on January 12, 2020.
This article republishes a chapter originally issued on November 8, 2018, while quoting Tatsuya Kato’s Sankei Shimbun column “Without Entering the Tiger’s Cave.”
It discusses the South Korean Supreme Court ruling on former wartime laborers, the danger that the issue may become a second comfort women campaign, and the anti-Japanese structure in which the Asahi Shimbun and NHK have been involved, arguing that Japan must respond resolutely and turn this moment into a decisive turning point for both Japan and the world.

January 12, 2020
As long as Japan neglects that task, it will not be able to lead the world.
And thus the world will be placed in confusion and darkness.
I am republishing, with paragraphs tightened and other adjustments, the chapter I issued on November 8, 2018, titled “Against Japan, the Country That Has Achieved the World’s Highest Intellect and Freedom, This Is an Endless Attack—Extortion and Blackmail—from a Country of Vice That Remains in Antiquity.”
The following is from Tatsuya Kato’s serialized column “Without Entering the Tiger’s Cave,” published in the Sankei Shimbun on November 4 under the title “Why Not Demand About 2.5 Trillion Yen from South Korea?”
The emphasis in the text and the passages marked by ～ are mine.
According to a Sankei Shimbun report in 2003 based on materials discovered by a private research institute, the personal property left behind by Japanese people on the Korean Peninsula at the end of the war amounted to 4.9 trillion yen at the prices of the time of the report.
I was reminded of this by the judicial ruling in South Korea that overturned the 1965 Japan–South Korea Claims Agreement.
The South Korean Supreme Court finalized a ruling ordering Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal to pay a total of 400 million won, about 40 million yen, in compensation to four “former wartime laborers.”
Since “the legal foundation between Japan and South Korea has been fundamentally damaged,” as Foreign Minister Taro Kono said, the South Korean side must repair it.
However, it is said that they are instead exploring a Japanese-side concession, such as Japanese companies’ participation in a compensation payment fund.
This problem will be prolonged because it fits perfectly into the “ironclad” cycle by which relations between the two countries sink into a quagmire.
In the process by which issues of dispute between the two countries permeate the South Korean public, the following flow has been repeated: ① on the soil of anti-Japanese sentiment, “memories” of the period of Japanese rule awaken; ② sympathy and pressure to conform come into play; ③ the issue is replaced by questions of “human rights” and pride, and activities are organized; ④ the judiciary and administration show judgments and policies that take public opinion into account, thereby giving official approval; and ⑤ they demand that Japan take appropriate action.
The same was true of the comfort women issue, the courtroom struggle with former President Park Geun-hye in which the author himself was a party, and the “Rising Sun Flag” issue.
In response to this ruling, the South Korean government, under the name of Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, expressed that it would respect the judicial decision, prepare response measures, and hope to develop Japan–South Korea relations in a future-oriented way.
It is easy to understand this if one reads it as meaning: we have now reached stage ④ of the standard pattern, so next it will become stage ⑤; please keep that in mind.
Although it is not often mentioned, there is a danger that this lawsuit will hereafter be expanded worldwide and used to spread the perception that “Japan does not acknowledge humanitarian crimes, nor does it apologize or compensate.”
It would become a “second comfort women issue.”
That is precisely why, this time, Japan must cut off their “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies” once and for all, and must thoroughly make their vice known to the international community.
For that purpose, if necessary, Japan must confront them with a resolute attitude, including economic sanctions, such as the immediate and total suspension of parts supplies to Samsung and others, and even the severing of diplomatic relations.
This is an endless attack—extortion and blackmail—from a country of vice that remains in antiquity against Japan, the country where The Turntable of Civilization is turning and the country that has achieved the world’s highest intellect and freedom.
That is why Japan must take this “ancient ruling” of theirs as a rare opportunity and correct them forever.
If they cannot be corrected, Japan must impose economic sanctions, even sever diplomatic relations, and forever correct them and the small number of villains living around the world who sympathize with their anti-Japanese propaganda.
Whether the Asahi Shimbun and its faction have continued to spoil them, or have used them for their own anti-Japanese ideology, the result of their evil deeds has been the endless blackmail sent from them.
Taking this ruling as a rare opportunity, Japan must cut it off for all future generations.
That is the absolute and decisive task that Japan, the country where The Turntable of Civilization is turning and the country that, alongside the United States, must lead the world for the next 170 years, must carry out.
As long as Japan neglects that task, it will not be able to lead the world.
And thus the world will be placed in confusion and darkness.
This matter is, in fact, a turning point for Japan and the world.
The Asahi Shimbun and NHK have spoken of freedom and democracy hypocritically while continuing to side with their evil.
No, they have continued to be used by their evil and continued to be controlled by them.
This is also the perfect chance to break this lowest chain of evil.
In other words, this is exactly what it means to “turn misfortune into fortune.”
From 2012, when the South Korean Supreme Court denied the previous judgment that the individual claims of “former wartime laborers” had been extinguished by the Japan–South Korea Claims Agreement, through the remanded trial in 2013 in which Japanese companies lost, I covered explanatory meetings by related lawyers and gatherings of supporters in Seoul.
What was always raised there was the argument that “the very fact that Japan colonized Korea was illegal.”
They said, “As Japanese people, do you not feel pain in your heart for failing to provide relief to elderly people whose human rights were trampled upon?”
Linking human rights to the history of Japan’s rule over the Korean Peninsula had been consistent from that time, but on the other hand, the words revealed by the plaintiffs’ lawyer in an interview with South Korea’s SBS after this victory are interesting.
“It is a serious human rights violation that the Japanese government has issued guidelines saying not to compensate or settle.”
“If Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal has assets in a foreign country, and that country recognizes the South Korean judgment, those assets can be subject to compulsory execution, that is, seizure.”
In other words, after linking the matter to human rights, they are also looking at civil lawsuits in Japan and compulsory execution procedures in third countries such as Europe, the United States, and Southeast Asia.
Even if compulsory execution is not recognized, there is a possibility that Japan will have to respond locally to disputes in third countries.
The burden on the Japanese government and companies will by no means be small, and some people may misunderstand Japanese companies.
The “former wartime laborers” recognized by the South Korean government, including deceased persons, are said to number about 220,000.
If the South Korean side attacks through “numbers and spread,” does Japan have any countermeasure?
The Japanese government is currently prepared to file suit with the International Court of Justice, the ICJ, if necessary.
There is also the view that it would be meaningless if the South Korean side does not consent to the trial, but “an obligation to explain the refusal would arise.
There are parts of South Korea’s judicial judgment that will not pass internationally, and explaining them would be quite painful.
In fact, the South Korean side has in the past pleaded with Japan not to file suit over issues such as Takeshima,” said a senior Foreign Ministry official.
Even so, if South Korea does not move to settle the situation, why not demand from South Korea about half of the personal property left behind on the Korean Peninsula?