2024-01-15

The following is from Masayuki Takayama’s latest book, Henken Jizai: Who Buried Shinzo Abe?
This is the latest volume in a series of books based on his celebrated column in Shukan Shincho, but the original text has been polished even further, making it still easier to read.
This book alone makes him worthy of the Nobel Prize in Literature.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people throughout the world.
Who Determines Newspaper Reporters’ Salaries?
The relationship among the Sankei Shimbun, the Asahi Shimbun and Maoist China resembles rock-paper-scissors.
The Asahi cannot stand up to China.
It has fawned upon and flattered China like a pet dog.
Even the Cultural Revolution, in which 20 million people died, was portrayed by correspondent Ieshige Akioka as though it were something wonderful.
When Lin Biao, Mao’s number two, died in a plane crash while attempting to flee, Akioka continued to keep him alive for more than a year, writing, “He is still alive,” in accordance with Mao Zedong’s wishes.
Why did he continue writing such reports, which amounted to falsehoods?
It originated with Asahi president Tomoo Hirooka ordering Akioka, “Do not write anything inconvenient.”
Since then, those words have become the Asahi’s company policy.
For example, in the Kake scandal, the testimony of former Ehime Governor Moriyuki Kato completely dispelled the allegations.
Because that testimony was inconvenient for the Asahi, the newspaper did not write a single line about it.
China rewarded the devoted Asahi by giving Akioka the position of Japanese representative of the People’s Daily.
Other Asahi correspondents were also rewarded according to their services, with women provided to them locally or with positions such as editor-in-chief of the Japanese edition of the government magazine People’s China.
The Sankei Shimbun did not flatter China.
Correspondent Minoru Shibata discerned the madness of the Cultural Revolution from wall newspapers and reported it.
Beijing was enraged, expelled Shibata and closed Sankei’s bureau.
But that, in turn, angered Sankei.
Through Taiwan and various other routes, Sankei continued exposing what China was concealing.
China finally gave in and asked Sankei to reopen its Beijing bureau.
That was in 1998.
China expected Sankei to go a little easier on it as a result, but Sankei reported that both the hearts of the Chinese people and the waters of the Yangtze River were becoming even more polluted.
An enraged Yang Jiechi stopped issuing visas to Sankei correspondents and forced the bureau to close—a cowardly tactic that continues to this day.
China can defeat the Asahi, but it cannot defeat Sankei.
Then what about the relationship between Sankei and the Asahi?
In its pages, Sankei has exposed the Asahi’s fabricated reporting and claimed the scalps of several Asahi presidents, but Sankei’s circulation and salaries are both overwhelmingly lower.
Sankei reporters are poached one after another, and Sankei continues to grow weaker.
The Asahi is paper, and Sankei is rock.
In fact, the one helping the Asahi in this game of rock-paper-scissors is Dentsu.
Dentsu is not merely an advertising agency.
It has a division called the Newspaper Division, which exercises complete control over advertisements placed in newspapers.
Even for the same advertisement, the Asahi may receive five columns, the Yomiuri half that amount, and Sankei half again.
It is virtually Dentsu that determines the salaries of reporters at each newspaper.
That is why even the Asahi, the worst newspaper in the world, will never go bankrupt.
Consider, for example, the time when Japan bid to host the FIFA World Cup.
Dentsu, which was managing the bid, proposed, “How about co-hosting it with South Korea?”
It was reportedly arranged by Haruyuki Takahashi and Chung Mong-joon, but no one wanted to co-host the tournament with such a country.
The Asahi then spread the comfort-women lie while simultaneously proclaiming “Long live Japan–South Korea co-hosting” in an editorial and arguing that “co-hosting would serve as good atonement.”
It went that far because Dentsu routinely favored it in the allocation of advertising.
The Asahi cannot even sleep with its feet pointing toward Dentsu.
Thus, the World Cup became a jointly hosted tournament, but the burden was, as expected, far too heavy for South Korea.
They bribed referees and staged a nightmare World Cup in which South Korea advanced by having Paolo Maldini kicked in the head during the match against Italy with no punishment, while Francesco Totti was shown a red card.
“South Korea Falls Short of the Final—Twenty years ago today, this was the lead story on the front page of the morning edition of the Asahi Shimbun’s Tokyo headquarters,” reporter Tetsuya Hakoda wrote in a recent column.
It was not an article mocking South Korea by saying, “Even after cheating like that, they still could not win the championship.”
It called South Korea’s advancement to the final four a “historic achievement” and wrote, “From that moment onward, South Korea was filled with the confidence that it could accomplish anything if it tried.”
In reality, however, crimes exploiting South Korea’s status as a preferred trading partner were subsequently uncovered.
It is certainly true that they misunderstood the words “You can do it if you try.”
Even so, whenever Dentsu gives an order, newspapers obey without question, and a newspaper like the Asahi is still wagging its tail 20 years later.
Haruyuki Takahashi, who stood at the center of that commotion, has now fallen into the hands of the law, and the recent Tokyo Olympics are also under investigation.
When the matter first caused an uproar, Prince Takeda was forced to take responsibility, but there were also voices expressing suspicion toward Dentsu.
It is entirely believable that the newspaper divisions of the respective newspapers silenced those voices.
Before every newspaper becomes as distorted as the Asahi, Dentsu’s Newspaper Division must be called to account for its tyranny, and advertising must also be directed to Sankei.
(September 1, 2022 issue)