Toru Hashimoto, the mayor of Japan’s third-largest city Osaka, is something of a revolutionary. 

I say revolutionary because this man has single-handedly blazed several new trails in Japanese politics.

One of them involved trying to enforce radical changes to streamline Osaka City’s civil service. Although unsuccessful, the overture deserves praise for its practicality and antibureaucratic nature.

This time, Hashimoto has cofounded a new party -- the Osaka Ishin no Kai. Pundits believe the party carries the potential for bringing winds of change to Japan’s traditionally conventional political landscape.

These winds, however, may whip up an unwelcome storm for some of Japan’s close neighbors such as Korea, as the new party is said to be on the same page with the Liberal Democratic Party on several key issues including foreign policy.

These concerns only deepen when we look at cofounder Hashimoto’s dispute with San Francisco’s legislative body, the Board of Supervisors.

Recently, the board unanimously adopted a resolution for erecting a memorial to commemorate women who were forced to provide sex at Japanese military brothels before and during World War II. They are widely known by the euphemism “comfort women.”

Just last month, Hashimoto sent a letter to the board to oppose building such a memorial.

When I contacted Osaka City Hall this week, officials said while the mayor has no further comment, he adheres to the arguments he made in the letter.

The letter was sent in an act of both defense and defiance toward San Francisco’s moves to officially condemn Hashimoto for comments he had made about comfort women a couple of years ago.

The English version of the correspondence is available on the Osaka City Hall website, so you can take a look yourself.

But the gist of it is that Japan alone cannot take the blame for the issue of comfort women.

Hashimoto protests that war atrocities are commonplace. And that employing sex slaves cannot be compared to the horrors of the Holocaust.

Let me guess why. Because fewer people died? Or perhaps because this sort of thing happens all the time during war, while the Holocaust was a single one-time event. Believe it or not, these really are some of the reasons offered by Hashimoto.

The mayor also insists it has yet to be proven if the Japanese government actually forced these women into slavery.

What does he mean? That the women hopped on voluntarily? Even if they did, would they have done so if they had known they would be forced into “free” prostitution?

And it’s not just about comfort women. Hashimoto seems to be generous about the idea of sex crimes and related issues in general.

Two years ago, he drew much flak for suggesting U.S. service members stationed at the Marine Corps Air Station in Futenma should consider soliciting “legal prostitutes” to control their sexual urges.

Later in his September letter, Hashimoto tries to defend these comments as well, saying that he had been upset by sex crimes committed by the troops.
That is still not an acceptable excuse for a political figure to mention anything about prostitution except to denounce it.

As a woman, I was given the impression that Hashimoto unconsciously or consciously holds some deeply male-centric views on gender issues.

I mean, legalized prostitution. Does such a thing even exist? Lawmakers in certain countries may have legalized it, but prostitution can simply never be legal, because trafficking one’s sexuality can never become a part of the law.

Yet, the mayor was comfortable enough about prostitution to mention this publicly.

In the end, I understand that the Osaka mayor is an ambitious, savvy politician who has the interests of both himself and his supporters on the line.

Just the same, I hope he will have some sense not to repeat his past mistakes and realize that he plays a prominent role in how Japanese politicians are painted in the eyes of the global audience.

By Kim Ji-hyun

Kim Ji-hyun is The Korea Herald’s Tokyo correspondent. She can be reached at jemmie@heraldcorp.com">jemmie@heraldcorp.com ― Ed.