Naoki Hyakuta says Japan was lured into the Second World War by America while liberating Asia from white colonialism.
He denies war crimes such as the 1937 Nanjing massacre, when Japanese troops killed thousands of Chinese civilians. Such views are common among revisionists in Japan. Mr Hyakuta, however, sits on the board of the nations public service broadcaster.
NHK has annual revenue of more than $6bn (£3.7bn), putting it close to the BBC. Like the British broadcaster, it is obliged to be impartial and aloof from the political fray, so the company is under intense fire for the extraordinary views of four its governors, all reportedly handpicked by the right-wing Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. The 12-member board controls programming policy and budgets.
The furore began two weeks ago in a press conference by NHKs new chairman, Katsuto Momii, who stunned journalists by saying it was only natural that NHK should follow the government line on Japans territorial disputes with its neighbours. When the government says left we cant say right, he said. He then defended Japans wartime system of sex slaves, saying such a system was commonplace in war.
Next up it was the turn of board member Michiko Hasegawa. In an essay written a month before her appointment, she eulogised an ultra-nationalist who committed ritual suicide a decade ago in protest outside Japans liberal-left Asahi newspaper. There could be no better offering, said Ms Hasegawa.
Mr Hyakuta is a vocal supporter of Toshio Tamogami, the candidate for Tokyo governor who was sacked as air-force general in 2007 for denying the accepted narrative of the war. In a speech last week campaigning for Mr Tamogami, he called the Nanking Massacre a fabrication.
The appointments have crystallised lingering fears about Mr Abes agenda. He wants to radically overhaul three of Japans basic modern charters: the 1946 pacifist constitution, the education law and the security treaty with the United States.
Critics say such a far-reaching project would have profound consequences for Japan, but the NHK controversy seems to show that Mr Abe intends to shut debate down.Momii is perfectly willing to, in effect, turn NHK into a propaganda mouthpiece of the current administration, thundered an unusually fierce editorial in The Japan Times.
The battle lines around Mr Abes agenda are set to harden. His ruling Liberal Democratic Party is preparing to challenge the constitutional ban on collective self-defence, a pillar of Japans post-war pacifist stance. Opinion polls suggest that more than half of the public oppose Mr Abes pet project. Having the state broadcaster on your side no doubt helps
This attitude by the Japanese government is why the Chinese and Korean don't like them. What Japan need to do to calm its neighboring countries is to remove their WW2 war criminals from the shrine. Publically denounce these kinds of people and their behaviour back in WW2. Construct some memorials dedicated to the war crimes they committed (WW2 memorials are everywhere in Berlin !). Overhaul their education system to not gloss over their participations in WW2. These are the things that Germany did after WW2 and it showed that they learned from their mistakes.
