A column in the Asahi Shimbun claims that Japan’s global presence has diminished, yet fails to identify the true cause. This essay argues that Japan was weakened by decades of media narratives that belittled the nation, elevated figures such as Kang Sang-jung, and exported fabricated stories that damaged Japan’s reputation abroad, while promoting misguided admiration for Germany over Japan’s own civilizational depth.

2016-03-29
The following is from a column on page 16 of today’s Asahi Shimbun.
Introductory text omitted. Sections marked with ~ are my own commentary.
“Japan’s presence has recently grown small, …” (ellipsis in the original).
This essay also proves the correctness of my argument one hundred percent.
The author completely fails to understand that Japan was made smaller by media such as the Asahi Shimbun, which has continuously elevated Kang Sang-jung, a figure who has repeatedly advanced arguments belittling Japan ever since I first saw him on television.
The Asahi Shimbun is an exceptionally abnormal media outlet, rare even by global standards, not only believing it is right to mistreat its own country, but actively wishing that Japan should not become larger or stronger.
Moreover, the so-called cultural figures who align themselves with the Asahi Shimbun utterly fail to recognize that Japan’s presence was diminished by the newspaper’s repeated dissemination of fabricated articles to the world that lowered Japan’s international value, honor, and credibility.*
“A German journalist wrote in the ‘Japan as Seen by Foreigners’ column contest, ‘There is nothing comparable in the West. “Cute” has many meanings, but what matters is that it is considered ideal.’” (remainder omitted).
*Because people like Kang Sang-jung—acting like agents of Korea and aligning with the intentions of Korea and China—have kept repeating foolish slogans such as ‘Learn from Germany,’ it is plainly evident in these words that Germans truly look down on Japan.
I make no boast of it, but I have never once in my life felt the slightest desire to visit Germany.
Why should I spend my precious holidays looking at the faces of Germans—people whom seasoned travelers uniformly say come from countries where “British and German food is truly terrible”—and go to such a country with bad cuisine?
As one of Osaka’s foremost gourmets, someone who has spent enough on dining alone to build three mansions today, I never felt the slightest urge to go.
For business reasons involving important clients, I once used a BMW 7 Series as my personal car, but the interiors of German cars at the time were dreadful.
They were incomparably inferior to Toyota’s. Germans fell in love with the incredibly narrow tolerances of Japanese cars—such as the minute gaps in door fittings—that is, with the delicate craftsmanship of the Japanese. That is when German car interiors began to change to resemble those of Toyota.
This German journalist is likely one of those reporters who read the Asahi Shimbun and The Japan Times and continue to write articles that denigrate Japan.
In any case, what is there to learn from a country that produced Nazism?
In diligence, Japanese possess an even higher level of craftsmanship—skills and spirit imbued with artistry—than the Germans.
Those who revere Germany are likely limited to University of Tokyo circles that once invited German instructors during the Meiji Restoration.
I have been to Italy and Paris eight times, yet I have never been to Germany, nor have I ever wanted to go. What, after all, would one even go to Germany for?
If it is historical heritage, then far more than Germany, Japan—Kyoto, Nara, and Shiga, for example—has an immense accumulation of magnificent culture and the beauty of nature through all four seasons.