By Eastern Horizon with Malik Ayub Sumbal, October 9, 2026
Co-coordinator of World BEYOND War in Japan, Joseph Essertier is an American living in Japan who began actively opposing war in 1998 during the Kosovo War. Subsequently, he came out against Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and in 2016 the construction in Henoko and Takae that anti-base Okinawans have tenaciously resisted and successfully slowed down. He has recently written and spoken about Japanese activists who educate their fellow citizens about history and resist denialism surrounding the Asia-Pacific War. His research has mostly focused on language reform movements between the 1880s and 1930s in Japan that facilitated democracy, inclusivity, cultural diversity in Japan and abroad, and writing by women. He is presently an associate professor at the Nagoya Institute of Technology.
