This essay, dated March 8, 2019, criticizes the structure of the abnormal anti-Abe campaign carried out by the media and opposition parties, using as examples the document-tampering issue at the Ministry of Finance, the Self-Defense Forces’ Iraq daily reports, and the reporting on the so-called “Prime Minister matter” in the Kake Gakuen case.
Grounded in the innocence of the Abe couple in the Moritomo affair, the lack of any connection between the Iraq daily-report issue and the second Abe administration, and the real nature of deregulation within the National Strategic Special Zones framework, it argues that it is the media itself, having forgotten factual reporting and transformed into a “political movement,” that should be subjected to the severe judgment of history.

2019-03-08
In that sense, what will be exposed to the judgment of history is the media side, including Asahi Shimbun, which has lost sight of the original meaning and role of journalism and has degenerated into a mere “political movement.”

I am reposting here the chapter I published on 2018-05-01 under the title, “When this frenzy comes to an end, the backlash suffered by the media, which forgot the basic duty of reporting facts, will be enormous.”
What follows is from Ryusho Kadota’s serialized column “From the Scene of the Incident” published in the April 26 issue of the monthly magazine WiLL.
This month’s theme is: Can the mass media endure “the judgment of history”?
All emphases in the text are mine.

This abnormal assault on the administration will undoubtedly remain in history.
The final stages of the Tanaka (Kakuei) administration and the Take****? (Noboru) administration were considerable, but not to this extent.
It feels as though almost the entire mass media has turned into members of the “Abeno-Seidāzu.”
For the media, blocking Abe’s third term in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election this coming September seems to be the supreme mission.
In order to block constitutional revision and radio-spectrum auctions, television, newspapers, and magazines are all “joining forces” and rushing to bring down the Abe administration.
But when they go this far, it actually becomes easier to understand.
On the Internet, people who blame absolutely everything on Prime Minister Abe and try to topple the administration are mockingly called “Abeno-Seidāzu” or “Abe-gā.”
The same applies to opposition lawmakers of such a poor level that they seem to regard the Diet as nothing more than a place for petty fault-finding and public hanging.
If it serves the purpose of bringing down Abe, then anything that can be used will do, even if it makes no logical sense.
In that sense, what will be exposed to the judgment of history is the media side, including Asahi Shimbun, which has lost sight of the original meaning and role of journalism and has degenerated into a mere “political movement.”

At present, there are mainly three matters through which the media and the opposition are demanding the resignation of the Abe administration.
The Ministry of Finance’s alteration of official documents.
The daily-report issue concerning the Self-Defense Forces deployment to Iraq.
And the “Prime Minister matter” remark by a prime ministerial secretary, as recorded by an Ehime Prefectural official.
If one follows any of them through to the end, each is the sort of matter that makes one ask, “Why does this make the head of the administration responsible?”
But to the people who are in the midst of impression manipulation, that is not visible.

First, in the Ministry of Finance’s document alteration case, many people were probably astonished when they saw the pre-alteration documents that were released.
That is because, contrary to the reporting, they proved the “innocence” of the Abe couple with regard to the 800 million yen discount on the Moritomo Gakuen land.
In the pre-alteration documents, the note repeatedly appears: “This matter is a petition case brought in August 2013 by Diet member Yoshitaka Konoike (Councillors, LDP, Hyogo) to the Kinki bureau.”
In addition to Mr. Konoike, the names of three politicians also appear: Kunio Hatoyama, Takeo Hiranuma, and Issei Kitagawa, and it is described in detail that the secretaries of Mr. Hatoyama and Mr. Hiranuma made approaches to the Kinki Local Finance Bureau.
But there is no involvement by the Abe couple.
In other words, this was not an Abe matter at all, but a “Konoike matter.”
Sankei Shimbun has also carried corroborating reports showing that the Konoike office’s “petition handling report” recorded that, dated September 9 of that year, the Konoike office had conveyed in detail to Mr. Kagoike the result of its petition to the local finance authorities.
Furthermore, the pre-alteration documents also describe how, in March 2016, the school side suddenly claimed that “new garbage had been found,” meaning something different from the garbage already known about, and even threatened that if the school opening was not in time, it would file a damages lawsuit.
Even so, the media and the opposition still keep insisting that Prime Minister Abe “had the price reduced by 800 million yen for a friend.”

The issue of the daily reports of the Self-Defense Forces unit dispatched to Iraq is even stranger.
The Iraq dispatch, which lasted for more than five years from 2003, belongs to the period of the Koizumi, first Abe, Fukuda, and Aso administrations, and has nothing to do with the second Abe administration.
I will set aside here the question of whether it is necessary to disclose daily reports of a highly confidential nature, but in any case, there is no reason why the current administration should be held responsible.

And the reporting on the “Prime Minister matter” statement by a prime ministerial secretary, as recorded by an Ehime Prefectural official, is also strange.
One of the pillars of Abenomics’ growth strategy is deregulation.
The National Strategic Special Zones concept was from the outset meant to punch holes in the bedrock regulations through which bureaucrats and industries act as one to protect vested interests, so it was inherently a “Prime Minister matter.”
To begin with, it was two months after the meeting with the prime ministerial secretary that Ehime Prefecture and Imabari City jointly proposed, through the National Strategic Special Zones framework, the establishment of “an internationally competitive university veterinary school.”
The mass media should properly explain why the words “Prime Minister matter” are supposed to mean “special favor for Kake Gakuen.”

Japan today is seeing a major gap in information and consciousness between the “information weak,” who rely only on newspapers and television, and those who also use the Internet as a source of information.
In other words, no matter how hysterically the opposition cries out for Abe’s resignation, only the information weak dance to that tune.
The fact that opinion polls fail to reflect reality, and yet when elections are actually held the result is ultimately “victory for the ruling parties,” shows this clearly.

The tendency of what may be called the “DR War,” a struggle between realists who face reality and dreamers who possess nothing but abstract idealism, is becoming more and more pronounced in Japan.
In any event, when this frenzy comes to an end, the backlash suffered by the media, which forgot the basic duty of reporting facts, will be enormous.

Kadota Ryusho.
Born in Kochi Prefecture in 1958.
Writer and journalist.
His principal works include Why Were You Able to Fight Despair? (Shincho Bunko) and The Man Who Looked into the Abyss of Death (PHP Institute), among others.
He received the 19th Yamamoto Shichihei Prize for This Life Devoted to Righteousness (Kadokawa Bunko).
His latest book is Song of Miracle: War, Homesickness, and Peggy Hayama (Shogakukan).