Tomomi Inada

Tomomi Inada
稲田 朋美
Minister of Defense
Assumed office
3 August 2016
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe
Preceded by Gen Nakatani
Minister in charge of Administrative Reform
In office
26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe
Preceded by Katsuya Okada
Succeeded by Haruko Arimura
Minister in charge of Civil Service Reform
In office
26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe
Preceded by Katsuya Okada
Succeeded by Haruko Arimura
Minister in charge of the Cool Japan Strategy
In office
26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Shunichi Yamaguchi
Minister in charge of the Challenge Again Initiative
In office
26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Shunichi Yamaguchi
Minister of State for Regulatory Reform
In office
26 December 2012 – 3 September 2014
Prime Minister Shinzō Abe
Preceded by Position established
Succeeded by Haruko Arimura[1]
Member of the House of Representatives
from the 1st Fukui Prefecture
Assumed office
12 September 2005
Preceded by Isao Matsumiya
Majority 78,969 (50.00%)
Personal details
Born (1959-02-20) 20 February 1959
Echizen, Fukui, Japan
Political party Liberal Democratic Party
Alma mater Waseda University

Tomomi Inada (稲田 朋美 Inada Tomomi, born 20 February 1959) is a Japanese lawyer and politician. She is currently the Defense Minister and was recently Chairwoman of the Policy Research Council of the Liberal Democratic Party in her fourth term as a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet (national legislature). She is a native of Fukui Prefecture.

Law career

After graduating Waseda University in 1981, she became a lawyer in 1985. She first belonged to the Osaka bar association and has belonged to the Fukui bar association since 2008. She stood for the government in relation to the lawsuit relating to Yasukuni Shrine, and served as an attorney for the plaintiff concerning the "Contest to kill 100 people using a sword" that occurred during the Second Sino-Japanese War, as well as the commanders who fought in the Battle of Okinawa and a bereaved family suing Kenzaburō Ōe and Iwanami Shoten for their defamation of character towards the commanders. When she served as an attorney for the families of the plaintiff concerning the "Contest to kill 100 people using a sword" that allegedly occurred during the Second Sino-Japanese War, she tried to win her points relative to the convicted war criminals in court. But her side lost in court, because the judge at Supreme Court of Japan admitted some testimonies. After the failure of the trial, she hoped to become a politician. She wanted to proudly support the honor of Japanese soldiers during the Second Sino-Japanese War and their families, from the political side rather than the judicial side.[2]

Political career

On 15 August 2005, after being "spotted ... when she addressed a ruling-party audience on Japan’s war crimes in 2005",[3] Inada was nominated as an official candidate of the LDP by Shinzō Abe (later the Prime Minister). Inada ran in the general election held on 11 September 2005 and was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time. In the Diet she served as a member of the judicial committee, and the special committee for the establishment of political morals and the amendment of the public officers election act. From January 2008 to December 2008 she was also a member of the committee for General Affairs. In the 45th general election on 30 August 2009 she was elected to the House of Representatives for the second time. In 2012 she was appointed as Minister of State for Regulatory Reform in the new Shinzō Abe Cabinet. She held this post until September 2014.

Inada is highly estimated by Abe because of her political and historical beliefs, which are close to Abe's. Inada believes in the spirits of Shinto which dates back to Jinmu Emperor as well as the future invention, never supports the total denial of Japanese actions in Asia during World War II & Second Sino-Japanese War and is expected, by the Japanese patriots including Shinzo Abe, to realize the amendment of Japanese Constitution, which was founded under the USA occupation policies. Abe appointed her Chairperson of the LDP Policy Research Council in September 2014, even though the position is usually reserved for party members with longer political careers. In addition, she is so-called nominated as the future Prime Minister, by Abe's strong wish, according to Japanese weekly magazines.

Inada was named Defense Minister by Prime Minister Abe in August 2016.[3]

Political beliefs and positions

Following her historical and political beliefs, Inada is affiliated to the openly revisionist lobby Nippon Kaigi.[4][5] These beliefs are sometimes characterized as 'right wing' though Inada reportedly rejects that phrase,[6] and 'conservative'.[3]

Yasukuni Shrine, a Japanese Shinto shrine to war dead who served the Emperor and Japan during wars from 1867–1951, has been controversial, due to the enshrinement of International Military Tribunal for the Far East war criminals. But, Japanese nationalists have been paying respect at the shrine. In 2006, Inada said, "Any Japanese national, who criticizes Japanese Prime Minister's visit for paying respect at Yasukuni Shrine, could be the person who cares nothing for the souls of dead Japanese soldiers at the war and such a Japanese national could be deprived of the right to comment on anything about Moral/Upbringing." and "Yasukuni Shirine is not the place for the oath of peace, but the place for the oath to fight desperately against the aliens at the risk of Japan, following the honored spirits of the dead soldiers at Yasukuni Shrine." [7]

Inada questioned why the 2007 film Yasukuni (produced by Chinese director and some scenes of the movie were politically expressed by Chinese side) received Japanese government funds, and said that such funds should not be given to films with a "political agenda".[8]

Inada was a supporter of right-wing filmmaker Satoru Mizushima's 2007 revisionist film The Truth about Nanjing, which denied that the Nanking Massacre ever occurred.[9] After Takashi Kawamura, Mayor of Nagoya City, made denialist statements about the Nanking Massacre, on 6 March 2012 in Tokyo, at the Simposium[10] to support Kawamura's statement, she opposed to the history class in the Japanese school education, because the teachers, who could be members of Japan Teachers Union and be sympathized with China, teach the pupils about the Nanking Massacre of the Second Sino-Japanese War at the school classes. At that time, She said, " When Japanese Prime Minister definitely denies the Nanking Massacre, such a non-sense school education could end."[11]

Inada insisted that The International Military Tribunal for the Far East after World War II, was against the principles of the modern law and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East was only a part of the policy of Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers during the Allied occupation (mainly United States' occupation) of Japan after World War II, and she also said that Japan should totally deny the historical viewpoints, which too much emphasized the Japanese military invasion in China, following the decision of The International Military Tribunal for the Far East.[12] In August 2015, Inada expressed her intent to form a committee to verify the authenticity of the tribunal and the views of Japanese history it employed.[13] "Inada has argued that the Tokyo Trials distorted Japan’s responsibility for the war," according to the Wall Street Journal in 2016.[3]

Inada was shown smiling in a picture with Kazunari Yamada, leader of the National Socialist Japanese Labor Party (NSJAP), who has praised Adolf Hitler and the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.[14] But, after the photo was released by the press, she said publicly that she was unaware of his career. A staff member of Sanae Takaichi, Minister of Internal Affairs, whom she was with at that moment, said that he "was an assistant for an interviewer", and "We had no idea who he was back then, but he requested a snapshot."[15]

Inada was a signatory to the "The Facts" advertorial, supported by The Society for the Dissemination of Historical Fact and published in The Washington Post on 14 June 2007. The advertorial asserts that there is no proof of the Imperial Japanese Army's system of Comfort women during the Pacific War.[16] She also helped to launch the LDP Special Mission Committee to Restore the Honor and Trust of Japan, which in 2015 recommended to Prime Minister Abe that Japan counter what it views as false allegations against Japan regarding the Comfort Women issue.[17] When the committee demanded that an American textbook publisher correct its depictions of comfort women that were "at odds with the position of Japan," Inada called these depictions an "infringement upon the human rights of Japanese children living in the United States."[18] "In 2012, ... Inada wrote in a newspaper column that 'there is no need for an apology or compensation' to women who served Japanese soldiers sexually in World War II because she said the Japanese military and government didn’t compel the women to perform such services," the Wall Street Journal reported at the time of Inada's appointment as Defense Minister.[3] On the other hand, in a 2013 press conference, Inada called the Comfort Women system a grievous violation of women's human rights.[19]

"In one incident in 2011, South Korea barred ... Inada and other Japanese lawmakers with conservative views from entering the country", the Wall Street Journal reported in a review of Inada's career in 2016.[3]

In 2015, when Prime Minister Abe prepared the statement on 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Inada said, "No need to express the word like remorse", "stop continuing to apologize [to China and other Asian countries]", "military invasion is not appropriate word [to express the Japanese action in Asian countries before the end of the war]".[20]

That same year, she went against her party's traditional opposition to LGBT rights by setting up a committee within the party to discuss the matter.[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet Tomomi INADA Retrieved on 6 October 2015
  2. ↑ "国の名誉守りたい 稲田衆院議員 「百人斬り裁判」を本に (Congressman Ms. Inada published the incidents regarding the court on the "Contest to kill 100 people using a sword")". 福井新聞 (Fukui Shimbun). 47NEWS. 2007-05-17. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Obe, Mitsuru, "Abe Protégé With Nationalist Views Is Japan’s New Defense Minister", Wall Street Journal, August 3, 2016. Retrieved 2016-08-03.
  4. ↑ Nippon Kaigi website
  5. ↑ "Pro-Yasukuni parliamentary groups backing up Abe Cabinet" - Japan Press Weekly - 27 May 2007
  6. ↑ 文芸春秋　2015年7月　Bungei-Shunju July, 2015: Inada said that Right-wing is not appropriate word for my political beliefs.
  7. ↑ Japanese Magazine "Will" Sep. 2006
  8. ↑ The Japan Times Confusion reigns after 'Yasukuni' doesn't tell us how to feel 13 April 2008 Retrieved on 21 August 2012
  9. ↑ The Japan Times NANJING MASSACRE 70TH ANNIVERSARY 6 December 2007 Retrieved on 21 August 2012
  10. ↑ 「河村発言」支持・「南京虐殺」の虚構を撃つ 緊急国民集会 主催　新しい歴史教科書をつくる会 日時　平成24年3月6日（火）場所　東京・文京シビック小ホール(The symposium on the support of Kawamura's statement and the denial of Nanking Massacre, held by Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, at Bunkyo Civic Hall in Tokyo, 6 March 2012.)
  11. ↑ The statesment recorded at youtube, "河村発言支持・南京虐殺の虚構⑫ 稲田朋美衆議院議員 百人切りのウソ".
  12. ↑ "【正論】「首相の靖国参拝は安全保障問題/本質見極め矮小化した議論排せ」". Sankei Shimbun. 3 June 2006.
  13. ↑ "「東京裁判」検証へ自民が新組織　稲田氏意向". Sankei News. Sankei Shimbun. 15 August 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Neo-Nazi photos pose headache for Shinzo Abe" - The Guardian - 9 Sep 2014
  15. ↑ "Two of Abe’s new picks deny neo-Nazi links, Japan Times 8/9/2014.
  16. ↑ 「朝日・グレンデール訴訟」を支援する会. "the FACTS". Retrieved 5 October 2015.
  17. ↑ "「慰安婦」「強制労働」政府に国際広報の強化要請へ　自民特命委の提言". Sankei News. 18 July 2015. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  18. ↑ "Depictions of comfort women in American textbooks: Corrections demanded from publisher | Liberal Democratic Party of Japan". www.jimin.jp. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
  19. ↑ "橋下氏の慰安婦容認発言に批判続々…稲田行革相「人権侵害」". Sponichi Annex. Sports Nippon Newspapers. 14 May 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
  20. ↑ The interview on TV program of BS Fuji TV, on 11 August 2015.
  21. ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/tomomi-inada/lgbt-inada_b_8778994.html

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Gen Nakatani		 Minister of Defense
2016–present 		Incumbent
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