This chapter analyzes the structural parallels between U.S. anti-Trump reporting and Japan’s anti-Abe media climate, drawing on the 2018 dialogue between journalist Masayuki Takayama and Diet member Masamune Wada. It reviews the “Bamboo Grove” controversy reported by the Boston Globe, the mass anti-Trump editorial campaign joined by 350 U.S. newspapers, and the biased reporting practices that damaged public trust. The chapter argues that Japanese media—especially the Asahi Shimbun—have replicated the same distortions, attacking both Trump and Abe while abandoning journalistic independence. A crucial analysis for understanding today’s media-political landscape.

Introduction — There Is No Choice but to Give Up on the Anti-Abe and Anti-Trump Reporting in Japan and the United States

The Boston Globe is regarded as one of the leading newspapers in the United States.
It has had its share of major scoops.
The article that exposed the Catholic priests who sexually assaulted 130 children is praised as a “scoop of the century.”
It apparently sent major shockwaves through Christian society, and the paper is said to possess a certain degree of journalistic power.

There was also a case related to Japan.
It was the only newspaper that reported how Yoko Kawashima Watkins, author of So Far from the Bamboo Grove, was publicly humiliated by Korean-Americans in the United States.

When she was eleven, Japan lost the war.
Yoko’s family, who lived on the outskirts of what is now North Korea, fled to Japan via Keijō.
During their journey, the Koreans who had been bowing and scraping until the day before suddenly attacked, robbed, murdered, and raped the withdrawing Japanese.
The book So Far from the Bamboo Grove was her account of escaping through that nightmare.
In 1986, the U.S. National Council for the Social Studies selected it as a recommended supplementary reader for middle and high school students.

However, in 2006, a Korean-American student who read the book asked her parents:
The Globe article reports: “Hey, were Koreans really this brutal?”
The parents took the matter to the Korean community, which erupted in outrage, and the then-73-year-old Yoko was taken to Boston and accused of “Why did you write lies?” in a public pillory.
“The hall was packed with Korean correspondents and Korean diplomats stationed in the U.S. They berated her and forced her to apologize. Another group stormed the U.S. education authorities and demanded the removal of her book from the supplemental reading list,” the article reported.

And finally, it noted: “For some reason, not a single Japanese diplomat or Japanese correspondent was present in the hall.”
The paper expressed sympathy for the abandoned Yoko.

A newspaper capable of such reasonable reporting went completely mad this summer.
It called on newspapers across the United States to publish synchronized anti-Trump editorials on August 16.

Trump says, “The mainstream media only spread fake news.”
If newspapers collectively refute him, Trump might quiet down a little. It would apply pressure.
That was probably their intention.
Or perhaps, judging by the timing, it was an anti-Trump offensive aimed at the midterm elections in November.

But from an outsider’s perspective, it looked like lunacy—newspapers abandoning their independence and forming a mob to intimidate the President with their pens.

Unbelievable as it seemed, to my astonishment, The New York Times and approximately 350 newspapers joined the campaign and published editorials criticizing the U.S. President.
I was dumbfounded.

As someone who received my information only from NHK and similar outlets, I had no idea such a background existed. Most Japanese people—and indeed most people around the world—must be hearing this for the first time.

If the mainstream media insists that Trump’s accusations of fake news are false, then what kind of reporting did they do during the presidential election?
Throughout the campaign, they treated Trump as a fringe candidate, predicting he would win only about 8 percent of the vote.
Yet for a supposed fringe candidate, they relentlessly dug up sexual scandals, tax evasion allegations, and even claims that he dodged the draft during the Vietnam War.

By that logic, what about Bill Clinton?
He became a Rhodes Scholar, fled to Oxford University, and smoked marijuana—thus neatly avoiding the draft at the same time.

American citizens know very well that discriminatory reporting was directed at Trump.
After Trump—supposedly a fringe candidate—won the election, a Gallup poll showed that “trust in newspapers” had dropped to 32 percent.

However, the mainstream media offered no reflection.
Without acknowledging their biased reporting, they next promoted the so-called Russia scandal involving the President. And when suspicious crimes by Hillary surfaced during that process, they openly exercised their “freedom not to report.”

On top of that, they worked feverishly to suppress social media, such as SNS, which had helped Trump win.
Sites sympathetic to Trump or opposed to globalism were labeled “fake” and banned from distribution—essentially erased from public view.

The leading force in this suppression was GAFA—Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon—companies aligned with globalism.
The anti-Trump reporting by the Washington Post, now owned by Amazon, has exceeded the boundaries of journalistic common sense.

This is why Google Translate still refuses to translate “Trump” as Trump—it all makes sense now.

It now appears that proper journalism no longer exists in the United States.
But Japan should not be laughing, because its newspapers exhibit exactly the same symptoms.

At the very least, the reporting on Trump during the election was a dead copy of the American media.
And the Trump-bashing that followed was astonishing.
It was reporting devoid of any awareness of being part of Japanese media, indistinguishable from vulgar rumor-mongering.

And not only that. Just as they despised Trump, they also attempted to tear apart Shinzo Abe, who was friendly with him.

Among them, the Asahi Shimbun was the worst.

This chapter continues.