The author examines the sudden report on Prosecutor General Kurokawa’s betting mahjong, considering Japan’s press-club structure, the involvement of a former Asahi Shimbun reporter and Sankei Shimbun reporters, and the route to a weekly magazine report, while sharply criticizing the intentions and nature of the media behind it.

May 21, 2020
Last night, the betting mahjong of Prosecutor General Kurokawa was suddenly reported.
All discerning people who saw this news must have found it suspicious.
Last night, the betting mahjong of Prosecutor General Kurokawa was suddenly reported.
All discerning people who saw this news must have found it suspicious.
The Japanese media have a special structure.
For example, in the case of the Public Prosecutors Office, there are reporters assigned to the Public Prosecutors Office, and they are stationed there.
Each government ministry, and even large private-sector organizations, have dedicated press rooms and the like.
Reporters in charge cannot conduct sufficient reporting if they are mere beginners, so they remain assigned to their beats for quite a long time.
Among reporters assigned to the Public Prosecutors Office, probably no one except a beginner would have been unaware that Prosecutor General Kurokawa liked mahjong.
Until August six years ago, it is no exaggeration at all to say that the Asahi Shimbun controlled not only the Japanese media but also Japanese society.
The former Asahi Shimbun reporter in his fifties was, naturally, probably on intimate terms with Prosecutor General Kurokawa.
It is an obvious fact from the recent uproar opposing the extension of the retirement age that the Asahi Shimbun and opposition parties such as the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan had made Prosecutor General Kurokawa their target.
If we assume that the former Asahi Shimbun reporter, acting on the orders of the Asahi Shimbun, tried to bring down Prosecutor General Kurokawa, this matter becomes clear.
If only the former Asahi Shimbun reporter had been there, Prosecutor General Kurokawa would probably have suspected his intentions.
But what if two Sankei Shimbun reporters were there?
Did Prosecutor General Kurokawa not accept the request for an interview while playing mahjong because he felt reassured?
I have never played mahjong even once.
I wrote in this column long ago why I have never wanted to play it.
It is because of health reasons, especially that it is bad for the lower back, and because one is tied down for long hours.
However, are not many people who like mahjong all enjoying betting mahjong?
Pachinko is also gambling.
Many people who like mahjong probably do not play pachinko.
Mahjong has an intellectual element, while pachinko is a simple activity devoted entirely to gambling.
The Japanese media, which have tolerated the logic that gambling in pachinko is acceptable but mahjong is not, are also considerably stupid on this point.
The truth of this report probably lies in the response of the Sankei Shimbun.
“As has been our practice, we do not answer inquiries concerning reporting activities.”
The mahjong with Prosecutor General Kurokawa was an act of reporting.
Any reporter would surely want to interview a “man of the hour.”
However, if it had been only the former Asahi Shimbun reporter, whom he knew to be targeting him, Prosecutor General Kurokawa would naturally not have agreed.
The two Sankei Shimbun reporters were completely used by the former Asahi reporter.
For the Asahi, they were also perfect for use; in other words, it played a move that killed two birds with one stone.
After that, just as in the case of the beautiful TV Asahi reporter who brought down the administrative vice minister of the Ministry of Finance, they would not report it in their own company but would leak it to a weekly magazine.
That way, they can make it the responsibility of the former reporter alone.
My inference is probably almost 100 percent correct.
If we conclude on that premise, the Asahi Shimbun is truly evil, or else trash.
In reporting on the Wuhan virus, the greatest global incident since the war, it has completely abandoned the basic 5W1H of journalism, just like the people who control NHK’s news division, and has reported in accordance with China’s wishes, yet when it comes to matters like this, it pursues them to the very end.
This article will continue.