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On August 7, Koike confirmed that she probably won't be sending a condolence message to the annual memorial service held on September 1st for Korean people who were killed in the massacre that occurred after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake.
(1/?) https://mainichi.jp/articles/20200807/k00/00m/040/157000c.amp#click=https://t.co/HJ5uOVAVjF
(1/?) https://mainichi.jp/articles/20200807/k00/00m/040/157000c.amp#click=https://t.co/HJ5uOVAVjF
2. Sending such a message used to be customary among Tokyo's governors, but in 2017 Koike broke this tradition and, as @robfahey notes in this article, she told the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly that she acknowledged "different opinions" on the massacre. https://www.tokyoreview.net/2017/09/koike-korean-problem/
3. Koike also skipped the memorial service in 2018. This article reports that when she was asked whether she was aware the massacre is officially recognised by the Japanese government, she responded:
"Things such as that are for an historian to unravel." https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180901/p2a/00m/0na/019000c
"Things such as that are for an historian to unravel." https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180901/p2a/00m/0na/019000c
4. Despite criticism, Koike again refused to pay her respects in 2019. Right-wing hecklers, among whom Katsushika Ward assembly member Nobuyuki Suzuki, did show up to the service and shouted denialist slogans at the service-goers from just 30m distance. http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/908156.html
5. Although Japanese counter-protesters have apparently also been turning up to 'shield' the service-goers, it should be noted that the right-wing hecklers didn't start disrupting the service until 2017, when Koike skipped the event for the first time. http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/english_editorials/954112.html
6. What should also be noted is that one of Koike's 2016 election promises was to stop a propriety from being leased to a Korean school, saying that it should instead be used to "serve local needs", as if Zainichi Koreans aren't also citizens of Tokyo. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/08/01/national/plan-for-new-korean-school-in-tokyo-threatened-by-koike-election/
7. But perhaps most absurd of all is the fact that she still doesn't seem to have clarified what she meant by saying that there are "various opinions" about the massacre. Does she, or does she not recognise that at least 6000 Koreans are estimated to have been murdered?
