Foreign journalism tells lies to protect the national interest, while Japanese journalism tells lies that damage its own country’s interests.
Masayuki Takayama and Miki Otaka examine this contrast through the conduct of Yukio Hatoyama and Uichiro Niwa, the denunciations written by Bartolomé de las Casas, the Spanish Empire, the Treaty of Tordesillas, and China’s global external propaganda campaign.

2020-08-05
Background
This chapter examines the striking contrast between foreign journalism, which may employ falsehoods to defend its own country’s national interests, and certain elements of the Japanese media and intellectual establishment, which use falsehoods and apologies in ways that damage Japan’s national interests.
Masayuki Takayama and Miki Otaka question the psychology underlying the apologetic conduct of Yukio Hatoyama and Uichiro Niwa and trace its possible origins back to Bartolomé de las Casas, the Spanish Dominican missionary who denounced Spain’s conduct during its conquest of Central and South America.
They also discuss how Las Casas’s accusations were subsequently used in the anti-Spanish propaganda of England, the Netherlands, France, and other countries, and compare that history with China’s global external propaganda campaign, which seeks to vilify other countries, undermine their national prestige, and turn the resulting pressure into material gain.
The original text follows.
Lies Told to Damage the National Interest
Takayama: Foreign journalism believes that it is acceptable to tell a major lie if doing so serves the national interest.
In Japan, however, journalists tell lies in order to damage their own country’s national interests.
All laugh.
Otaka: Why are the two so completely opposite?
Takayama: I cannot understand the psychology behind it.
In your book, you discuss the strange conduct of such compulsive apologists as Yukio Hatoyama and Uichiro Niwa.
Otaka: I sometimes wonder whether they have fallen into traps, had their weaknesses discovered, and consequently been left with no choice but to stage public performances of apology.
Takayama: That may also be part of it.
In what He Qinglian calls a “propaganda war,” she describes China’s grand external propaganda campaign: how China slanders and denigrates other countries, undermines their national prestige, and turns the resulting damage into money.
The original model for this, however, can be traced back to Spain.
When Spain was invading Central and South America, Bartolomé de las Casas, himself a Spanish Dominican missionary, denounced the inhuman cruelty of his own countrymen.
Otaka: His accusations were compiled in A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, published in Japanese by Iwanami Bunko.
The work was written around 1542 and published in 1552.
Takayama: Las Casas did not believe that he was denigrating his own country.
He made his accusations in accordance with what he regarded as his “conscience” as a missionary.
Las Casas himself, however, also exploited Indigenous people as slaves.
Although he was doing much the same thing, he defended himself by presenting himself as slightly more gentlemanly than the others.
Perhaps a similar kind of hypocrisy also exists in the minds of Yukio Hatoyama and Uichiro Niwa.
Otaka: That is a particularly pernicious form of hypocrisy.
During the Age of Exploration, Spain preceded the British Empire in becoming an empire so vast that it was described as “the empire on which the sun never sets.”
Commanding its formidable armada, Spain conquered territories throughout the world and built a vast empire.
Takayama: At that time, Spain and Portugal, which dominated the world’s seas, concluded the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.
With the approval of Pope Alexander VI, it established a method for dividing newly acquired territories outside Europe.
A meridian line was drawn in the Atlantic Ocean approximately two thousand kilometres west of the Cape Verde Islands, which lie off Senegal on the coast of West Africa.
New territories east of that line were assigned to Portugal, while those to its west were assigned to Spain.
The G2 of that age simply decided the matter between themselves.
Otaka: Perhaps China copied this agreement when it began speaking of the “First Island Chain” and the “Second Island Chain.”
Laughs.
Takayama: China is merely an arrogant great power, but it certainly does give that impression.
Returning to the Treaty of Tordesillas, Portugal acquired territories including the East Indies, while Spain gained control of most of the divided territory, particularly in Central and South America.
After that division, England, the Netherlands, France, and other countries began pursuing colonies of their own, but Spain stood before them as an enormous obstacle.
The question was how they could bring Spain down.
Las Casas’s denunciatory book was therefore put to use.