This roundtable discussion from Hanada Selection features journalists Shinichirō Suda, Eri Tōjima, Rui Abiru, Eitarō Ogawa, Ryūshō Kadota, and Noriyoshi Hanada, who argue that the Asahi Shimbun’s reporting on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has crossed from legitimate criticism into “paranoia-level Abe hatred.”
They trace the pattern from the first Abe administration’s “classroom cabinet” headline to the Moritomo and Kake scandals, where relentless TV and newspaper coverage led voters to assume, “You must have done something bad—I saw it on TV.”
A key focus is the “Prime Minister’s intention” document in the Kake veterinary school case, and the crucial sentence that Asahi visually obscured and never quoted, even though it shows officials were only trying to make it look like the Prime Minister’s instruction.
The speakers warn that massive, one-sided reporting can easily drag public opinion in a single direction and call on viewers and readers to reset their assumptions, examine full documents and context, and resist emotional media manipulation.

Asahi Has Reached the Level of Paranoia
Laying Bare Its Hostility Toward Prime Minister Abe

Tōjima:
From Nippon Broadcasting, this is the public recording of “Shinichirō Suda’s News Outsider.”
Today, I would like us to discuss “media image manipulation and biased reporting.”

Suda:
First of all, what worries me lately in the movements of the media is the excessive “Abe-bashing” by the so-called “liberal newspapers.”
If there are concrete issues, themes, or statements that deserve criticism, the media should, without hesitation, pursue the government rigorously.
However, what the media is doing now seems to be “criticism for the sake of criticism.”
What are your thoughts on this?

Abiru:
Whether we call it “Abe-bashing” or “Abe-smearing,” the fact that such things are going on has recently become widely known in society.
But in fact, it was the same ten years ago under the first Abe administration.
At that time, as soon as the administration began, “Abe-smearing” started.
On the very next day after the first Abe cabinet was formed, the headline of the Asahi Shimbun read “A Classroom Assembly Cabinet.”
They slapped on a headline that mocked the newly formed cabinet as nothing more than a “class meeting.”
From then on, they continued endless criticism of Abe, right up to the present.

Suda:
Why do they hate Mr. Abe so much?

Abiru:
There is a long backstory to this.
Prime Minister Koizumi’s visit to North Korea took place in September 2002, and on January 26 the following year, Mr. Abe—then serving as Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary in the Koizumi cabinet—said the following in a speech.
“In its New Year’s Day editorial, the Asahi Shimbun took the line that ‘instead of merely talking principles, Japan should think about where to compromise.’
This kind of stance is becoming an obstacle to negotiations.”

If you read the January 1, 2003 editorial titled “Thinking at the Start of the Year in the Spirit of ‘Spirited Away’,” it states the following.
“While it is natural that sympathy for the abductees and anger toward North Korea should overflow, reports that merely inflame such emotions are being repeated every day.”
“Although we can show such abundant sympathy for the tragedy of our compatriots (the abduction issue), we show little concern for the oppressed people of North Korea.”
“We must firmly recognize the severe international environment.
At the same time, we must not forget a cool-headed, multifaceted perspective and flexibility.
That is what we must bear in mind as we enter this year of crisis.”

Mr. Abe’s remarks were a “commentary,” and given that this editorial in effect said nothing meaningful, it is only natural that it should be criticized.
However, on the very next day, the 27th, the Asahi Shimbun ran an editorial titled “Mr. Abe, Please Read Carefully – Criticism of the Editorial,” directly attacking him by name.
The content was openly hostile, saying things like, “First of all, we would like to ask Mr. Abe whether he has properly read the editorial,” and “Now then, will Mr. Abe also claim that this editorial will become ‘an obstacle to negotiations’?”

When someone like that became prime minister, the Asahi Shimbun went beyond mere “Abe-bashing” and launched an all-out effort to “bring Abe down” during his first administration.
The first Abe administration ended in a short-lived manner, just as Asahi had hoped, but Mr. Abe made a comeback.
Naturally, he did not heed anything Asahi said.

The Asahi Shimbun has continued to run around attacking Abe even during the second administration, but the Abe government has instead become a long-lasting administration.
For the Asahi, it must be unbearably frustrating.
The Asahi Shimbun is now approaching the realm of paranoia fueled by “hatred of Abe.”

The Terrifying Image Manipulation of Television

Suda:
Eri Tōjima, you host a morning radio news program, don’t you?
Every week from Friday through Monday.
From your sense of things, don’t you think many people came to believe that Prime Minister Abe was involved in the Moritomo and Kake scandals?

Tōjima:
Well…
It’s difficult to state it categorically, but as I read through all the newspapers every day, I would feel, day after day, “The news can change this much overnight.”
So I think both we on the broadcasting side, and the listeners as well, were at a loss as to what should be used as a standard of judgment.

Suda:
For the vast majority of people, if something is reported day after day like that, they are bound to take it as proof that the Prime Minister was involved.

Hanada:
In the March issue of Monthly Hanada, former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda recounted the following story.
During the House of Representatives election at the end of October 2017, while giving a street speech in his constituency, someone shouted, “Explain the Kake scandal!”
Mr. Hagiuda had been suspected of involvement in the Kake Gakuen issue because a photo of him enjoying a barbecue with Prime Minister Abe and Kake Educational Institution Chairman Kotaro Kake had come under scrutiny.
In reality, he had absolutely nothing to do with the matter, but since not only the newspapers, but of course television as well, had made much of what they called the “Hagiuda document,” it is understandable that such a heckle would be thrown.

After his speech, Mr. Hagiuda actually went over to the person who had heckled him and said, “What exactly should I explain?
Please tell me what you don’t understand.
I will explain anything.”
The person replied, “I don’t know what ‘something’ it is.
But you must have done something bad.
I saw it on TV.”

The Sentence Asahi “Hid”

Kadota:
When the media launches massive coverage, public opinion is unconsciously driven in a single direction.
Once reporting begins to concentrate on a single topic, viewers and readers should reset their minds, throw away their preconceptions, and look back calmly over the coverage.
Otherwise, they will be swept up in a flood of information and lose the ability to make rational judgments.

For example, there is the report on May 17 about the document containing the phrase “the Prime Minister’s intention,” which has already been mentioned.
The Asahi Shimbun shaded part of the document in its photo and reported it in a way that concealed the section reading, “If we proceed in the form of a ‘Cabinet decision by the Council on National Strategic Special Zones’, since the Prime Minister is the chair, it can be made to look as if the instruction comes from the Prime Minister.”
Many people, including Mr. Ogawa, have pointed out how odd this is.

If we read it straightforwardly, it is clear that there was in fact no instruction from the Prime Minister.
Rather, in order to persuade those within the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology who opposed establishing a new veterinary department in a special zone, the authors were trying to say, “If we do it this way, it will look as though it was the Prime Minister’s intention, so you will have no choice.”
It was a convenient pretext to win acceptance.

Suda:
In short, the Ministry of Education—which had opposed the establishment of the veterinary department—lost the argument and had no choice but to accept the policy.
When they took it back to the ministry, they wondered, “What excuse should we give?” and “How can we get everyone to accept this?”
And they concluded, “If we say there was an intention on the part of the Prime Minister, it will not cause problems within the ministry.”

Kadota:
Exactly.
However, in all its reporting on the suspicions surrounding the Kake issue, the Asahi Shimbun did not quote this part even once.
Not even once.

Hanada:
When our editorial department searched the newspaper article database (provided by Nifty), we found that this sentence appeared in the Asahi Shimbun for the first time in an article about the lawsuit filed against Mr. Ogawa and Asuka Shinsha.
In that article, it says:
“Mr. Ogawa’s book points out that the document with the phrase ‘the Prime Minister’s intention’ also contains the sentence, ‘If we proceed in the form of a “Cabinet decision by the Council on National Strategic Special Zones,” since the Prime Minister is the chair, it can be made to look as if the instruction comes from the Prime Minister.’
He argues that ‘precisely because there was no instruction from the Prime Minister, it was necessary to manipulate things so that it would appear as though the “instruction came from the Prime Minister,” and that the document can be read that way,’ and he claims that the Asahi Shimbun continued to report on the issue while concealing this part.”

That was the first and last time the sentence appeared.
Readers who only read the Asahi Shimbun probably couldn’t understand the meaning even when they saw this report about the lawsuit.

Ogawa:
That part is the most interesting highlight of the complaint (laughs).
What’s more, the Asahi Shimbun claims that the technique of shading part of a document is “a general method widely used by newspapers.”
Since the document is only about six hundred characters long, they should simply publish the whole thing.

Abiru:
All the more so if they themselves claim it is a “scoop document,” right?

This article will be continued.