Published on January 12, 2020.
This article republishes a chapter originally issued on July 14, 2019, and, based on Masayuki Takayama’s argument, criticizes how the Asahi Shimbun handled the North Korean repatriation project and the abduction issue.
It examines the newspaper’s response under former president Shinichi Hakojima, its excuses regarding articles by Hiroshi Iwadare and others, the GHQ-influenced view that “Japan enslaved Korea as a colony,” and the Asahi’s stance of treating the abduction issue as an obstacle to the normalization of Japan–North Korea relations.

January 12, 2020
They believe that Japan laid railways, built schools, and brought electricity only for its own convenience, and that Japan seized Korea’s resources, enslaved its people, and killed them in great numbers.
I am republishing, with paragraphs tightened and other adjustments, the chapter I issued on July 14, 2019, titled “Hiroshi Iwadare and Others ‘Wrote Without Reporting,’ but ‘Other Companies Were the Same,’ and Above All, They Filled It with Excuses Such as ‘It Was the Japanese Red Cross That Encouraged Repatriation.’”
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Former President Hakojima’s Clever Strategy
So Hakojima used two pages of the opinion section to have “North Korea: Dreams and Despair” written in July 2004.
It was filled with excuses: Hiroshi Iwadare and others “wrote without reporting,” but “other companies were the same,” and above all, “it was the Japanese Red Cross that encouraged repatriation.”
It seems that Hakojima intended, with this single article, to “settle everything concerning the false reporting that had accumulated over ten years.”
In fact, from the very next day, the Asahi began commenting on North Korea in the same tone as the Sankei.
Even if a repatriate who miraculously survived were to sue, the Asahi would probably hold up this page and answer, “The reporting has already been corrected,” and “If you want to sue, sue the Japanese Red Cross.”
It intends to force through the position that if the Asahi itself is satisfied, then everything is fine.
That is not normal.
Another belief of the Asahi is GHQ’s view of “the past in which Japan enslaved Korea as a colony.”
It believes that Japan did bad things to Korea.
They believe that Japan laid railways, built schools, and brought electricity only for its own convenience, and that Japan seized Korea’s resources, enslaved its people, and killed them in great numbers.
Therefore, when Japanese public opinion toward North Korea hardened over the abduction issue, Hakojima had the paper write, “The abduction issue is an obstacle to the normalization of Japan–North Korea relations” in August 1999.
Even after Kim Jong-il admitted the abductions, the Asahi criticized public opinion, saying, “Do not close the window for Japan–North Korea normalization over something like the abduction issue” on September 18, 2002.
In its pages, too, the Asahi avoided touching on the abductions as much as possible.
Even when it did write about them occasionally, it devoted itself to harassment, such as deliberately publishing in May 2003 the address of the family of Hitomi Soga, who at that time still remained in North Korea.
That is why “Megumi-chan” almost never appeared in the pages of the Asahi.
That tradition still lives on.
When Trump mentioned at the United Nations General Assembly that “a 13-year-old Japanese girl was abducted,” neither the front page nor the inside pages of the Asahi Shimbun on September 20 carried a headline mentioning “Megumi-chan.”
It persisted in ignoring her completely.
However, at this point the Asahi finally realized that the United States had become willing to crush North Korea.
Moreover, there appeared signs that Xi Jinping would quietly follow Trump and cooperate in crushing the North.
This article continues.