A strategic analysis of the Moritomo Gakuen affair through the nature of espionage, historical precedents, media manipulation, and domestic political maneuvering, warning of Japan’s vulnerability in modern information warfare.

The Moritomo affair illustrates how unseen espionage, media-driven emotion, and political calculation intersect in Japan’s modern information battlefield.

2017-03-21

With just this much, all discerning observers have likely grasped the essence of the Moritomo Gakuen affair.
When they saw the appearance of the school’s director, more than a few people must have been reminded of the face of the chairman of Hon Hai Precision Industry.
Not only in the case of Hotsumi Ozaki, but also within the Roosevelt administration—which pushed Japan toward war with the United States—there were several individuals in key positions who were later revealed to have been Soviet spies.
Norman, who was deeply involved in occupation policy, was one such figure.
Spies are typically invisible, and until their actions are exposed, no one can recognize them.
Although my mentor once exhorted me to shoulder Kyoto University and lead it forward, circumstances in my life led me to choose the path of an entrepreneur, starting from nothing.
As a real estate broker, I once held an overwhelming share in transactions involving prime condominium properties in the central area of Yodogawa Ward at the height of my career.
Perhaps because the director of the aforementioned school ran a kindergarten on the outskirts of Yodogawa Ward—an area I rarely dealt with—I had never even heard his name.
In Toyosu, the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly convened a special investigative committee, going so far as to hold a “hundred-article committee,” stirring up an absurd uproar by claiming that soil contamination posed grave risks to safety and peace of mind.
Scientifically, however, as experts have stated, there was no problem whatsoever.
Meanwhile, the Toyonaka-Noda site—third-rate land along the Meishin Expressway near an interchange, originally zoned for industrial or quasi-industrial use—was likely transferred to the state through in-kind payment after the owner’s bankruptcy.
Moreover, this land was heavily contaminated with soil pollution.
Yet critics insisted that the sale price was too low, in other words, that safety and peace-of-mind concerns were being overestimated.
Ignoring how Japan should respond to the current international situation, the opposition parties and the media joined together in a loud uproar.
On one hand, they relentlessly appealed to the base emotions of Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun readers and television viewers by claiming grave threats to safety and peace of mind.
On the other hand, just as intended, they sought to divide the Liberal Democratic Party and engineer a landslide victory for what was called the “Koike New Party” in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly elections.
To be continued.