Starting in 2017, Yuriko Koike, who is currently running for reelection as the governor of Tokyo, broke with tradition and did not send a letter of tribute to an annual ceremony that, since 1974, has commemorated the killing of Koreans by Japanese military and vigilante groups following the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Tokyo governors, including Shintaro Ishihara, who was often accused of provoking xenophobia, have always sent a letter of tribute to be read at the ceremony, which is held at Yokoamicho Park in Sumida Ward on Sept. 1, the anniversary of the disaster. Koike herself sent a message in 2016 after she was first elected.

Her reason for not doing so since then is that she prefers to mourn all the people who died in the disaster, a sentiment that angered the memorial's organizers, since the people they memorialize had been murdered after false rumors spread that Koreans were poisoning wells and rioting. The vast majority of those who perished in the earthquake and attendant fires were not victims of human hatred. Koike is subsuming recognition of an atrocity in a generalized tribute to those who died tragically, thus making it appear as if that atrocity has disappeared.

On June 12, the Asahi Shimbun ran an article featuring nonfiction writer Naoki Kato, who has published extensively about the Korean massacre. The purpose of the article was to discuss the ramifications of a new demand being made on the organizers of the memorial service by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. In order for the city park authority to approve the service, the organizers must now formally pledge that they will not do anything that interferes with park management. If something happens while the service is being carried out that park management deems a violation of this pledge, they can stop it. And if the organizer doesn't obey this order, permission to use the park in the future might not be granted.