this essay criticizes Arima of NHK’s News Watch 9 for repeatedly referring to the “merits and demerits of a long-term administration” and placing the Moritomo–Kake controversies and the cherry-blossom viewing party alongside Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s achievements. It examines Abe’s historic strengthening of the Japan–U.S. alliance, his relationship with President Donald Trump, Japan’s enhanced standing within the G7, and his global diplomacy, while questioning NHK’s responsibility as a public broadcaster.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his intention to resign because of the worsening of his chronic illness.
That evening, NHK’s News Watch 9 reported on the Abe administration within the framework of the “merits and demerits of a long-term administration.”
This essay argues that the program failed to give proper recognition to Prime Minister Abe’s achievements in strengthening the Japan–U.S. alliance to an unprecedented level, establishing a relationship of trust with President Donald Trump, and enhancing Japan’s standing within the G7 and the wider international community.
Originally published on August 28, 2020, it also severely questions the reporting of NHK’s News Watch 9 and Arima for placing the Moritomo–Kake controversies and the cherry-blossom viewing party on the same level as Abe’s historic diplomatic achievements.

2020-08-28
The Journalistic Responsibility of Arima of NHK’s News Watch 9 for Diminishing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Historic Achievements—The Japan–U.S. Alliance, Diplomacy That Takes a Panoramic Perspective of the World Map, and Japan’s International Standing
It is truly unbelievable that a man like that is, in practical terms, presiding over the flagship news program of Japan’s national broadcaster.
I am referring to Arima, the NHK employee—who is, in effect, a civil servant—who calls himself an anchor on NHK’s Watch 9.
Prime Minister Abe’s abilities are recognized by people throughout the world, apart from these men.
In particular, all the major media organizations and politicians in the United States recognize his exceptional ability to have established the closest personal relationship in the world with President Trump.
All the leaders of the G7 recognize it as well.
There must have been many viewers who were appalled by the statements that were repeated over and over again.
What words did he persistently repeat?
The merits and demerits of the long-term administration, the merits and demerits of the long-term administration.
Moreover, the “demerits” he cited were the Moritomo and Kake affairs and the cherry-blossom viewing party, which they themselves fabricated; it leaves one utterly speechless.
But tonight, I will never forgive him.
Japan has no bilateral relationship more important than the Japan–U.S. alliance.
In recent years, this has been especially true for the United States as well.
There is his achievement in making Japan–U.S. relations—which it is no exaggeration to describe as the most important bilateral relationship in the world—stronger than at any other time in history.
By establishing a long-term administration—which, compared with the tenures of successive German chancellors and Merkel’s present sixteen years, was scarcely anything at all—or, in other words, by winning every election and building a long-term administration through the judgment of the people, he elevated Japan’s presence in the world, particularly among the G7 nations, to the highest level in its history.
After all, before Prime Minister Abe appeared, Japan’s international presence had fallen to the ground.
These were achievements that no previous prime minister had been able to accomplish.
They were the achievements of diplomacy conducted across the globe, pursued quite literally at the risk of his life.
In response to achievements greater than words can express, Arima, who is nothing more than a single NHK employee, used the public airwaves not merely to deny them repeatedly.
By placing the Moritomo and Kake affairs and the cherry-blossom viewing party—the dubious fabrications jointly produced by The Asahi Shimbun, the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, and NHK’s Watch 9—on the same level as the administration’s achievements and calling them its “merits and demerits,” Arima, that red trade-union activist and sufferer from left-wing infantilism, diminished the great achievements of Prime Minister Abe, a man who was an even greater national treasure than the kind defined by Saicho.
Arima is guilty of a grave crime.
It now appears to be the season of the traditional Bon festival.
Because this pro-China figure is not himself Chinese, he presumably assumes that he will never be held accountable for anything in this life; however, King Enma in hell awaits this man with the severest torment prepared for him.