This essay examines Japan’s long-term ODA to China and its global consequences.
Through a critical analysis of a TBS News 23 report on Africa, it questions the alarming role played by Japanese mass media in undermining their own nation.

2016-08-25
I wrote that until quite recently, Japan had continued to provide China with massive amounts of economic assistance in the form of ODA.
The following is an essay I published on July 22, 2015, titled “Last Night’s News 23 Was Truly Terrible.”
Last night’s News 23 was indeed terrible.
I wrote that until quite recently, Japan had continued to provide China with massive economic assistance in the form of ODA.
China, in recent years, has continued to provide the world’s largest economic assistance to Africa in order to secure resources.
I expressed concern that Japan’s funds may have been used wholesale for this purpose.
Japan is a country in which the “Turntable of Civilization” has turned, and as readers know, this is not arbitrary but a matter of divine providence, and as a nation that must lead the world alongside the United States, it is only natural that Japan should provide economic assistance to Africa.
Among recent prime ministers, Shinzo Abe is the most genuine statesman, and as is well known, he has begun in earnest to resume economic assistance to Africa.
China and South Korea, which persistently engage in anti-Japan propaganda, cannot be pleased by this.
Anti-Japan propaganda is also conducted as a movement to lower Japan’s value internationally.
The Japanese government decided to provide ODA for large-scale agricultural development in Mozambique.
In virtually any development project, it is impossible for all parties involved to be 100 percent satisfied.
Last night’s News 23 reported that a local farmer opposed Japan’s ODA out of fear that his land might be taken away.
It was said that an NGO paid all of this farmer’s expenses to visit Japan, had him express opposition to the Japanese government, and broadcast it widely on News 23.
There certainly seem to be NGOs with abundant funds, yet no explanation was given as to what kind of organization this NGO actually was.
In other words, it was a so-called civic group.
Is this not a truly chilling story.
Incidentally, while examining subscription figures for Sankei Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun, I was surprised to learn that Mainichi Shimbun still had more than three million subscribers.
That is because I had believed that the Mainichi had, in effect, ended long ago.
This means that the Mainichi’s influence on public opinion cannot be underestimated, and that TBS possesses far greater power than the Mainichi in shaping Japanese public opinion.
Is this not a truly frightening situation.
Even so, where in the world, particularly among advanced nations, can one find television stations and mass media that so gleefully report matters that demean their own country.