Originally published on July 21, 2019.
This text discusses the essence of criticism of the Asahi Shimbun through a dialogue between Rui Abiru and Eitaro Ogawa.
Citing prewar war reporting, postwar praise for the Cultural Revolution, the Pol Pot regime, North Korea reporting, the comfort women issue, the Nanjing Massacre reporting, and the internationalization of the Yasukuni issue, it argues that criticism of the Asahi Shimbun ultimately means simply this: a newspaper that lies and deceives people must not be allowed to exist.

2019-07-21
“Criticism of the Asahi Shimbun” ultimately means nothing more than saying, “There must not be a newspaper that lies and deceives people.”
This is a chapter I published on April 22, 2018, titled, “When I see reporters from the Asahi Shimbun introducing themselves by saying, ‘I am from the Asahi,’ I cannot help wondering whether they feel no shame.”
The following is the continuation of the previous chapter.
We Do Not Need a Newspaper That Deceives People.
Abiru:
I think the Asahi Shimbun is already something very close to an antisocial force.
Perhaps I should call it “something that harms the world.”
Please look back at history.
Before the war, it forcibly dragged Japan into war.
After that, without reflecting at all, after the war it praised China’s Cultural Revolution, lauded Cambodia’s Pol Pot regime, and celebrated North Korea as a “paradise on earth.”
All of it was lies.
On top of that, it was the Asahi Shimbun that fabricated the comfort women issue and spread the lie of the Nanjing Massacre.
It was also the Asahi that made the Yasukuni issue into an international problem.
Does Japan need such a newspaper?
When I see reporters from the Asahi Shimbun introducing themselves by saying, “I am from the Asahi,” I cannot help wondering whether they feel no shame.
Ogawa:
An entity that “lies and deceives people” should not exist even as a villain.
It is nothing more than a nuisance to society.
I am not saying that the Asahi Shimbun’s line of argument is bad.
Rather, liars sell ? million copies of a newspaper every day and go around with calm faces—there is no way such a thing should be permitted in society.
“Criticism of the Asahi Shimbun” ultimately means nothing more than saying, “There must not be a newspaper that lies and deceives people.”