Activists urge Japan’s next leader to reinstate human rights adviser post

Human rights activists are calling on the next prime minister of Japan to reinstate a government adviser on human rights after the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elects its new president and leader of the nation on Friday.

Campaigners were supportive of Fumio Kishida before he was elected LDP leader in October 2021, in part because he promised before the vote to take a firm stance on human rights issues and to create a new post in his government.

True to his word, Kishida named Gen Nakatani to the new cabinet post, with the influential former defence minister immediately focusing on the issues of forced labour, infringements on human rights within companies and generating ways to increase the assimilation of refugees within Japanese society.

Two years after Nakatani had taken the post, however, Kishida suddenly scrapped it and wrapped its responsibilities into another advisory post on wages and employment issues, with Nakatani no longer overseeing the issue. That, rights activists say, was a mistake.