Originally published on June 24, 2019.
Using a book review in the Sankei Shimbun as its point of departure, this essay reflects on the significance of the now-defunct opinion magazine Shokun!, the history of criticism of the Asahi Shimbun, and the depth of a veteran editor’s life lived consistently as a self-declared center-right thinker.
It also touches on the author’s distrust of Oda Makoto and on the changing public perception of weekly magazines, reconsidering the role of magazines as arenas of public discourse.

2019-06-24
It is said that when Bungeishunju asked him to take part in a roundtable discussion, he demanded a particular hotel, asked the amount of the honorarium, and then requested an increase on the spot.
So it was just as I had thought.

The following is from yesterday’s book review page of the Sankei Shimbun.
An Apologia for Shokun!
What an enviable life the author has lived.
By 仙頭寿顕.
(Soshisha, 1,800 yen plus tax.)
A veteran editor who served as an editor of Shukan Bunshun at Bungeishunju and as editor-in-chief of the opinion magazine Shokun! recounts, in his distinctive style, detailed exchanges with writers he was in charge of, topics connected with them, and his commentary on books and articles he read.
What appears throughout is not straightforward joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure, but wit and irony, together with three recurring figures: George Orwell, the British writer known for Nineteen Eighty-Four; Nakamura Kikuo, the political scientist who drafted the unified platform as the representative of the right wing at the time of the unification of the left- and right-wing Socialist parties; and Mrs. Sento, described as a “comrade in shared concern.”
Most of the people discussed are either friends and acquaintances, or people whom we know only one-sidedly through television, so once one begins reading, it becomes impossible to stop.
There were also quite a number of surprising stories.
When the proofs of a dialogue between Mayumi Moriyama, the first female Chief Cabinet Secretary, and Dave Spector were sent out for checking, a “secretary,” formerly from the police, reportedly marked several lines of Spector’s remarks with the instruction “cut,” and declared that it could not be published unless they were removed.
The author is angry at police power.
I feel the same way, but I also think this reveals one aspect of how society’s view of weekly magazines as a whole has changed.
I had somehow felt that Oda Makoto, who in Beheiren (Citizens’ League for Peace in Vietnam) also praised North Korea, was not someone who could be trusted as a human being.
It is said that when Bungeishunju asked him to take part in a roundtable discussion, he demanded a particular hotel, asked the amount of the honorarium, and then requested an increase on the spot.
So it was just as I had thought.
The suspension of Shokun! was regrettable again and again.
I now understood well the circumstances that it had ceased to be profitable, and that within Bungeishunju the number of people who were unhappy with its editorial line had increased.
However, if one considers the positive side, the role this magazine played was by no means small.
At the time, criticism of the Asahi Shimbun, which required courage, was pioneered by Masamori Sase and others, but what has become of the result?
At a time when many editors do not make their positions clear, the author called himself “center-right” and had maintained that stance since his student days.
How fulfilling the life of this author has been, having met countless numbers of people and confirmed through them the correctness of his own beliefs.
Many people will read this book and feel envy.
Review by 田久保忠衛, Professor Emeritus, Kyorin University.