August 9, 2020. This article revisits a 2020 THEMIS report on the G4 swine influenza virus, warnings of emerging viruses in China, and suspicions then raised concerning the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin of SARS-CoV-2. It preserves the original arguments as part of the historical record while emphasizing transparency, scientific investigation, and the responsibility of journalism to pursue the truth.

August 9, 2020
Every time I saw an advertisement for the monthly magazine THEMIS at the bottom of a newspaper page, I thought that I should subscribe to it.
However, because it was available only by subscription, I found the procedure bothersome and had never done so.
But when I saw the lineup of articles in this month’s issue, I concluded that this was a magazine I ought to read.
I therefore went online and subscribed for six months.
The current issue arrived almost immediately.
This monthly magazine, too, should be essential reading for Japanese people who genuinely wish to know the truth about what is happening.
Once they begin reading it, they will immediately realize something.
It is hardly an exaggeration to say that much of the Japanese mass media—and probably much of the world’s mass media as well—fails to report the full truth of many important matters.
Yet what is written here should really be perfectly ordinary.
First-rate people do what ought naturally to be done.
Second- and third-rate people fail to do even what ought naturally to be done.
Those who are truly first-rate constantly seek perfection.
If much of the media fails to pursue and report the truth, that itself demonstrates the mediocrity of much of the institution.
The monthly magazine THEMIS perfectly vindicates the argument I was among the first in Japan to make explicitly: that the Asahi Shimbun is by no means Japan’s finest representative of journalism.
The following is from an article headlined, in substance, “The Fear of a New Highly Virulent Virus Emerging from China—A Mutating, Stealthy Virus Capable of Evading Immune Defenses May Be Seeking Entry into Japan.”
The introductory section is omitted.
【A More Infectious Swine Influenza Virus】
At the end of June 2020, a research group including scientists from China’s disease-control institutions published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America concerning a newly identified swine influenza virus.
The 2020 PNAS paper did indeed report a Eurasian avian-like H1N1 swine influenza lineage known as “G4,” detected in pigs in China, with characteristics associated with increased potential for human infection.
The researchers conducted surveillance of swine influenza viruses in several regions of China between 2011 and 2018 and identified a new reassortant type.
They designated this genotype “G4.”
The study reported that it contained internal genes derived from the 2009 pandemic H1N1 lineage and possessed characteristics relevant to adaptation to humans.
THEMIS cited this research as a warning of the potential danger posed by newly emerging infectious diseases.
The magazine then turned to questions surrounding the origin of SARS-CoV-2 and presented suspicions concerning a possible connection with the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Against the background of research conducted there on coronaviruses and other dangerous pathogens, the article raised questions about whether the institute could have been related in some way to the emergence of the new coronavirus.
It also cited views expressed by Yang Yi, the Chinese-born Akutagawa Prize-winning novelist, in her book Wagaki Teki “Xi Jinping” (“My Enemy, Xi Jinping”).
The THEMIS article further referred to claims involving coronaviruses collected from bats in Zhoushan and their alleged similarity to SARS-CoV-2.
On that basis, the article argued that there was a strong possibility that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been engaged in “the development of biological weapons.”
One point must be made completely clear.
That was a claim presented in the THEMIS article in 2020.
Research and international debate over the origins of SARS-CoV-2 have continued since then.
In its June 2025 assessment, the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens stated that the weight of the available evidence suggests zoonotic spillover, either directly from bats or through an intermediate host.
At the same time, WHO stated that important information—including information concerning work and biosafety conditions at laboratories in Wuhan—had still not been provided, and therefore all hypotheses, including a laboratory-related origin, remain under consideration.
Modern scientific research has also identified horseshoe bats of the genus Rhinolophus as the natural reservoirs of SARS-related coronaviruses and the likely evolutionary source of the virus responsible for the 2002–03 SARS outbreak.
Accordingly, the statement in the 2020 article that “Zhoushan bats” themselves were the hosts of the 2002–03 SARS virus should be understood as part of the article’s argument at that time and distinguished from the more precise scientific understanding available today.
But none of this diminishes the importance of demanding full disclosure concerning the origin of an infectious disease, detecting new viral threats at the earliest possible stage, and scientifically investigating every plausible hypothesis, including those involving research facilities.
That is precisely why I introduced this THEMIS article in 2020.
When an unknown infectious disease strikes the world, what is required is neither political calculation nor predetermined conclusions by the media.
What is required is an exhaustive investigation of the facts.
Whether the party concerned is the Chinese government, WHO, or a research institution, complete transparency must be demanded when information affecting the lives and safety of the entire world is at stake.
Seek the truth.
Report the facts.
When legitimate questions remain, investigate them.
That should be the most elementary duty of journalism.
The remainder is omitted.