While examining the “Pavlov’s dogs” mentality within Asahi Shimbun, the author recognizes the fundamental danger of insiders speaking on history, politics, or national philosophy.
Through the verification by Hiroshi Hasegawa and case studies involving Eri Hotta and Kenzaburo Oe, this article exposes how insiders are structurally vulnerable to ideological manipulation and foreign influence.

At the same time, I began to think about the danger of typical insiders speaking about history or politics, or about the philosophy of a nation.
2016-12-09
After reading Noriyoshi Hanada’s article titled “The Asahi Shimbun Is an Agitprop Leaflet, and ‘Pavlov’s Dogs’ Swarm Within the Asahi,” I came to this realization.
Within the Asahi, there swarm “Pavlov’s dogs” who automatically view anything associated with the “former Japanese military” as evil.
Hiroshi Hasegawa, one of Asahi Shimbun’s most capable reporters, a veteran journalist who continued on-site reporting even after reaching retirement age, was outraged by the false reporting scandal over comfort women two years earlier.
He stopped working for Asahi and spent eight months thoroughly interviewing Asahi Shimbun employees and retirees.
The conclusion he reached was entirely correct.
In other words, the fact that on December 7, on page 13 of the opinion section, Asahi Shimbun had two so-called cultural figures sympathetic to Asahi write essays criticizing prewar and wartime Japan and the Japanese government clearly proved that Hasegawa’s conclusion, reached after more than eight months of verification, was correct.
At the same time, I thought again about the danger of typical insiders speaking about history or politics, or about the philosophy of a nation.
I had never heard of a woman named Eri Hotta, who had been asked by Asahi to write editorials in line with Asahi’s intentions, so I investigated and was astonished.
She turned out to be the granddaughter of Shozo Hotta, a former president of Sumitomo Bank, a wealthy man with a large estate in Ashiya, known as the “pope” of Sumitomo Bank.
As previously mentioned, she apparently also taught at the University of Oxford.
Asahi Shimbun articles state that her work was praised by a Harvard professor, who was likely a sympathizer of Asahi Shimbun overseas.
However, if Eri Hotta’s writings were truly genuine, the New York Times would not have continued to publish ignorant, crude, and outrageous articles about Japan.
As for Kenzaburo Oe, did he grow up reading the Asahi Shimbun and become a “Pavlov’s dog” who sees the “former Japanese military” as evil, or did he himself turn Asahi Shimbun employees into such creatures.
The international community, which awarded a Nobel Prize to such a person and thereby halted the progress of the turntable of civilization, is now once again treating a similar individual as a candidate.
In many respects, this man could be said to be even worse than Oe.
Now then, why is it dangerous for insiders to write and speak about a nation’s politics and history.
To begin with, those who are able to discern the truth of matters are, in most cases, outsiders.
Nishibe Susumu, whom I can say without exaggeration is another version of myself, may appear to be an insider if one looks only at the fact that he graduated from the University of Tokyo and became a professor there.
However, the series of essays I have introduced clearly demonstrates that he is a genuine outsider.
Because I myself stand at the extreme edge of the outsider position, this is especially easy for me to understand.
Needless to say, there is a zero percent chance that Chinese or South Korean intelligence agencies would approach me.
This is because I am a completely anonymous person with no title whatsoever.
But the case is different for a typical insider like Ms. Hotta.
Through my work, I remember seeing Shozo Hotta make an extraordinarily large donation to a shrine or something similar in Ashiya.
The granddaughter of such a man is teaching at overseas universities.
For the intelligence agencies of fiercely and persistently anti-Japanese states, attempting to approach such a person would be a rudimentary maneuver.
Insiders must always be aware of such dangers.
It takes only a few days to conclude that there must be something behind it when a newspaper claiming a circulation of six million households suddenly publishes essays by such insiders.
This series continues.