"Calling for Removal of Korean Peninsula Workers and Comfort Women Statues"... Controversy Again Over Japanese Lawmaker's 'Hanbok Mockery'

Right-wing Sugita Lawmaker "No Need for False Monuments"
Expresses Support for Removal of Memorial to Joseon Workers

A right-wing Japanese lawmaker has sparked controversy by posting that she hopes memorials honoring Korean laborers and comfort women in Japan will be dismantled.

On the 3rd, Mio Sugita, a member of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party, shared an article about the removal of a memorial for Korean laborers in Gunma Prefecture on her social media (SNS) account, expressing support by saying, "This is really good."

Assemblyman Sugita Mio.
Photo by Yonhap News

She stated, "I hope the memorials or statues for comfort women and laborers from the Korean Peninsula in Japan will follow suit," adding, "False memorials are not needed in Japan."

She then posted another photo, explaining it was a statue of forced laborers (the Japanese term for Koreans forcibly mobilized during the Japanese colonial period) located in Kyoto, saying, "It is private property, so it cannot be removed," and added, "I hope this one can be taken down soon as well."

Representative Sugita is a female Japanese politician known domestically for her strong right-wing stance. She is a hardline national conservative who opposes immigration in an extreme manner and supports pro-life views (opposing abortion on the grounds that the fetus is a living being, thus considering abortion as murder).

She has been active in the group "Association to Create New History Textbooks," denying the coercion of comfort women, and in 2016, when participating in the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, she posted mocking comments on SNS about women wearing hanbok, which led to a warning about human rights violations from an organization under Japan's Ministry of Justice.

However, since then, she has not issued a proper apology and has repeatedly made discriminatory remarks, including asserting the existence of "Zainichi Tokken" (在日特權, special privileges for Zainichi Koreans). The term "Zainichi Tokken" is mainly used by Japan's right-wing internet users known as "Netto-uyoku."

"Zainichi Tokken" is a term created to claim that foreign residents in Japan who are not native Japanese possess unnecessary and unequal qualifications and rights, as well as special preferential treatment from companies and government agencies, and in a narrow sense, it is used specifically against Zainichi Koreans.

Meanwhile, the memorial in question, located in the prefectural park "Gunma no Mori," was installed in 2004 by local residents to inform future generations about the forced mobilization of Koreans during the Japanese colonial period and to promote goodwill between both sides. However, during an event in 2012, right-wing groups took issue with the mention of "forced mobilization" and demanded its removal.

Ultimately, the Gunma Prefectural authorities refused to renew the installation permit in 2014, and after a lawsuit filed by civic groups, Japan's Supreme Court upheld the local government's decision in 2022, leading to the memorial's removal.

The dismantling work began on the 29th of last month and was completed on the 31st. The site where the memorial stood remains an empty lot.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.