This article exposes the mysterious absence of Korean immigration stamps in Yoshida Seiji’s passport and traces the deep involvement of the KCIA, Mindan, and Asahi Shimbun journalist Harushi Kiyota. From extraordinary VIP treatment at Korean airports to the staged South Korea “dogeza” performance and the fabrication of comfort women narratives, this chapter reveals the hidden intelligence operation behind the scandal.

There were stamps showing departure from and return to Japan, but no stamps indicating entry into or exit from South Korea.
January 21, 2017
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.

▽ Yoshida Seiji Appears Even in Diet Interpellations
Reference: Minutes of the 1st Subcommittee of the Budget Committee, 102nd Session of the House of Representatives (PDF) (Yoshida appears on page 26)

South Korean intelligence agencies and Mindan have always been inseparably connected, both in the past and in the present.
From his career as chairman of a Mindan-affiliated organization, KCIA involvement could already be inferred to some extent, but the fact that the phrase “a peninsula organization” was directly confessed during Ms. Otaka’s investigation this time is of great significance.
And this KCIA involvement now spreads to the Asahi Shimbun.

【Asahi’s Seoul Correspondent Who Knew of the Special Treatment】

For the eldest son of Yoshida Yūto, the relationship between his real father and a foreign intelligence agency came as a bolt from the blue.
The large sums of money his father had boasted about were, in reality, never transferred.
However, while his father was still alive, he had an experience that he found deeply perplexing.

“After my father returned from Korea, I remember being shocked when I looked at his passport. There were stamps showing departure from and return to Japan, but there were no stamps for entry into or exit from Korea.” (ibid., p. 71)

In December 1983 (Showa 58), about half a year after moving into a luxury condominium, Yoshida Yūto visited South Korea to perform his dogeza performance at the unveiling ceremony of the fabricated monument.
Although in his novel he depicts only a short stay on the Korean Peninsula, in reality this was his first time ever entering the peninsula.

▽ The South Korea Dogeza Performance (Fabricated Scene)

“When I asked why, I was told that as soon as he arrived at the Korean airport, Korean government officials came to meet him, guided him to a special room, and from there took him straight into the city of Seoul.”

This was treatment exceeding even VIP status—treatment befitting an agent.
The critical issue is that there was a journalist who witnessed and knew of these extraordinary and abnormal measures on the South Korean side at close range.
That journalist was Harushi Kiyota, who was stationed at the Asahi Shimbun’s Seoul bureau at the time.

Kiyota Haruhito was the principal culprit who launched Yoshida Seiji’s full-scale debut and repeatedly placed him on the pages of the Asahi Shimbun in the comfort women fabrication scandal.
Before his first trip to South Korea, Kiyota forced through advance promotional articles and even featured him in the newspaper’s “Person” column.

▽ Asahi Shimbun “Person” Column, November 10, 1983

Kiyota closely followed Yoshida’s dogeza performance and wrote a large six-column article with photographs.
Had he merely been waiting at the airport to greet Yoshida, he would surely have panicked when Yoshida disappeared; yet Kiyota was already fully aware of the relationship between Yoshida and the KCIA.

That alone does not exhaust the matter.
Kiyota Haruhito was directly involved in the fabrication of comfort women and forced mobilization narratives led by the KCIA and Mindan.
I also analyzed and traced the “escalation of confrontation–then settlement” between the Asahi Shimbun and the South Korean government in an entry last spring.

Reference: April 17, 2015, “Asahi Shimbun’s Fabricating Seoul Correspondent… Anti-Japanese Conspiracy with the KCIA”

▽ Kiyota Haruhito, Author of the Yoshida Fabrication Articles (file)

Yoshida Seiji, also known as Yoshida Yūto, passed away 16 years ago.
Those who have direct knowledge of the KCIA’s covert operations are now limited.
Among them, Kiyota Haruhito remains one of the very few surviving individuals who knows the full scope of the comfort women fabrication scandal.

To be continued.