This essay criticizes NHK Watch 9 anchor Arima for taking issue with Prime Minister Abe’s remarks during the declaration of a state of emergency, using phrases such as “he asserted.” It questions the unnatural narration added to edited footage, the anti-Abe tone of the reporting, and the fundamental problem of who should be entrusted with the flagship program of Japan’s national broadcaster.

April 21, 2020
I am watching Watch 9 now, and at the beginning of the program, Arima has now begun to find fault with Prime Minister Abe’s remarks when he issued the state of emergency declaration, saying things such as “he asserted.”
I am watching Watch 9 now, and at the beginning of the program, Arima has now begun to find fault with Prime Minister Abe’s remarks when he issued the state of emergency declaration, saying things such as “he asserted.”
In connection with this, NHK inserted a woman’s narration with a strange tone into the edited footage.
Probably the same woman had used a completely normal tone in the earlier report about the possibility of a major earthquake off Hokkaido and so on.
Arima is no different whatsoever from the politicians of the Constitutional Democratic Party.
Perhaps, frequently, on a daily basis, he exchanges anti-Abe, Abe-hating conversations with Okoshi, Takeda, and others, or with people such as Koichi Nakano, one of Takeda’s friends, and editorial writers of the Asahi Shimbun.
How long, exactly, does Japan intend to entrust the flagship program of its national broadcasting station to such a person?
That, together with the Constitution of Japan, is one of Japan’s fatal defects.