Osaka’s Umeda North Yard, a prime asset of former Japanese National Railways, could have matched Tokyo’s Shiodome in value. Instead, media narratives led by Asahi Shimbun discouraged open international bidding and excluded high-value foreign participants, including firms linked to George Soros, resulting in a massive loss of public wealth.

2016-03-29
The reason I wrote in this chapter that “the matter concerning the North Yard was, in reality, an incident even greater than the shipbuilding corruption scandal” is as follows.
Many Japanese seem to have forgotten the massive deficit of 30 trillion yen that remained as a burden on taxpayers when Japanese National Railways was dismantled and privatized.
JNR left not only enormous debt but also valuable assets. Among those assets, the two that could have been sold at the highest prices to reduce the public tax burden were Tokyo’s Shiodome district and Osaka’s Umeda North Yard.
Tokyo eased floor-area ratios and other restrictions to maximize value, thoroughly implementing deregulation and regulatory openness, and conducted international open bidding. Several plots were sold at prices exceeding one hundred million yen per tsubo, acquired by companies such as Dentsu and real estate firms owned by Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong’s wealthiest tycoon. Magnificent buildings were swiftly constructed, further elevating Tokyo’s status as a global city.
In contrast, in Osaka, the Asahi Shimbun reported opinions attributed to companies run by the man who was then chairman of the Koizumi Cabinet’s Regulatory Reform Council, claiming that “if open bidding resulted in extremely high prices, it could reignite a bubble.” Such arguments were utterly inconceivable in Osaka’s severely depressed real estate market during the depths of Japan’s deflation.
As a result, participation by bidders considering prices above one hundred million yen per tsubo—such as companies associated with George Soros—was blocked, leading to unbelievably low winning bids and causing an enormous loss to national assets.
When I was fighting alone, I had employees of my company type, on A4 paper, each explanation I had given to the three parties mentioned earlier and deliver them to reporter Tagaya, who had written signed articles on the North Yard.
Yet, for reasons entirely inexplicable, there was no response whatsoever from Tagaya. In fact, the Osaka headquarters of the Asahi Shimbun should have shared the same sense of outrage that I felt.
As already noted, when I read an article written by Ōmae Kenichi in the monthly magazine SAPIO, I instantly realized that the true mastermind behind the confusion surrounding the North Yard was the Asahi Shimbun itself.
To be continued.