At a time when responding to the novel coronavirus was urgent, the opposition parties and media that had kept the prime minister tied up in the Diet over the Cherry Blossom Viewing Party, Moritomo, and Kake issues suddenly began crying “testing, testing.” This essay criticizes NHK and other media for praising South Korea’s drive-through testing and portraying Japan as behind, while questioning what truly matters in preventing infection.

March 3, 2020
The Opposition and Media Suddenly Cry “Testing, Testing”: The Inversion of Japanese Reporting That Follows South Korean-Style Propaganda
Until just the other day, even though this was no time for such things, opposition parties such as the Constitutional Democratic Party had been keeping the prime minister tied up in the Diet for long hours over the Cherry Blossom Viewing Party and even the Moritomo and Kake issues, as represented by Kiyomi Tsujimoto’s questioning.
Supporting them were the Asahi Shimbun and NHK.
Yet these same people have suddenly begun crying, “Testing, testing.”
On television, they have begun showing ridiculous images of South Korea conducting tests while people remain in their cars.
Even now, on NHK’s Watch 9, a female commentator has appeared and said the unbelievable nonsense that Japan is behind South Korea.
What is necessary now is not simply to conduct tests.
What is necessary is to prevent the spread of infection.
Can they not understand something that even an elementary school child should grasp?
Are Japanese media organizations, beginning with NHK, truly this foolish?
No.
That is not the whole matter.
Their reporting posture strangely coincides with the propaganda of the South Korean government and South Korean media.
They are not merely using this foolish issue to attack the government.
I believe they are trying to make Japan the target of international criticism.
At the root of their sudden insistence on this foolish argument, there appears to be South Korean intention.
Japan has far fewer infected people than South Korea only because Japan is not testing enough.
This childish line of argument diverts the eyes of the people from the essence of the matter, which is preventing the spread of infection.
The persistence of certain forces in South Korea that have continued anti-Japanese education for decades after the war, and the reporting posture of Watch 9, which I am watching now, and of the Asahi Shimbun, which I no longer subscribe to, are connected.
They appear to be moving in line with South Korean intentions.
If one truly wants to prevent infection.
If one truly does not want to be infected.
Then the first thing to say is that entry by Chinese and South Korean nationals should be completely banned.
Yet they do not step into that matter.
The evil of Watch 9 has reached an extreme.
The source of this outbreak is China.
There are also aspects in which infection has spread in countries that continued movement and contact in close relation with China.
Nevertheless, South Korea, China, Watch 9, the Asahi Shimbun, the opposition parties, and foolish television media want to make Japan appear to be a problem country equivalent to South Korea and China.
Japan has fewer tests, therefore Japan is behind.
South Korea is more advanced.
Public broadcasting is calmly spreading such simple and dangerous claims.
Do they understand how badly this leads the people in the wrong direction?
They have no sense of responsibility whatsoever.
In infectious disease countermeasures, testing is not omnipotent.
If people without symptoms, driven by anxiety, rush to medical institutions and testing sites, new risks of infection are created there.
Medical sites become exhausted.
Responses to those who truly need treatment are delayed.
That is precisely the situation that must be avoided.
And yet the opposition parties and the media are using only the number of tests as material for attacking the administration.
They show South Korean-style images and impress upon viewers that Japan is behind.
This is not reporting.
It is political propaganda.
Late on Sunday night, Nippon Television once again broadcast a strange program.
After the sports news program Going ended, I left the television on, and then heard the phrase, “the Ainu, Japan’s indigenous people.”
What on earth is this about?
Who, and from where, is making such a careless assertion using public airwaves?
To begin with, the broadcast license fees imposed on them are far too low.
Nippon Television has previously used this same late-night time slot to broadcast claims that the Nanjing Massacre occurred, using photographs whose authenticity was clearly uncertain and adding ominous narration.
Nippon Television must stop this.
If it does not, then even I, who have been a fan of the Yomiuri Giants since I first became aware of such things, will stop being a Giants fan.
Their conduct proves entirely correct the painstaking work posted online by an employee of TBS.
How far do Japan’s television media intend to go in demeaning Japan?
They are lenient toward China.
They are lenient toward South Korea.
But toward the Japanese government, they attack through impression manipulation with weak grounds.
The opposition parties are the same.
In a national crisis such as the novel coronavirus, what is first necessary is calm and effective debate to protect the lives of the Japanese people.
Yet they remain, as always, absorbed in attacking the administration and demeaning Japan.
The Japanese people must awaken.
They must not be made to dance to the word “testing.”
They must not be carried along by South Korean-style propaganda.
They must not be led by the tone of NHK, the Asahi Shimbun, and television media.
What must be protected now is the lives of the Japanese people.
For that purpose, what is necessary is action that does not spread infection, a clear view of the risks of inflow from China and South Korea, and the protection of medical sites.
Those who ignore this and shout only about the number of tests are the very people turning this crisis into a tool of political struggle.