This chapter analyzes how UN Special Rapporteurs have repeatedly harmed Japan through false narratives, from the 1996 Kumaraswamy Report to recent unfounded claims.

The article traces a pattern in which UN Special Rapporteurs have disseminated misleading narratives about Japan, questioning the credibility and information sources behind such claims.

2017-06-27
This is a continuation of the previous chapter.
They are like specters that unjustly shake and damage Japan’s domestic politics and diplomacy.
The reason for using such an unusual term as “specter” is that they appear at will, exploiting fear, and scatter malice wherever they go.
When it comes to UN Special Rapporteurs, Japan has in the past suffered severe and unjust damage from them as well.
One such case was the activities and report of Radhika Coomaraswamy, the Special Rapporteur on the so-called comfort women issue.
The Coomaraswamy Report compiled in 1996 presented fabrications such as “systematic forced recruitment by the Japanese military” and “sexual slavery” as if they were facts, and even used the false testimony of Seiji Yoshida as an important source.
This fictitious report came to be regarded internationally almost as the official view of the United Nations as a whole, inflicting immeasurable and unjust damage on both the Japanese government and the Japanese people.
More recently, in October 2015, a Dutch female UN Special Rapporteur visited Japan and, after conducting a certain “investigation,” stated at a press conference that “13 percent of Japanese female students engage in compensated dating.”
When I read this passage, I was reminded of reports in Newsweek around the same time stating that prostitution was rampant in schools throughout China, and that this was even portrayed as part of Chinese tradition.
I became convinced that this Dutch woman had raised the issue of compensated dating—long sensationalized by Japanese mass media—in order to mitigate the impact of revelations about China’s domestic realities, and that she herself was an agent acting on behalf of China.
At the same time, I had previously pointed out that Maekawa Kihei, a former official of the Ministry of Education, might be a representative case of someone ensnared by a honey trap set by Chinese intelligence agencies, and regarding this matter as well, I reached a chilling but firm conviction.
This was because it coincided with the fact that Maekawa was, around that time, frequently visiting absurd establishments such as so-called compensated dating cafés.
It is therefore not unreasonable to assume that Maekawa may have been one of the information sources for this Dutch woman.
(To be continued.)