hankyoreh

A visitor sits next to a comfort woman statue at an art exhibition titled “After ‘Freedom of Expression?’” at Citizen’s Gallery Sakae, a public facility in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. The exhibition was suspended just three days after it opened. (Yonhap News)

The Osaka District Court ruled Friday that it was improper to prohibit “After ‘Freedom of Expression’?” — an exhibition featuring a “peace statue” symbolizing victims of sexual enslavement by the Japanese military — over concerns about the public’s safety.

For a time, it seemed like the Osaka exhibition might go the way of another peace statue exhibition in Nagoya that was forced to shut down the day before. It’s fortunate indeed that the court’s decision paves the way for the exhibition to go ahead.

We welcome this decision by a Japanese court to defend freedom of expression, and we hope that no further peace statue exhibitions are halted by violence.

The court was quoted in press reports as saying, “the refusal [of operators] to grant use of facilities must be reserved for special circumstances in which it is not possible to prevent disorder through means such as police security.” Instead, the court ordered that the organizers should be allowed to go ahead with the exhibition as scheduled.

The decision was the obvious and correct one: restrictions on freedom of expression must be held to a very strict standard, even when matters of the public’s safety are involved.

If we consider the repeated past instances where peace statue exhibitions were suspended because of right-wing intimidation tactics, this decision could hopefully go down as a precedent in Japanese society — an example of refusing to bow to violence for the sake of peace and solidarity.

It’s nothing new to see the Japanese right-wing employing violence and coercion to cover up the painful history of the occupation, even when it comes to things like exhibitions. When “After ‘Freedom of Expression’?” was first held as part of the international Aichi Triennale event in 2019, it ended up suspended after three days due to protests and terror tactics by the right.

Two years later, the same exhibition was held again in Nagoya, only to end up suspended for “safety” reasons by city authorities on Thursday after a package was delivered with a firecracker inside. In Tokyo, organizers have been unable to find any venue at all for the exhibition. It’s fortunate at least that the Osaka exhibition can go ahead.

The direct cause of the exhibition suspensions lies in the intimidation and violence employed by Japan’s right-wing. But it’s difficult to dispute that Japanese authorities bear a far larger share of the blame for their irresponsible behavior in using that violence as a pretext for refusing to take action on — and even encouraging — the exhibition shutdowns.

Commenting on the Osaka court’s decision, Osaka Prefecture Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura noted that there were “childcare facilities inside the [exhibition venue],” arguing that “the obvious thing to do would be to cancel usage approval from the standpoint of safe facility management and operation.”

And it isn’t just Osaka authorities who view things this way. The reality of Japan today is one where the central government refuses to take decisive action against the coercive tactics of right-wingers, as it seeks to avoid and ignore matters of history.

Hopefully, this court’s decision can be an occasion for Japanese society to reflect on the meaning of peace statue exhibitions.

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]