An essay criticizing the Japanese media, particularly NHK, for biased reporting on the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare statistics controversy. The text examines statistical methodology, the credibility of opinion polls, and the broader issue of media double standards in political reporting.

2019-02-14.
If the media, led by NHK, wishes to criticize the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as they do now, they should first conduct a survey of every voter with suffrage before criticizing.
You fools.
One example of their maliciousness was evident in last night’s reporting on NHK’s watch9.
Regarding the Labor Ministry issue, Arima stood entirely on the side of the opposition parties.
Facing Kuwako, afflicted with naive leftist infantilism, he began what looked like a picture-story lecture, as if a union activist were indoctrinating an innocent female university student.
He claimed that the fact that survey target companies had been replaced in 2015 was somehow proof of malicious manipulation by the government.
In reality, such changes are natural when considering the rapid turnover among corporate groups.
The opposition politicians—who could fairly be described as a collection of foolish and incompetent agents of anti-Japan states—seized the opportunity.
They could use it to divert the Japanese public’s increasingly harsh gaze toward South Korea.
And watch9 last night proved that this was exactly what happened.
Reluctantly, and almost unwillingly, they mentioned the statement made in the United States by the Speaker of the South Korean National Assembly at the very end of the political news segment.
Arima not only refrained from commenting on it, but immediately switched to the next topic.
Meanwhile, opposition politicians shamelessly declared the absurd lie that real wages were declining, citing documents of uncertain origin that they may have obtained from collaborators within the ministry.
Their conduct as political traitors has reached a level for which there is no cure.
What should watch9 have done.
They should have revealed the names of companies no longer active in the survey.
They should have revealed the names of companies newly included in the survey.
They should have revealed the names of companies removed from the survey.
Such actions should be obvious even to a kindergarten student.
Over the past thirty years, countless new types of companies have emerged and been listed on stock exchanges.
Therefore, it is entirely natural that the survey targets of the Labor Ministry would change.
Even if we set aside the malicious intentions of opposition politicians.
If those answering in the government lack the intellect to say that such changes are only natural, it is a pitiful situation.
Perhaps they do possess that intellect, yet they have shrunk under the flood of attacks from the mass media and lost their composure.
If opposition parties and media outlets such as Asahi and NHK insist that the ministry must conduct a full survey of all companies using manpower tactics—something fundamentally impossible.
Then Asahi, Mainichi, and Tokyo newspapers should first disclose the “oshi-gami” problem before criticizing the ministry.
They themselves.
The newspaper industry, which has long published distorted circulation statistics in order to collect high advertising fees, has no right to criticize the ministry for adopting a statistically appropriate sampling method instead of a full survey.
NHK also has no right to criticize the ministry.
After all, NHK frequently conducts opinion polls of only 2,000 people and presents the responses of about 1,850 as the national approval rating of the cabinet.
Moreover, these surveys are mainly conducted using landline telephones and on weekdays.
If the media, led by NHK, wishes to criticize the ministry in this manner, then they should first survey every voter with suffrage before criticizing.
You fools.
If the list of replaced companies were revealed, the opposition and Arima’s attack on the government would immediately collapse into the simple conclusion.
“Are you people idiots?”
That is likely why it could not be shown.
I have begun to harbor several suspicions.
Perhaps NHK obtained those documents and handed them to opposition politicians.
Perhaps it was also NHK reporters who provided the remarks of Olympic Minister Sakurada’s doorstep interview as ammunition for attack.
Indeed, the patients of leftist infantilism may be repeatedly engaging in classic “match-pump” tactics.