this essay examines Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s press conference announcing his resignation because of worsening illness and severely questions the conduct of reporters from Nippon Television, Shoko Egawa, and The Nishinippon Shimbun, as well as the quality and responsibility of Japan’s television and newspaper media.

2020-08-28
The Quality of Japan’s Television and Newspaper Reporters Exposed at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Resignation Press Conference—Questions Directed at an Ailing Prime Minister and the Responsibility of the Media
I believe that many Japanese citizens watched Prime Minister Abe’s press conference, which concluded just a short while ago.
There must have been many people who thought that the standard of the female reporters in the Japanese media, the reporters working for television stations, and the reporters from regional newspapers was far too low.
First of all, there was the appalling and utterly discourteous question from the female reporter of Nippon Television. (I hardly ever watch this television station except for its broadcasts of baseball and other sporting events. It is a television station that, on Sundays after Going!, calmly broadcasts outrageous and malicious reports claiming, among other things, that the Nanjing Massacre occurred, as well as strange reports concerning the Ainu.) This female reporter, the very embodiment of vulgarity, said something to the effect that he was abandoning the administration amid the COVID-19 crisis.
If Nippon Television considers the COVID-19 crisis to be so serious, then direct your anger at China, even if only once. Calculate the enormous losses Japan has suffered because of China and demand compensation, even if only once—and only then should you speak.
Shoko Egawa and the female reporter from The Nishinippon Shimbun—what appalling women they are.
It was precisely Prime Minister Abe’s responses to these foolish questions that demonstrated that he was a politician possessed of extraordinary character and qualities.
Are these really the questions to direct at a prime minister who had to undergo seven hours of medical examinations at a hospital, who had to undergo more than three additional hours of examinations even on the day he received the results, and who, because of that illness, announced his intention to resign at an exquisitely judged moment so that the governance of Japan would proceed without disruption?
And when the press conference ended, were those people who call themselves reporters and were present there incapable of offering even a single round of applause in gratitude?
As long as people such as these call themselves reporters and interfere in matters of national government and diplomacy, Japan faces a troubled future.
Of course, that is presumably exactly what the anti-Japanese states of China and the Korean Peninsula desire.
I say this to the people of Japan!
You must not accept television and newspaper reports at face value.
You must not interfere in matters of national government or diplomacy without reading monthly magazines filled with authentic essays.