Excerpt from Crimes and Punishments of the Mass Media (first published February 10, 2019), a dialogue between Masayuki Takayama and Rui Abiru. The discussion examines Marxist-Leninist influence within the Asahi Shimbun, its relationship with the Japan Teachers’ Union, and the ideological narratives surrounding North Korea and education policy in Japan.

February 16, 2019.
In fact, there were fewer than 700 such cases across the entire country of Japan.
This rather shows how strong social moral standards are, and it is actually a figure that deserves praise.
Crimes and Punishments of the Mass Media, first published on February 10, 2019, by Masayuki Takayama and Rui Abiru, is a book that every Japanese citizen who can read printed text must read.
Takayama, the unparalleled journalist of the postwar world, and Rui Abiru, one of the finest active newspaper reporters, both from the Sankei Shimbun, present their discussion in dialogue form, and the book is printed in a format friendly even for readers with presbyopia.
The following is an excerpt from page 162.
● Marxism-Leninism, the Asahi Shimbun, and the Japan Teachers’ Union.
Abiru.
When one reads the writings of Hiroshi Hasegawa, formerly of the Asahi Shimbun, he explains that the newspaper internally had factions divided between pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese groups.
Both the Soviet faction and the Chinese faction were equally problematic.
First of all, they were people who simply could not see reality.
Takayama.
Kim Il-sung of North Korea was exactly that structure in practice.
Whether pro-Soviet or pro-Chinese, they fought each other and purged the opposing side entirely.
Abiru.
According to Mr. Hasegawa, Marxism-Leninism had a rather deep influence.
The Asahi Shimbun praised North Korea, but other newspapers did so to some extent as well.
And the Japan Teachers’ Union followed the same pattern.
Motofumi Makieda, who served as chairman for twelve years from 1971 and was known as “Mr. Nikkyoso,” once told me in an interview that the person he most admired was Kim Il-sung.
Makieda himself even visited Kim Il-sung and praised North Korea by saying, “There are no thieves in this country,” and he also received a medal from North Korea.
The newspaper Choson Sinbo, the organ of Chongryon (the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan), reported in its October 15, 2007 issue Makieda’s greeting at a Chongryon central assembly as follows.
“Japan, which had been the aggressor toward Korea, has neither apologized nor provided compensation after the war, and instead raises the abduction issue while leaving the settlement of colonial rule unresolved.
This has led to the current abnormal relationship.
Above all, the starting point must be the settlement of colonial rule.
Koreans in Japan are still subject to sanctions and repression and suffer severe human rights violations.
If Japanese people work together to eliminate discrimination against Koreans in Japan, lift sanctions, and encourage support such as flood relief for Korea, diplomatic normalization will surely be achieved.”
This is entirely identical to North Korea’s own claims.
Furthermore, prefectural-level unions of the Japan Teachers’ Union have maintained exchanges with North Korea and have even made financial donations.
Until quite recently, the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun wrote absolutely no criticism of the Japan Teachers’ Union.
In recent years, partly because the Sankei Shimbun reported on Nikkyoso’s political activities, they have begun to mention it slightly, but until then it was completely taboo.
At present Nikkyoso does not attract much attention, so the issue is less visible.
One reason is that they are ideologically allies.
Another reason is that Nikkyoso provides advertising revenue.
Nikkyoso even places advertisements in Asahi’s newspapers aimed at children.
There was also the stereotypical perception that labor unions are automatically the “good side.”
Takayama.
Even today that perception has not disappeared.
In March 2018, it became a topic of controversy that extremely explicit sex education was being conducted at a municipal junior high school in Tokyo.
A Liberal Democratic Party member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly raised the issue, and while the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education decided to provide guidance, the ward’s board of education resisted, and the Asahi Shimbun reported this prominently.
Shortly afterward, the Asahi Shimbun published on March 30 an article titled “32 cases of high school students who became pregnant or gave birth leaving school at the recommendation of their schools.”
The article stated that according to a Ministry of Education survey, in fiscal years 2015–2016 there were 32 cases in public high schools where students left school after being encouraged by the school to withdraw because of pregnancy or childbirth.
However, reading the article carefully reveals that there were 371 cases of “voluntary withdrawal based on the decision of the student or guardian” in full-time high schools and 271 in part-time high schools.
That makes a total of 674 students leaving high school.
At first glance one might be surprised that the number is that large, but the total student population is about 2.3 million.
In percentage terms this is about 0.0003 percent.
It is an absolute exception among exceptions and cannot reasonably be generalized.
In fact, there were fewer than 700 such cases across the entire country.
This rather shows that social moral standards are strong, and it is a figure that deserves praise.
However, the Asahi Shimbun does not interpret it that way, but instead adopts a Nikkyoso-style conclusion that increasingly explicit sex education from junior high school is necessary to prevent pregnancy.
This article continues.