This essay, originally written in November 2014 and supplemented later, examines suspicious incidents in figure skating, state-driven athlete systems in China and South Korea, and coordinated anti-Japan movements.
It argues that pseudo-moralists, led domestically by the Asahi Shimbun, have polluted sports with politics.
Their responsibility is global, systematic, and immeasurably deep.

2016-04-01
What follows is an essay I originally wrote and published in November 2014, with a few additional notes added tonight.
As readers already know, I have been watching figure skating for many years, and for specific reasons.
Naturally, I have followed this season’s Grand Prix series from the opening event.
When I woke up this morning, something suddenly became clear to me—something the entire world should also know.
What came to mind upon waking was rooted in something that had surprised me in last night’s sports news.
At the women’s world curling championship currently underway, South Korea was ranked first with an undefeated record.
I found myself thinking, “Was Korea really this strong?” and immediately realized it was because the nation has mobilized all its resources toward the 2018 Winter Olympics.
I have written before that the strength and sheer number of Korean women professional golfers is the reverse side of gender discrimination in Korean society.
With a population of 50 million—less than half of Japan’s 126 million—South Korea surpasses Japan in Olympic gold medals because its elite athletes are effectively state amateurs.
Gold medalists are guaranteed lifelong pensions and enormous rewards from the state.
In a country that is extremely difficult to live in, such treatment is exceptional, and athletes therefore stake their entire lives on competition.
In contrast, athletes from Japan, a nation that rivals the United States in freedom and intellectual standards, receive no such treatment even if they win gold medals.
What I discovered from this is a truth that people living in the 21st century must understand.
I was watching a recent competition in China with a friend.
When the practice session for the group including Hanyu began, I was reading a book.
Suddenly, my friend let out an indescribable sound, and without even looking at the screen, I instantly knew what had happened.
This was because I had seen a strange scene during the previous day’s short program practice.
The Chinese skater who later collided with Hanyu had already approached him the day before.
At that time, Hanyu avoided him by gliding to the right, but I felt it was extremely dangerous and unnatural.
I sensed deliberate intent.
The next day, the incident occurred.
For what purpose?
Russia, which had been severely criticized by the world over the Ukraine issue, had drawn closer to China.
According to historical patterns, one-party communist regimes last about seventy years, and the Chinese Communist Party is nearing the end of that cycle.
For a party seeking global domination, Russia was a welcome partner.
After Hanyu made a major mistake in the short program, an obscure Russian skater suddenly found himself in first place.
Was the goal to secure that position.
Yet the motive seemed far too weak.
Then, upon waking today, I realized something.
South Korea was set to host the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang.
As a state, South Korea must also be nurturing male figure skaters with the aim of winning gold medals.
But as long as Yuzuru Hanyu exists, such ambitions are impossible.
It is already a historical fact that anti-Japan groups in South Korea and China are working in tandem across the United States and the world to diminish Japan’s international standing.
If so, then such actions become conceivable.
Some may say that would amount to madness.
It is madness.
The fact that South Korea, after seventy years of fascistic anti-Japan education, is in a state of frenzy is evident from the actions of Korean groups in the United States.
Just like the pseudo-moralists led in Japan by the Asahi Shimbun, the sins of pseudo-moralists around the world are deeper than the sea.