Comfort women
WWII-era forced prostitutes for Japan
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| 2025 | Planned release of animated film 'Dragon Heart: Adventures Beyond This World'. |
| 2024 | Lost his seat in the Japanese general election after holding a Diet seat for nearly three decades and winning nine consecutive terms. |
| 2024 | Ran for the Tokyo gubernatorial election, placing fourth and performing worse than his 2014 campaign |
| November 14 2024 | South Korea's Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Yoon Mee-hyang, sentencing her to 18 months in prison (suspended for three years) for embezzling funds intended to support comfort women victims. |
| October 2024 | Re-elected as a member of the House of Representatives representing Aichi 1st electoral district after previously serving from 1993 to 2009. |
| July 29 2024 | An English version of the book 'Comfort Women of the Japanese Empire: Colonial Rule and Battle over Memory' was published by Routledge. |
| July 11 2024 |
War apology statements issued by Japan
During the Second Japan-Philippines Foreign and Defense Ministerial Meeting, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy press secretary Kaneko Mariko formally apologized and acknowledged settling all obligations from the 1951 Treaty of San Francisco, while also announcing measures to address the honor of Filipino Comfort Women.
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| January 2024 | Acknowledged in an interview with Yomiuri Shimbun the unreported 820,000 yen, expressing deep regret for the lack of attention in managing political funds while serving as LDP Secretary-General. |
| 2023 | CEDAW recommends the Philippine government provide full reparation to Malaya Lolas, including material compensation and an official apology for ongoing discrimination. |
| 2023 | The last surviving Taiwanese comfort woman died, marking the end of an era for survivors from Taiwan. |
| 2023 | Implicated in the Japanese slush fund scandal for failing to record over 820,000 yen, which she denied responsibility for. |
| 2023 | LDP revealed to have raised and hidden over 600 million yen in slush fund accounts, implicating the party's financial practices. |
| 2023 | Held a press conference questioning the occurrence of the 1923 Kantō Massacre, contradicting a 2009 expert panel from the government's Central Disaster Management Council. |
| December 14 2023 | Submitted resignation from the cabinet along with several other LDP officials. |
| December 12 2023 | The lower house, with LDP majority, voted down a motion of no confidence against Matsuno proposed by the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. |
| December 8 2023 | Reported to have allegedly failed to declare over an unspecified amount of income in the previous five years. |
| November 2023 | Seoul High Court overturned a previous ruling and ordered Japan to pay 200 million won in damages to comfort women survivors, citing violations of international treaties. Japan condemned the ruling and protested through diplomatic channels. |
| November 2023 | Japanese prosecutors began questioning members of LDP factions, including Matsuno's, about suspected slush fund money from unreported fundraising party revenues. |
| July 2023 | Visited the Sakishima Islands in Okinawa prefecture to discuss defense planning and infrastructure with local governments, becoming the first Chief Cabinet Secretary to do so. |
| July 29 2023 | Addressed the United Nations Online Symposium regarding the Abduction Issue while serving as Minister in Charge of the Abduction Issue. |
| March 2 2023 | Ryuho Okawa, the founding president of the Happiness Realization Party, passed away, ending his leadership of the political party. |
| February 25 2023 |
Bahay na Pula
The film 'Bahay na Pula' was released worldwide via streaming on Vivamax.
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| 2022 | Hiroshi Okawa, son of Ryuho Okawa, gave an interview to The World describing Happy Science as a 'cult' and criticizing his father's spiritual channeling sessions. |
| 2022 |
How We Disappeared
The novel 'How We Disappeared' was included on the Big Jubilee Read, a curated list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors created to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee.
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| 2022 | Expressed sympathy for Russia's position following the Invasion of Ukraine and criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. |
| 2022 |
Netto-uyoku
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, some internet right-wingers developed a conspiracy theory about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky being manipulated by the 'Deep State', while praising Vladimir Putin as a 'warrior of light'.
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| 2022 |
Bahay na Pula
A horror film titled 'Bahay na Pula', directed by Brillante Mendoza, was produced.
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| November 15 2022 |
Hideaki Kase
Hideaki Kase passed away at the age of 85, marking the end of his life and career.
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| July 2022 | Following the assassination of Shinzo Abe, Inada Tomomi faced public criticism over her past participation in Unification Church events. |
| March 17 2022 | Remaining chapters of the critical manga were removed by the publisher. |
| February 10 2022 | The fifth chapter of manga 'A Home Life With God ~We Children Born Into Religion~' was removed by Shueisha following backlash from Happy Science. |
| January 2022 |
Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan
According to Michael J. Green, Japanese political leaders analyzed that South Korean presidential candidates, despite their willingness, would not improve Japan-Korea relations.
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| January 4 2022 | Ramseyer published a response to his critics titled 'Contracting for Sex in the Pacific War: A Response to My Critics', maintaining his original claims about comfort women. |
| 2021 | Isabelita Vinuya, a Filipino comfort woman, passed away. |
| 2021 | Published a controversial preprint article in the International Review of Law and Economics arguing that comfort women were primarily voluntary prostitutes, which drew significant academic and public scrutiny. |
| 2021 |
Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan
A Japanese man deliberately set fire to an empty house in the Korean village of Utoro district, Uji, which spread to other properties. Motivated by online anti-Korean rhetoric, he was later sentenced to four years in prison for his hate-driven arson attack.
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| 2021 | Ended leadership of Kibō no Tō political party |
| 2021 | Failed to report 820,000 yen in her fund management organization's accounts, which was later revealed in a political funds reporting irregularity. |
| October 2021 | Hirokazu Matsuno began serving as Chief Cabinet Secretary, a key governmental role in the Japanese administration |
| August 16 2021 | Mayor Kawamura made a formal public apology for his inappropriate behavior towards Miu Goto, repeatedly bowing and stating he felt 'pathetic'. He announced his intention to take a 100% pay cut for three months as a consequence of his actions. |
| July 2021 |
Statue of Peace
Aurora, Colorado city council voted against a proposal to install a Statue of Peace on public property, citing concerns about the unresolved dispute between South Korea and Japan and potential community tensions.
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| June 25 2021 | Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga affirmed previous administrations' statements acknowledging Japan's military role in coercing comfort women during World War II. |
| May 2021 | The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus published a special issue with four critical essays challenging Ramseyer's research methods and historical claims. |
| April 2021 | Ramseyer joined a Zoom event organized by right-wing Japanese groups, calling his critics 'Stalinists' and alleging anti-Japanese bias in American universities. |
| April 2021 | Elected for his fifth term as mayor of Nagoya, amid involvement in a recall campaign scandal against Aichi governor Hideaki Omura. |
| April 9 2021 | At a special exhibition in Sakae Plaza, Mayor Kawamura controversially removed his COVID mask and attempted to bite the golden male shachihoko, disregarding exhibition guidelines that asked guests to wear masks, disinfect hands, and only touch the statue's nose. |
| March 2021 | Comfort woman survivor Lee Yong-soo met with Harvard students via Zoom to dispute Ramseyer's characterization and call for apologies. |
| March 15 2021 | The Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard issued a statement questioning the scholarly integrity of Ramseyer's article. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Comfort women, Park Yu-ha, Hirokazu Matsuno, How We Disappeared, Happiness Realization Party, Statue of Peace, Netto-uyoku, Bahay na Pula, Hideaki Kase, Tomomi Inada, Anti-Korean sentiment in Japan, Takashi Kawamura (politician), J. Mark Ramseyer, Hakubun Shimomura, Nariaki Nakayama, Toshio Tamogami, List of war apology statements issued by Japan & Happy Science, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.