Were most Japanese Prime Ministers since the end of World War II ethnic Koreans? No, that's not true: Most Prime Ministers were related to prominent Japanese families and politicians in the post-war period, others had no such ties to political families, but family tree documents identified the Japanese ancestry of each leader.
The claim appeared on TikTok (archived here) on July 18, 2023 with a caption translated from Japanese by Lead Stories staff reading:
Hey hey, isn't this Japan?
The caption on the right in bold reads (Translated by Lead Stories Staff):
Those that become Prime Minister are often of Korean descent
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Aug 22 15:18:23 2023 UTC)
The video shows a list of Japanese Prime Ministers since the end of World War II, including prominent figures in Japanese politics such as Shigeru Yoshida, Eisaku Sato, Junichiro Koizumi, and Shinzo Abe, who are all listed as Koreans.
Those highlighted as "Japanese" politicians on the list consist of Prime Ministers Kakuei Tanaka, Masayoshi Ohira, and Keizo Obuchi who are often portrayed as supporters of right-wing policies and politics in Japan. The post falsely suggests that politicians who are not considered right-wing are instead not Japanese and have Korean ancestry.
Current Prime Ministers including Taro Aso, Yukio Hatoyama, Shinzo Abe, and Fumio Kishida, are related to prominent Japanese families and former politicians politicians. The Hatoyama family started early in politics in Japan's Meiji era (1868-1912), Aso and Abe are tied to former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, and Abe is also tied to another prominent politician, Eisaku Sato. Kishida's grandfather Masayoshi Kishida, was a former politician and businessman.
Other former Prime Ministers such as Yoshihide Suga, Yoshihiko Noda, and Naoto Kan, had no such ties to political families but each provided family trees that identified their Japanese ancestry. Shigeru Yoshida, who is an important figure in Japanese post-war politics, was from a Samurai family who was adopted into the Yoshida family during the Meiji period in 1881.
Those listed as ethnic Korean in the post all have a Japanese lineage according to their family trees.
