Published on July 22, 2019.
This essay criticizes NHK’s reporting on Japan–South Korea issues, expressing suspicion that it is abnormally sympathetic to South Korea.
It discusses South Korean manufacturers’ dependence on Japanese components, Moon Jae-in’s empty bravado, an advertisement for this week’s Weekly Post, Toru Hashimoto’s remarks, and the danger of television stations handling national policy and diplomacy.

July 22, 2019.
As if Moon Jae-in’s empty bravado, which is nothing more than another layer added to his lack of policy, were the truth… they even broadcast footage making it look as though South Korea could immediately produce products made by Japanese manufacturers.
Those who saw the advertisement for this week’s issue of Weekly Post in the lower part of today’s newspaper must have once again recognized that NHK’s reporting on the current Japan–South Korea issue is truly outrageous.
Except for the information-poor people who subscribe to the Asahi and the like and watch only TV such as NHK, everyone who knows the truth of things must have felt an even deeper sense of distrust, thinking that NHK’s manner of reporting is truly strange and sympathetic to South Korea.
Starting with Samsung, South Korean manufacturers cannot make products without Japanese components… even such a simple fact seems to be beyond the understanding of those who control NHK’s news department… there is no doubt that they are people connected with Chongryon and the like.
As if Moon Jae-in’s empty bravado, which is nothing more than another layer added to his lack of policy, were the truth… they even broadcast footage making it look as though South Korea could immediately produce products made by Japanese manufacturers.
Weekly Post is a magazine with many problems, but this week’s issue writes proper facts.
There must be many people who felt relieved just by seeing that advertisement.
People who watch reporting by the Asahi, NHK, and others… reporting like that of a South Korean state-run news agency… have all been brainwashed by their reporting and know absolutely nothing about the reality of South Korean industry.
Last night, NHK was reporting only the results in the Kinki region, so I changed channels, and a scene came on in which Toru Hashimoto was refuting Kiyomi Tsujimoto by listing facts, so I watched it.
But he too was expressing opinions that seemed to be merely reacting to TV reporting without knowing the reality of South Korea, and I was disappointed.
The reason his insight into South Korea is superficial is that he is now nothing more than a radio-wave entertainer on a wide show that outwardly takes the form of a television news program.
When he was governor of Osaka Prefecture and mayor of Osaka City, he probably knew the truth of Osaka prefectural and municipal administration.
But he has never once been responsible for national politics… in that respect, he can only occupy exactly the same position as opposition-party political operators.
Important secrets of the Japanese state and important national information are not given to him… there is no way they would be given to him.
Still less would there be any fool who would give or leak national confidential information to a mere person who calls himself an “irresponsible commentator” and earns a high salary as a radio-wave entertainer.
Japan is not such a country at all, and that is precisely the value of the country called Japan.
It is even more natural that important national secrets would not be disclosed to a political operator like the person he was refuting, whose real nature is that of an agent of the Korean Peninsula.
The way television stations continue to value, use, and employ the opinions of such people in order to criticize the administration, while monopolistically using the airwaves, which are the property of the Japanese nation, at bargain-rate usage fees and continuing to make profits, is, for a state, an almost comically foolish state of affairs.
For example, there is nothing wrong with having Toru Hashimoto speak about Osaka prefectural and municipal government or local autonomy, and he should indeed be allowed to speak a great deal about them.
But it is completely wrong to have him speak about national politics, diplomacy, the economy, fiscal policy, etc.
He must not be allowed to speak about the national politics or diplomacy of Japan unless he becomes the relevant minister or prime minister.
Why?
Because doing so would lead the country astray and, as happened yesterday, would result in remarks that benefit an anti-Japanese state.
Hashimoto should know that, regarding a policy decision made by the state against a hostile state, he must not express his opinion before the people unless he himself has become a minister or prime minister.
He may speak as much as he likes about what he knows.
But regarding affairs between states about which he knows nothing of the truth, to express before the people opinions similar to those of anti-Japanese lawyers simply because he has a lawyer’s qualification is exactly the conduct of one who distorts learning to flatter the times.
Just as you said that the Asahi Shimbun is toilet paper, Toru Hashimoto’s remarks on the Japan–South Korea issue are below toilet paper.
They were remarks with a hundred harms and not a single benefit.
Far from that, they were at the same level as those of Wada Haruki, Oe Kenzaburo, Murakami Haruki, and the like.
This week’s issue of Weekly Post is scheduled to be brought to me tomorrow by my book-loving friend, so as soon as it arrives, I plan to send it out to the world.