March 19, 2011—while Japan’s people remain world-class, its politicians and old media have proven second-rate. This essay argues that true media reform requires decentralization into five regional hubs, drawing on local wisdom and restoring democracy beyond commercialism.

This post reflects on the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake to highlight the stark contrast between Japan’s world-class citizens and its second-rate politicians and media. The author proposes decentralizing major TV networks to the regions, arguing that this would combat the dangerous uniformity of information and harness the “true intelligence” of local communities. The piece concludes with a scathing challenge to the media to either change or stay out of politics.

Kan is hopeless, but the people are truly doing their part.
March 19, 2011.
As I have said many times, Japan’s people—its economy, or the ninety percent who are workers—are world-class.
But politicians like the current executive leadership, and the mass media that created them, are truly second-rate.

I believe the mass media must change, through this crisis, into a genuine 21st-century media.
Yet I doubt they can find a solution to their commercialism—at root, the problem of advertising sponsors.
The solution, I argue, is for the five major TV networks to be dispersed into Japan’s five great regions.
Why? Because every major corporation that advertises on television operates nationwide.
If broadcasting were regionalized, the networks would realize they could withstand the internet forever—and that realization itself would directly create the 21st century.

Why? Because the greatest danger, the very essence of anti-democracy, lies in companies aligning side by side and amplifying the same information.
The last twenty-plus years of recycling trivial entertainers, producing vulgar programs, and reproducing that same vulgarity in society, must be utterly rejected.
If the five networks were dispersed, the intellect rooted in each region—the intellect that astonished not only Japan but the entire world during this disaster—would neutralize the poison, even if similar programs were produced.

Why? Because the regions possess the true sky (to borrow from Chieko), the true sea, the true mountains and forests.
There are birds flying, people fishing, gathering wild plants, growing rice and vegetables—real people, authentic lives.

The mass media, of all institutions, should be the first to recognize this.
If they do not, they must accept that they lack true intellect forevermore.
And henceforth, they must never speak again of politics or culture.
They should only produce vulgar comedy shows with base entertainers, devoted solely to commercialism.
But in doing so, they must sign a pledge: “We will never again meddle in democracy.”