Nippon Kaigi

The is Japan’s largest ultranationalist, far-right non-governmental organization and lobby. It was established in 1997 and has approximately 40,000 members. The group is influential in the legislative and executive branches of the Japanese government through its affiliates. Former Prime Minister Shinzō Abe, LDP politician, serves as a special advisor to the group's parliamentary league. Although the official membership is 40,000, it is unofficially affiliated with grassroots lawmakers and local politicians across the country.
The group describes its aims as to "change the postwar national consciousness based on the Tokyo Tribunal's view of history as a fundamental problem" and to "revise the current Constitution"; it sees its mission to promote patriotic education, the revision of the Constitution of Japan, and support for official visits to Yasukuni Shrine and a nationalist interpretation of State Shinto.
In the words of Hideaki Kase, an influential member of Nippon Kaigi, "We are dedicated to our conservative cause. We are monarchists. We are for revising the constitution. We are for the glory of the nation." Nippon Kaigi supports revising the Japanese Constitution, especially Article 9 which forbids a standing army.
Objectives.
"Nippon Kaigi" has described six official goals of the organization as:
Some have claimed that "Nippon Kaigi" believes that "Japan should be applauded for liberating much of East Asia from Western colonial powers; that the 1946–1948 Tokyo War Crimes tribunals were illegitimate; and that killings by Imperial Japanese troops during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre were exaggerated or fabricated". The group vigorously defends Japan's claim in its territorial dispute over the Senkaku Islands with China, and denies that Japan forced the "comfort women" during World War II. Nippon Kaigi is opposed to feminism, LGBT rights, and the 1999 Gender Equality Law.
History.
Nippon Kaigi was founded in 1997 through the merger of two groups whose agendas included constitutional revision:
The founding President was Koichi Tsukamoto, the founder of Japanese clothier Wacoal.
Yuzo Kabashima, the secretary general of Nippon Kaigi, established a sister organization "Nihon Seinen Kyogikai" in 1977, which is headquartered in the same building as Nippon Kaigi and acts as the organization's secretariat.
Organisation and membership.
Nippon Kaigi claims 40,000 individual members, 47 prefectural chapters, and about 230 local chapters. The organization's website lists the members depending on their seniority in the organization headed by a President seconded by Vice Presidents and a pool of "advisors", including Shinto priests leading key shrines, some of them belonging to the Imperial family.
Following the 2014 reshuffle, 15 of the 18 of Third Abe Cabinet members, including the Prime Minister himself (as 'special adviser'), were members of Nippon Kaigi. As of October 2014, the group claimed 289 of the 480 Japanese National Diet members. Among the members, former members, and affiliated are countless lawmakers, many ministers and a few prime ministers including Tarō Asō, Shinzō Abe, and Yoshihide Suga. Abe's brother Nobuo Kishi is also a member of the Nippon Kaigi group in the Diet. Its former chairman, Toru Miyoshi, was the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Japan.
After campaigning actively for LDP candidates in July 2016, Nippon Kaigi campaigned for constitutional revisionism in September 2016.
Criticism.
Journalist Norimitsu Onishi says that the organization promotes a revival of the fundamentals of the Empire of Japan; Tamotsu Sugano, the author of the bestselling exposé on the group, "Research on Nippon Kaigi" () describes them as a democratic movement in method but intent on turning back sexual equality, restoring patriarchal values, and returning Japan to a pre-war constitution—neither democratic nor modern, and they are consolidated in anti-leftism and in misogyny. On 6 January 2017, sale of the book was banned by a district court for defamation pending removal of the offending portion; a revised digital edition continued to be sold. Sales resumed that March when the court allowed a revised edition with 36 characters deleted to appear.
Muneo Narusawa, the editor of "" ("Weekly Friday") says that, in parallel with historical revisionism, the organization often highlights historical facts that convey Japan as a victim such as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens. Education minister Hakubun Shimomura, the secretary general of the Discussion Group of Nippon Kaigi Diet Members (Nippon Kaigi kokkai giin kondankai, ), argues for patriotic education and opposes a "masochistic view of history".