LDP's endorsement of Mio Sugita dismays even 'benefactor' after human rights breaches
Japan's legal authorities have recognized statements by Sugita as human rights violations, yet it was recently reported that for some reason she has moved to deny that very recognition, despite previously frankly accepting it in a contribution to a monthly magazine.
Sugita's entry into politics was facilitated by a "benefactor" -- former lower house member Yoshimi Watanabe, 73, who retired three years ago.
Watanabe rose as a young theorist in the LDP, and after serving as minister for administrative reform, he went on to found the now-defunct Your Party in 2009, playing a key role in the "third pole" boom represented by alternative political forces.
Sugita's first book, "Nadeshiko Fukkatsu" (The return of Nadeshiko), published in 2014, mentions that she joined the Your Party while working at the Nishinomiya Municipal Government in Hyogo Prefecture, after being approached by Watanabe.
Watanabe recalls, "The first time we met was around 2007. I remember she was engaged in activities aligned with my aspirations for civil service reform."
At the time there was a "super civil servant" boom, which called for reform in the mindset of public workers. Sugita herself held study sessions under the name "Nishinomiya super civil servant school" and gave lectures nationwide. These activities apparently caught Watanabe's eye.
"That's why I endorsed her as the head of the Your Party's Hyogo No. 6 electoral district branch. However, although we transferred party subsidies, it was discovered that she was not active at all, so I issued a stern warning," Watanabe recalls.
In the 2012 lower house election, Sugita left her "benefactor" and was elected for the first time as a representative of the former Japan Restoration Party, the predecessor to today's Nippon Ishin (the Japan Innovation Party). After spending time in the short-lived Party for Future Generations, Sugita joined the LDP in 2017 at the invitation of then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But soon after she put on her Diet members badge, she came under scrutiny for her discriminatory and exclusionary remarks and behavior.
Below are a few examples of these remarks:
"Gender equality is an immoral delusion and can never be realized" (comment made during a lower house plenary session, Oct. 31, 2014). "LGBT couples have no 'productivity'" (contribution to monthly magazine Shincho 45's August 2018 issue). Statues of so-called comfort women conveying the issue of wartime sexual violence "should be blown up one by one" (dialogue book "'Rekishisen' wa Onnna no Tatakai" (History wars are a woman's battle), published in 2016). "Women can tell any number of lies" (LDP meeting, Sept. 25, 2020).
"The Your Party is a political party with no association with far-right ideology. At the time, Ms. Sugita seemed like a strongly reform-oriented, principled public servant. I think her remarks are a kind of outlandish outrage marketing. She was probably not good at steady election campaigning to begin with. I think she got a taste for the fact that her extreme statements would elicit certain reactions," Watanabe comments.
Indeed, Sugita proudly wrote in the aforementioned work "Nadeshiko Fukkatsu," "I got a sense of my role as a Diet member," when there was a stir over an internet video from the lower house budget committee in 2014 in which Sugita blatantly spoke of "China and South Korea, who are saying that if you shout a lie 100 times, it becomes the truth."
Watanabe sharply comments, "Ms. Sugita seems like a 'pseudo-conservative.' Pseudo-conservatives probably target internet right wingers for survival, but I think more people are seeing through their facade."
One statement in Sugita's long list of sexist, xenophobic remarks came in February 2016. On her blog and social media, she disparaged Koreans living in Japan and Ainu women who attended the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women wearing traditional attire, stating, "Their mere presence is a disgrace to Japan."
In 2023, the Sapporo and Osaka legal affairs bureaus recognized her statements as human rights violations. However, since being endorsed by the LDP in March this year, Sugita has for some reason started claiming "It is incorrect that I was recognized for human rights violations," saying words to this effect after a party convention on March 9. This stance has been widely reported.
However, no media outlet has pointed out that in the January 2024 issue of the monthly magazine "Hanada," Sugita herself wrote, "In 2023, both the Sapporo and Osaka legal affairs bureaus recognized (my statements) as human rights violations." She also wrote, "There were four comments that were recognized as such." She disclosed in detail which posts were recognized as violations based on the bureaus' notification of their findings.
When confronted about her recent 180-degree turn from her own previous explanation, Sugita's side responded, "The videos on the official website have everything," but the videos do not provide any explanation on this matter.
Sugita's actions have already caused significant harm. Kazue Muta, a professor emeritus at the University of Osaka known for her research on feminism, is probably one of the biggest victims.
Sugita repeatedly defamed Muta on social media and other platforms from around 2018, falsely claiming there had been a "misuse of research funds" for studies supported by an education ministry-affiliated group via a grant-in-aid for scientific research between fiscal 2014 and 2017.
"The University of Osaka received protest calls from people who believed Ms. Sugita's statements. The university staff handled it calmly and did not inform me directly about the calls, but it caused them a significant burden," Muta said.
In a lawsuit Muta filed, a court found Sugita's conduct unlawful and ordered the legislator to pay compensation in a ruling. This was finalized in 2023.
"Ms. Sugita's actions are political interference in academia itself, similar to the problematic bill on (overhauling) the Science Council of Japan. My research was probably targeted because it included the comfort women issue, which Sugita claims is 'fabricated.'' If a man were to say, 'Comfort women were just prostitutes,' it could be perceived as misogynistic. But coming from Ms. Sugita, who is a woman, it could produce an atmosphere of acceptance with people pointing out, 'Look, even a woman is saying it.' I imagine she recognizes the role and position expected of her," Muta adds.
Many women who were made into comfort women were trafficked by contractors chosen by the Japanese military or deceived and illegally taken abroad under military control to be placed in so-called comfort stations. This process is referred to as forced abduction by experts.
"Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba also expressed 'strong discomfort' with Sugita's words and actions (in the March 21 upper house budget committee), which makes her endorsement all the more disappointing, if not absurd. I even think the bottom has fallen out of ethics," a disconcerted Muta says.
The bottom has fallen out. This sentiment was echoed by Mitsuhiro Kimura, the leader of Issuikai, a prominent ethnic nationalist group. From a nationalist standpoint, he fights against hate speech directed at foreign residents in Japan.
"Prime Minister Ishiba likely endorsed Sugita due to the situation within his party and the election strategy. But that represents a defeat of political ethics. The bottom has fallen out," Kimura comments.
I have interviewed Ishiba numerous times and heard him criticize the discriminatory and exclusionary climate that exists within some corners of the party.
Kimura adds, "It's fine to discuss various domestic and international issues. But Sugita's actions are not like that. Japanese people are inherently tolerant, but I don't feel that virtue at all. Recently, there have been too many politicians, both within the ruling and opposition camps, attacking foreigners and domestic minorities with ulterior motives like 'it will get votes' or 'I want to wear a (Diet member's) badge.' This issue goes beyond a single parliamentarian. I think the LDP might as well aim for the extreme right and rename itself the Japan Exclusion Party."
The upper house election is still ahead of us. Mr. Ishiba, how about rethinking your stance?
(Japanese original by Riki Yoshii, Opinion Editorial Department)
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