Recalling a chance meeting at Tofuku-ji, this piece examines a dialogue published in WiLL magazine that critiques Asahi Shimbun’s stance on South Korean politics and its superficial understanding of democracy.

This section analyzes media discourse on democracy through a published dialogue, contrasting emotional mobilization with institutional constitutionalism.
It situates the critique within broader debates on populism, media ethics, and democratic legitimacy.

2017-04-18
As already noted, on November 16 of last year, the day when the autumn leaves at Tofuku-ji reached their peak, I happened to run into Mr. Sekihei at Tofuku-ji.
The May issue of the monthly magazine WiLL carries two dialogue articles in which Mr. Sekihei participates.
The following is taken from one of them.
The shallowness of Asahi in praising former SEALs.
Sekihei, commentator, and Naoki Hyakuta, writer.
The folly of the Asahi Shimbun.
Orishima.
Lee Jung-mi, acting chief justice of the Constitutional Court, which handed down the impeachment ruling against former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, has retired after completing her six-year term.
Hyakuta.
Looking at the situation in South Korea, the separation of powers, which is the foundation of democracy, has not been established.
The judiciary, administration, and legislature are supposed to be independent, but everything is in a complete mess.
What decides everything is “popular sentiment.”
Sekihei.
The masses moved the Constitutional Court with emotion and made it deliver the verdict of “impeachment of Ms. Park Geun-hye.”
A former SEALs youth went to South Korea and told Asahi Shimbun, “I envy Korea. The masses changed politics with their power. Why can’t it be done in Japan?” but that kind of way of moving politics is unacceptable.
Hyakuta.
And Asahi Shimbun happily writes about that episode.
Sekihei.
What on earth is Asahi Shimbun looking at.
It is nothing but shallowness.
Upon leaving office, Judge Lee Jung-mi of the Constitutional Court herself stated the following.
“The crisis of governance and social confrontation are the pains of birth in the process of strengthening constitutional values such as democracy, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights.”
She acknowledges that democracy and the rule of law are not established in South Korea and that the country is still in the “pains of birth.”
Reading this, one can see how utterly foolish Asahi Shimbun’s story about former SEALs is.
Even South Korean judges understand that democracy is not functioning.
Asahi Shimbun loudly proclaims postwar democracy.
Yet it does not understand at all what democracy is.
Hyakuta.
In a 2015 “Tensei Jingo,” the critic Kojin Karatani was introduced very positively as saying, “A society in which people are sovereign is brought about not by elections but by demonstrations.”
This is clearly a denial of democracy, or to put it more bluntly, an endorsement of terrorism.
Sekihei.
At the root of the thinking of Asahi Shimbun and former SEALs lies communist revolutionary ideology.
They do not truly value democracy.
They want to start a revolution and destroy the current system.
Hyakuta.
Denying elections is something a newspaper must never say.
Yet it was said in “Tensei Jingo,” which is considered the face of Asahi Shimbun.
It can be said that Asahi Shimbun has shown its true colors.
To be continued.