Journal of Genocide Research (2001), 3(2), 257–272 Tokyo recognizes Auschwitz: the rise and fall of Holocaust denial in Japan, 1989–1999 1 ROTEM KOWNER In February of 1999 the Tokyo District Court ruled that Nazi Germany had murdered in its concentration camps many Jews by poison gas, as had been determined by the international tribunal for war crimes at Nuremberg. By conrming the basic fact of the Holocaust, the Japanese judicial system ended more than three years of confusion regarding the status of the Holocaust and the legitimacy of its denial in Japan (Kajimura et al., 1999). Furthermore, now one hopes that the decision will have extinguished the last embers of a re of Holocaust denial that had burned in Japan for a decade. The emergence of Holocaust-denial writings in distant Japan may surprise laymen unaware of the modern history of this nation. Japanese anti-Semitism has not evolved from an encounter with Jews and it does not have deep historical roots or religious origins. Anti-Semitism in Japan has never gained wholehearted governmental support; neither has it developed due to a signicant conict between Israel and Japan. In fact, Japanese anti-Semitism has appeared almost exclusively in written form and never sunk to the level of damage to property or physical attacks on Jews. For these reasons, Japan seems to occupy a special place in research on attitudes toward Jews in modern times (Kowner, 1997). Although the Japanese lack most of the features that characterize anti-Semitic societies, they elaborated an intricate chronicle of anti- and pro-Jewish activities during the twentieth century. The Japanese–Jewish discourse began only after Japan was forced to open its ports in 1854, and the rst outburst of anti-Jewish race hatred in Japan occurred with the outbreak of the Pacic War (1941–1945). In the latter half of the 1980s there was a resurrection of negative Jewish images, as a new wave of anti-Semitic writings swept Japan. During this literary “renaissance” the Christian pastor Uno Masami emerged as the most inuential author of anti-Semitic material. In 1986 alone, two of his books sold a combined total of 1.1 million copies (Uno, 1986a,b). Uno was certainly the most successful promulgator of anti-Semitism in modern Japan, but of course he was not alone. By 1987 nearly a hundred books that carried the word “Jew” in their titles were in circulation and many large bookstores displayed them in a special “Jewish corner.” Since the beginning of the twentieth century the Japanese have been intrigued ISSN 1462-3528 print; 1469-9494 online/01/020257-16 Ó 2001 Research Network in Genocide Studies DOI: 10.1080/1462352012006244 8