Despite fully understanding bureaucratic behavior, Asahi Shimbun chose to feign ignorance in order to attack the Abe administration. This essay exposes the emptiness of the National Strategic Special Zones controversy and condemns Asahi Shimbun for abandoning journalistic standards.

2017-08-01.
What follows is a continuation of the previous chapter..
A hollow and absurd uproar..
The author once heard the following episode directly from then–Prime Minister Abe, who had served as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary during the Junichiro Koizumi administration..
During a lunch break, while Mr. Koizumi was taking a nap in his office, a senior bureaucrat rushed in saying, “This is urgent business,” then soon exited the office and announced, “We have obtained Prime Minister Koizumi’s approval. We will proceed in this direction,” before leaving..
Yet when one peered into the office, Mr. Koizumi was still asleep….
It is surely nothing unusual for bureaucrats to advance their own policies by borrowing the authority of the prime minister..
Nevertheless, Asahi Shimbun pretends innocence and writes as follows..
“Even if a Cabinet Office official spoke forcefully, would a Ministry of Education official really rephrase that as ‘the Prime Minister’s intention’?”.
Even if the Ministry of Education, having lost its dispute with the Cabinet Office over the National Strategic Special Zones, invoked the “Prime Minister” or the “highest level of the Prime Minister’s Office” as an internal excuse, there is nothing strange about that..
Asahi Shimbun surely understands such bureaucratic habits, yet deliberately turns a blind eye in order to attack the Abe administration..
Whether the document actually existed or not, it never exceeded the realm of a so-called “suspicious document.”.
It truly was a hollow and absurd uproar..
“Perhaps Mr. Maekawa went beyond the norms expected of a bureaucrat,”.
Mr. Kato also remarked in an interview with the Sankei Shimbun..
Asahi Shimbun, too, may have gone beyond the norms expected of a news organization..
It is no longer merely a “suspicious document,” but a “suspicious newspaper,” or rather, a “fake newspaper.”.
To be continued..