This essay introduces the prologue of The Crimes and Punishment of the Mass Media by Masayuki Takayama and Rui Abiru.
It examines the postwar WGIP information program, the role of major Japanese media such as Asahi Shimbun and NHK, and the political significance of Shinzo Abe’s criticism of media “fake news.”

2019-03-29
Shinzo Abe is one of the few politicians striving to restore the correct understanding of history.
Just before launching his second administration, he directly named the Asahi Shimbun, which still clings to WGIP.

The Crimes and Punishment of the Mass Media by Masayuki Takayama and Rui Abiru, first published on February 10, 2019, is a book that every Japanese citizen who can read should read.
Takayama Masayuki, the only truly unique journalist in the postwar world, and Rui Abiru, one of the finest active newspaper reporters, both from the Sankei Shimbun, discuss these issues in dialogue form.
It is also a book that is easy for elderly readers to read.
The sections marked with asterisks are my own comments.

Introduction.
In 2017, the Asahi Shimbun’s reporting on the Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Gakuen scandals received the JCJ (Japan Congress of Journalists) Award.
The JCJ Award is supposed to honor outstanding journalistic activity.
It must have been a mistake, or perhaps a bad joke.
Japanese journalism today is wandering aimlessly as an entire industry.
There are even media organizations shamelessly claiming that they have the “freedom not to report.”
The Asahi Shimbun in recent years has gone completely astray and has become nothing more than a newspaper of slander that vents resentment against the Abe administration and the Japanese people.
Yet JCJ claims it seriously awarded such a newspaper.
The name of journalism itself is disgraced, and even more shocking is the response of the media that does not find this strange.
Has the mainstream media of Japan already died.

When did the childish notion arise that the mission of the press is opposition to power, that liberalism alone is absolute justice, and that any lie is acceptable so long as it serves anti-power liberal ideology.
This is a perfect definition of the concept I discovered called “left-wing infantilism.”

The Asahi Shimbun openly declared this in 2007 in its front-page statement titled “Revival of Journalism.”
It was not that long ago.
But its roots are deep.

Japan defeated Qing China.
It also defeated Russia, the strongest power of the time.
Both wars were fought in self-defense, yet before long Japan had become the “enemy to be defeated” by the United States, which championed white supremacy.
Japan responded calmly to the war that was forced upon it and fought as best it could.
Although Japan lost the war, it liberated the colonies that formed the foundation of white imperialism and opened a new era in which not only whites but Asians and Africans could establish independent nations.

Clausewitz said that war is the continuation of politics by other means.
In that sense Japan carried out remarkable international politics by bringing a swift end to white imperialism, which had treated other peoples as less than human.
But for that reason Japan bore the jealousy and resentment of the white powers and, under the name of postwar policy, its national structure, its history, and even the ethnic consciousness of the Japanese people were dismantled physically and psychologically.
In their place Japan was implanted with a masochistic historical view portraying it as a brutal aggressor that oppressed and massacred Asian peoples.
This was the falsification of history through what they called the War Guilt Information Program (WGIP).

The Asahi Shimbun and NHK stood at the scene of this process.
Even while knowing it to be false, they accepted the dismantling of Japan and the masochistic view of history in order to survive.
It may have been an emergency measure, but even after Japan regained independence they continued to defend and propagate these distorted values and historical views in order to justify themselves.
Japanese people themselves have begun to notice this distortion.

Shinzo Abe is one of the few politicians striving to restore the correct understanding of history.
Just before launching his second administration he directly named the Asahi Shimbun, which still clings to WGIP, and pointed it out as fake news.
This should be understood as a declaration of war to restore the correct historical narrative.

For the mass media, which believed themselves to be in an absolutely safe zone and had never been ashamed of reporting falsehoods, this must have been a shocking event.
Moreover it led to the great defeat of the Asahi Shimbun being forced to retract all of its articles based on the testimony of Seiji Yoshida.
The reason they now rush recklessly to destroy Abe is simple.
If they lose this battle, only bankruptcy and closure await them.

Seventeen years ago I myself was inside the mass media.
I was merely a newspaper reporter.
That is precisely why I understand their hypocrisy and sense of privilege.

This book is a dialogue with Rui Abiru, a younger colleague from the Sankei Shimbun.
Our generations differ.
Our fields were different as well, but he was already an excellent reporter in those days.

Today Abiru is unquestionably one of the flagship reporters of the Sankei Shimbun.
He possesses both keen insight and strong writing ability.
We have continued our association even after I became an OB.

Since the 1990s he has followed Shinzo Abe closely.
He continued to interview him even during the difficult years after the collapse of Abe’s first administration.
He is one of the very few journalists who recorded the many direct statements of Abe, who has now become a key figure on the world stage.

Even today (2019/2/12) NHK reported again on Abe using the fake Moritomo-Kake narrative created by the Asahi Shimbun and opposition politicians acting as agents of anti-Japan forces.
They included the claim that Abe’s character could not be trusted, based on a so-called opinion poll of fewer than two thousand respondents.
The way the anchor Kuwako presented the figures on Watch9 was pure psychological manipulation.
She read the figures as “disapproval rate 37 percent compared to approval rate 47 percent.”
If there were no intention of manipulation she would simply say approval 47 percent and disapproval 37 percent.
By phrasing it that way they try to implant in viewers’ minds the idea that the disapproval rate is high.
Meanwhile the Liberal Democratic Party consistently has support around 50 percent while the Constitutional Democratic Party remains around 5 percent.
Yet NHK never announces it that way.
They have never said “LDP 50 percent versus CDP 5 percent.”
In fact today they did not even announce party support rates at all.
Japanese citizens should assume the opposition’s support rate was unbelievably low.

Abiru also has the vitality to write a blog under his real name and publish books while maintaining his busy reporting career.
His columns are popular among young readers.
His perspective is sound.
This book is a frank discussion with such a younger colleague about the state of Japanese media.
I hope it will be of some help when thinking about Japan.