Although less widespread than before, a "significant" number of xenophobic rallies organized by nationalist groups still occur on a regular basis in Japan, the Justice Ministry revealed Wednesday in its first-ever probe into hate speech.
The investigation into hate speech, which began to manifest itself around 2013 amid Japan's deteriorating relations with South Korea, found that anti-Korean activist group Zaitokukai and other ultraconservative organizations held 1,152 rallies on various themes from April 2012 to September 2015.
A total of 347 happened in 2013, 378 in 2014 and 190 from January through September in 2015.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.