
Kyodo via Japan Today: Aso calls Japan 'one race' nation
Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Taro Aso has called Japan a "one race" nation, an expression similar to a controversial one made in 1986 by then Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, sources close to him said Monday. Aso described Japan as having "one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race. It is nowhere else in other nations," in a speech during an opening ceremony Saturday of the Kyushu National Museum in Dazaifu, Fukuoka Prefecture, they said. Nakasone incurred criticism from the indigenous Ainu people living chiefly in Hokkaido.