Through the strong public support for the new era name “Reiwa,” the especially high support for the era-name system among younger generations, and Asahi Shimbun’s discomfort with Prime Minister Abe’s media appearances, this essay depicts the self-contradictions produced by anti-Abe sentiment.
It sharply brings into view Asahi’s increasingly widening gap from public opinion.

2019-06-06
In short, the writer of Tensei Jingo felt irritated that, after the decision on the new era name, Prime Minister Abe appeared on one television program after another.
But here too, public opinion once again moved contrary to Asahi’s wishes.

The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
According to the joint opinion poll conducted by Sankei Shimbun and Fuji News Network on April 6 and 7, as many as 87 percent answered that they thought the new era name was “good.”
Moreover, the result showed that the view that era names had taken root in the daily lives of the people and that the system should be preserved was, if anything, more common among younger generations.
Looking in detail at the results of the same survey, the response that it was “better to continue” the era-name system was 85.4 percent among those aged 18 to 29, 86.4 percent among those in their thirties, 87 percent among those in their forties, and 83.7 percent among those in their fifties, thus exceeding 80 percent across all working generations, whereas among those aged sixty and over it fell to 78.2 percent.
Recently, it has become a kind of established notion that only elderly people read newspapers.
Particularly with regard to Asahi Shimbun, it is often said in popular talk that “its core readers are in their seventies,” and when one looks at the survey results concerning the new era name, one feels that this “rumor” may not be false after all.
The Self-Contradictions Produced by Anti-Abe Sentiment.
Let us return once more to Tensei Jingo.
On April 3, it carried an item about Susumu Nakanishi, the scholar of the Manyōshū who is said to have been the originator of the new era name “Reiwa.”
Up to the point where it praised Mr. Nakanishi’s achievements and wrote that “in Manyōshū studies he is unquestionably the foremost authority,” there was no problem.
The issue lies in what followed.
It has been reported that Mr. Nakanishi may be the originator of the new era name “Reiwa.”
So long as the government does not make it clear, the person himself must find it difficult to say either that he is or that he is not.
Now that the Manyōshū is in the spotlight, has not Mr. Nakanishi, who has devoted himself to its dissemination, been pushed into an uncomfortable position?
Eh?
Is that really so?
As I read on, thinking that I could not understand in what sense Mr. Nakanishi had been placed in an uncomfortable position, a certain name suddenly appeared, and that day’s Tensei Jingo ended as follows.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went from one television station to another explaining the thoughts he had put into the new era name.
But what one truly wishes to hear is a profound explanation by a great scholar.
Whether he is the originator or not, now is precisely the time for “Nakanishi’s Manyō scholarship” to take the stage.
To force “anti-Abe” into this point was so absurdly contrived that laughter welled up in me and would not stop for some time, and I kept laughing.
In short, the writer of Tensei Jingo felt irritated that, after the decision on the new era name, Prime Minister Abe appeared on one television program after another.
But here too, public opinion once again moved contrary to Asahi’s wishes.
In the opinion poll conducted by Asahi Shimbun on April 13 and 14, the percentage of respondents who answered that they “supported” the Abe Cabinet rose by 3 points from the previous survey to 44 percent.
Meanwhile, those who answered that they “did not support” it fell by 5 points from the previous survey to 32 percent.
This result in its own survey must have been extremely unwelcome for Asahi Shimbun.
To be continued.