There might be hope for Millennials after all!

[Lynn]

Blaming the previous generations is not the same thing as blaming young Germans or Japanese. Both the Americans and the Germans are full of revulsion for the nazis. We acknowledge and remember those crimes, and have memorials for those killed in the Holocaust and in WWII. Most young Germans would never dream of objecting to a Holocaust memorial. Instead, they will more likely donate to it, and join in the chant of "Never again."

I don't think young Japanese would object to memorials in China or Korea, if asked. You make an interesting point about the donations and chants - and that seems to be an underlying expectation that they should, and that if they do not, it is a sign that they should feel guilty because they aren't actively pursuing contrition.

However, many modern-day Japanese actively push back against any reminders of their crimes in WWII - like Osaka breaking with SF over the comfort women memorial.

You see, this is where I see a scope of relevance expanding perception.

The one-time mayor of Osaka is not the PM of Japan, any more than the mayor of San Francisco is the President of the United States. In his case, he was a part of some weird spin off political party that has something to do with other politicians around Osaka, and that just merged into one of the political parties that actually count on a national level. I haven't found any evidence that he's a 'denier', but its also possible he's one of those sorts that thinks the issue is getting exploited for political gain, and viewing that statue as some sort of sneaky jab at Japan from political opponents. That's where a lot of push back comes from in the Japanese government. They are especially paranoid about North Korea with whom they have relations that the vast majority of Americans know nothing about.

On the street level, Japanese people are very much non-engaged in politics and much less informed as compared to most Americans. Certain segments engage, but typically its just when they are very much at the center of an issue - and that makes change just crawl. Change happens so slowly in Japan, but it does happen.

And that's why your 'many' here looks a lot like 'few' to me. It just isn't something that most Japanese people think about, and if asked, the typical answer would be "Yes, we already apologized for that" and then move on to something else.