Quoting the Nikkei, this essay shows how Nissan’s shift overseas and the yen’s surge threaten Japan’s manufacturing base.
The author condemns government and Bank of Japan inaction, while media elites remain complacent.
Watching NHK BS1’s The Century of War, the author argues that serious historical documentaries belong in golden hours, not trivial commentary, and calls for completing a democracy founded on freedom and intellect.

Citing a Nikkei newspaper article, the author points out how Japan’s status as a manufacturing powerhouse is being threatened by the appreciating yen, just as Nissan’s Carlos Ghosn had warned.
Amid the shift of production overseas and the loss of domestic jobs, the author harshly criticizes the government’s inaction, the Bank of Japan’s complacency, and the media’s self-serving mindset.
He condemns TV stations for airing “inaccurate and lukewarm” content during prime time instead of important documentaries, arguing that such behavior is leading the country astray.

Fact
August 13, 2010

From this morning’s Nikkei front page… Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn had already warned at the end of the previous year: “If the yen appreciates excessively, Japan’s position as a manufacturing power will be shaken.” Indeed, Nissan has already shifted plants overseas, and the March now comes from Thailand.
An exchange rate of 1 dollar = 80 yen was once reached in 1995 during the height of U.S.–Japan trade friction.
But compared with then, the risk of hollowing out as production bases move abroad and domestic jobs are lost is now much higher. There are very few things left that “can only be made in Japan.”
Japan’s footing as a manufacturing nation is already faltering badly. Another factor is the sense that restructuring and cost-cutting have been “exhausted.” Further reductions seem possible only through overseas expansion.
Despite Japan’s structural economic weakness, the yen has strengthened due to the government and the Bank of Japan’s inaction. The Obama administration in the U.S. and other nations pursued weaker currencies and external demand expansion as key measures. Meanwhile, Japan is seen as indifferent to its own currency, paralyzed by opposition control of the Upper House, and the BOJ failed to act at its August 10 meeting.
Japan is not a financial superpower. If the one remaining support—its status as a manufacturing and technology nation—collapses, then Japan will face its end. At such a time, an age will come when voices bound to some external power will rise loudly. Who will bring this about? The mass media, and the so-called notables—scholars, talents, musicians—who live off it.
Only you remain ignorant within your own safety. You believe that even if Japan ceases to be a manufacturing or technological power, your “toilet 100-watt” media (especially television)—with newspapers already gasping on their deathbeds—will remain safe. This is true hopelessness. This is folly.
Last night I watched a recorded program with a young friend (30). It was NHK BS1’s World Documentary: The Century of War, aired consecutively around 11:45 p.m. A Japanese–French coproduction and a real work of dedication.
It used modern technology to colorize black-and-white footage of major battles of World War II.
I think: if my proposals were realized, if a democratic nation founded on true freedom and the highest intellect were completed—omitted here.
If the seven regional private networks want to produce entertainment-focused programming, let them. That will merely reflect the intellectual level of each region.
Why do I say this? Because at my age, I saw the above film for the first time—though I had imagined it. My 30-year-old acquaintance also saw it for the first time: “If I had not watched it today, I probably never would have seen or known it in my lifetime.”
It is precisely such programs that should be broadcast in golden hours, not the daily flow of inaccurate, complacent commentary that misleads the nation while broadcasters bask in their own comfort.