By contrasting the Toyosu market debate with the Toyonaka elementary school controversy, this essay exposes blatant double standards and SanbyakuDaigen-style sophistry used by politicians and media to damage Japan’s standing.

2017-05-02
The following is a revised version of a paper published on March 1.
A typical example of SanbyakuDaigen is now being reported day after day in Japan by television networks, which, as usual, fail to recognize the reality of what they are doing.
The moment the severity of South Korea’s situation, which began with the conduct of Park Geun-hye, was laid bare before the world, forces seeking to demean Japan in the international community—Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, so-called cultural figures, the Democratic Party, the Communist Party, and so-called civic groups, many of which involve resident Koreans—
began acting because they wanted to say that Japan is the same as South Korea.
In order to proclaim to the international community that Japan is no different from South Korea,
they started up the issue of the elementary school in Toyonaka.
When it comes to Toyosu, the relocation site for the aging Tsukiji market, which Tokyo spent many years deciding upon and has already completed construction,
all competent scientists have made it clear through numerical data that there is no problem whatsoever.
Nevertheless, for example, a female Communist Party lawmaker declared in front of television cameras that it posed a serious health hazard.
At Toyosu, they continued to shout loudly that even losses amounting to trillions of yen were insignificant, that soil contamination was an issue so grave that it could not be measured in monetary terms.
They are still shouting so today.
Yet in the Toyonaka elementary school case, despite the fact that, as the whistle-blowing Democratic Party lawmaker himself stated in the Diet, there was massive soil contamination so severe that local workers said the ammonia stench was unbearable and prevented them from even eating their meals,
they now claim that it is outrageous that national land was sold at a reduced price due to soil contamination.
They are making a tremendous uproar, calling it illegal.
Just how far does their mask of justice extend in its opportunism, and just how much double-dealing is it made of.