Japanese civic movements held a press conference and released a statement on territorial conflicts between Japan, China, and Korea on Friday, September 28 [1].

This statement was initiated by a small number of activists of peace movement, intelligentsia, media people, and lawyers. In times of political and social-economic crisis, very dangerous anti China, anti-Korea chauvinist sentiments are growing in Japan, favored by the problem of territorial conflicts over several islands.

All the institutional political parties of Japan, including Japanese Communist Party, support the government’s claims on issues of Japanese sovereignty over these islands. Numbers of people who signed the statement are about 1500, mainly independent peace activists

The aim of this statement is to stop chauvinist-nationalist offensive against China and Korea and to find a solution through joint effort of people’s movements throughout East Asia region. Political contents of the statement are modest, but it deserves to be supported and broaden to fight back nationalist-chauvinist offensive.

Kenji Kunitomi, JRCL