Straits Times raps Mori for not retracting 'divine' remark

Japan Policy & Politics, June 5, 2000

SINGAPORE, May 31 Kyodo

Singapore's Straits Times newspaper berated Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Wednesday for being unrepentant about his "divine nation" remark, and applauded a Japanese opposition move to vote on a no-confidence motion against him.

Mori "is unrepentant for the offensive way he characterized Japan as a divine nation with the emperor at its core," the newspaper said in an editorial.

It said Mori did not retract the substance of his remark, which "harked back to an age when the emperor was considered divine, and that mythical status propelled Japan's militarism."

"His comment defies Japan's postwar constitutional separation of state and religion, and continues to defile the memory of war-time victims all over Asia," the English-language daily said.

Referring also to the flagging support for Mori in recent polls,

it said "These checks...are a healthy sign that the right-wing brigade has to watch what it says publicly."

However, it predicted that "Mori will survive this episode," just as other Japanese politicians before him had been allowed to get away with controversial remarks or action related to Japan's military aggression in World War II.

Mori might even "endure as prime minister till well after the June 25 election," the paper said.

"None of these has been dispatched to oblivion, only mildly chastised. It is little wonder that a growing view has developed among emboldened traditionalists that Japan should stop apologizing for its past," it said.