SUSPENSION OF KOREAN ART IN JAPAN

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An exhibition featuring a statue commemorating Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual slavery, has been suspended in Nagoya, Japan, and other works to be displayed are also deprived of the opportunity to meet Japanese spectators. One Japanese artist has blasted the situation as something only possible in an autocratic country, saying the independence of art has been violated.

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This artwork placed in front of the peace statue of a girl commemorating victims of Japan's wartime sexual enslavement is titled "Portrait of the Times." The Shinzo Abe administration pays tribute at the Yasukuni Shrine which honors class A war criminals and also seeks to revise the nation's pacifist constitution. This artwork described Japanese society turning to the far right as a "grave." This whole exhibition has been put to a halt.

[Soundbite] KATSUHISA NAKAGAKI(JAPANESE SCULPTOR) : "I didn't hear an explanation or receive any papers on why my work can't be displayed. They just said they were sorry."

The artist finds the situation utterly deplorable, something that cannot and should not happen in a democracy.

[Soundbite] KATSUHISA NAKAGAKI(JAPANESE SCULPTOR) : "Through discussions, everyone can search for the meaning of an artwork. That's democracy. It's autocracy if that's not allowed and blocked using violence."

Nakagaki had a similar experience five years ago when artworks displayed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum were removed. He said the Abe administration has taken away the freedom of expression guaranteed under the Constitution and violated the independence of culture and arts.

[Soundbite] KATSUHISA NAKAGAKI(JAPANESE SCULPTOR) : "We need to tell the next generation that war crimes must never be committed again. Japan needs to instill an ideology of peace but the Abe Cabinet has forgotten about it."

The PEN Club, an organization of some 1,000 Japanese writers, will hold a news conference Wednesday to denounce the suspension of the exhibition as the most blatant case of censorship witnessed since World War Two and call for the resumption of the event.