The Asahi Shimbun has begun mobilizing its vast international network, built during its years as Japan’s leading newspaper, to attack Japan itself and to undermine the Abe administration across multiple fields, both domestically and internationally.

May 13, 2016

Recently, the Asahi Shimbun has begun to mobilize its worldwide network—built over many years while occupying the position of Japan’s leading newspaper—to attack Japan, or rather, to destroy Japan, and to bring down the Abe administration, across every conceivable field.

Domestically, it has relentlessly undermined the most important psychological component of the Bank of Japan’s policy effects.
Not only has it placed obstacles in the way of escaping deflation, but it has even gone so far as to mobilize European correspondents from Newsweek to publish truly astonishing and utterly malicious articles asking, “What is wrong with deflation?”—articles that could hardly be more harmful.

Ahead of the recent Bank of Japan policy decision, at a time when it was obvious that all of the Policy Board members were readers of the Asahi Shimbun, and when the market was clearly calling for further monetary easing, Asahi marshaled the presidents of Mitsubishi UFJ Bank and other leaders of the financial world to write editorials aimed at preventing such easing.
As a result, it pushed decision-making in the direction opposite to the voice of the market, leading to a policy outcome of doing nothing and maintaining the status quo.

To be continued.