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| Screen shot of Japan Nazi Party |
Two newly-promoted Japanese politicians moved Monday to distance
themselves from allegations of extremism after pictures emerged of them
posing alongside the leader of a domestic neo-Nazi party.
Internal Affairs Minister Sanae Takaichi and party policy chief
Tomomi Inada are seen in separate photographs next to Kazunari Yamada on
the home page of the National Socialist Japanese Workers Party.
The pictures will add fuel to claims that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
is increasingly surrounding himself with people on the right of Japanese
politics.
Yamada’s blog postings indicate admiration for Adolf Hitler and praise for the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
In video footage posted on the website, Yamada is seen wearing a stylised swastika during street demonstrations.
Captions for the photographs claim they were taken “sometime in June
or July 2011 when (Yamada) visited the conservative lawmakers for
talks”.
Spokesmen for both senior lawmakers acknowledged Monday that the
photographs were genuine and had been taken in their offices over the
last few years, but denied there was any political affiliation.
“He was an assistant for an interviewer, and was taking notes and
photos,” a member of staff at Takaichi’s office told AFP, referring to
Yamada.
“We had no idea who he was back then, but he requested a snap shot with her. (The minister) wouldn’t refuse such requests.”
Following media inquiries, the office has asked that the pictures be removed, he said.
“It was careless of us,” he said, adding that Takaichi did not share Yamada’s view “at all… it is a nuisance”.
A staffer at Inada’s office said the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) policy chief did not subscribe to Nazi ideology.
“It is disappointing if there are people who would misunderstand that she does,” he said.
Abe has courted criticism for his strident nationalism and views on history that some find unpalatable.
In particular, his unwillingness to condemn Imperial Japan’s behavior
up to and during World War II has proved a sticking point in
international relations.
His equivocations about the formalised system of sex slavery—known
euphemistically as “comfort women”—has particularly irked South Korea
and China, and both regularly call on him to re-think his views.
Abe’s new 18-strong cabinet, announced last week, includes a number of people with hawkish views.
Takaichi and Inada have both visited Yasukuni Shrine, the supposed
repository of the souls of Japan’s war dead, including a number of
convicted war criminals. The shrine is seen in Asia as a symbol of
Japan’s lack of repentance for the war.
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