뉴스레터

On February 22, 2015, the annual 'Takeshima Day' ceremony was held once again in Shimane Prefecture, Japan, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year since the first ceremony in 2005. While the main event was the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony held at the Shimane Prefectural Assembly Hall that afternoon, the noisy protest staged around the venue earlier that morning was an equally important part of it.

On February 22 every year, the streets around the Shimane Prefectural Assembly Hall in Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture get noisy from early in the morning because Japanese right-wingers with ear-splitting loudspeakers cry against Korean protesters who, representing Dokdo-related NGOs, hold up placards or chant slogans that point out the injustice of the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony and Japan's intention of taking away Dokdo. This always creates mayhem as the police desperately try to prevent physical confrontations between the two sides.

This year was no exception. The streets around the venue were filled with noise from these protests. And there was also a procession of up to 100 cars joining the protest of right-wingers, making it arguably the noisiest day of the year in Matsue City. This scene has unfolded every year for the last ten years, and been almost established as a regular event. The force of right-wingers had never felt stronger than it did this year.

However, according to an official of the Korean Residents Union in Japan, there would be no police this year as the preceding years stationed in places around the Assembly Hall on the watch for a potential outburst among right-wingers. The reason, he explained, was that no more than one NGO representative, Choi Jae-ik of the Korean National Solidarity for Protection of Dokdo, came to Japan in protest against the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony. Apparently this information hadn't been obtained by right-wingers, for there were about 100 of them, as well as a procession of about 100 cars roaming the streets, making noise through loud speakers in protest against no more than five Korean NGO people including Mr. Choi. This would strike anyone who saw it as insane. It's no wonder, I thought, that citizens of Matsue are said to be feeling at odds with these right-wingers.

In my talk with Tsuyoshi Kamada, a reporter for the local newspaper, The San-in (山陰) Chuo Shimpo, I learned that the 'Takeshima Day''s 10th anniversary ceremony was unexpectedly smaller in scale than the previous year's regular ceremony. He asked me why there were no Korean journalists to be seen covering the ceremony this year, unlike the last year when the Korean public showed keen interest, with up to ten broadcasting and newspaper companies sending their crews for open coverage. My answer to him was that it was probably due to the particular situation of this year being 'the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic ties between Korea and Japan.'

Smaller in Scale but More Aggressive in Content Than Last Year

In the afternoon, Parts 1 and 2 of the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony were held in the Shimane Prefectural Assembly Hall. In Part 1, the Governor of Shimane Prefecture and the Chairman of the Shimane Prefectural Council gave a speech on the significance of the legislation of the ordinance, followed by messages from invited guests. Governor of Shimane Prefecture Zenbe Mizoguch explained that "the legislation of the ordinance was designed to boost the people's weakening awareness of the Dokdo issue at that time." Chairman of the Shimane Prefectural Council Shoji Okamato (who also chairs the Shimane Prefectural Citizens Council for Campaigning for the Restitution of Takeshima and the Northern Territories) said that "in September 2014 the Shimane Prefectural Council approved the proposal for the government to host the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony," expressing his wish that "the government would designate the 'Takeshima Day' as a day of national celebration, host the ceremony, and take other necessary measures."

Yohei Matsumoto, the administrative official from the LDP who attended the ceremony as an invited guest, explained that the Abe administration was the first to introduce the position of minister in charge of territorial affairs and that the government was conducting various activities in relation to territorial affairs. And it was followed by messages from Diet members. The total number of Diet members present was 12, a decrease from last year. It gave me the impression that the ceremony had either lost momentum or started losing steam since its peak last year.

Be Wary of the Japanese Government Becoming the New Host of the Ceremony

From what I was told, Shimane Prefecture finds it a burden to continue hosting the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony, and the mayhem caused by right-wingers on the day of the ceremony is a particularly big burden for them. That's why Shimane Prefecture wants the central government to take over their role of hosting the ceremony. It is after its 10th anniversary ceremony that the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony will come at the crossroads of whether it will increase or decrease its scale. Under the circumstances, I thought it important for us to ensure that the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony would not become an event hosted by the central government, because it seemed to me that the ceremony would keep losing steam as long as it remained an event hosted by Shimane Prefecture.

The day after the ceremony I went to visit Professor Fukuhara Yuji at the University of Shimane, who said with regret that "the 'Takehima Day' ceremony was responsible for the significantly reduced private exchange between the Shimane Prefecture of Japan and the North Gyeongsang Province of Korea and the rapidly dwindling number of Koreans coming to study at the University of Shimane. I was also told, among other things, by a founding member of the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony that the Shimane Prefecture officials who organized the ceremony were surprised by the unexpectedly strong protest by North Gyeongsang Province, and this made him regret starting the ceremony. I couldn't help but think that it would be necessary to learn in more detail about the honest and various feelings of the residents of Shimane Prefecture toward the 'Takeshima Day' ceremony now that it had passed its 10th anniversary.