This essay exposes how a TBS News 23 report used an unidentified, well-funded NGO to oppose Japan’s ODA policy, revealing a disturbing media structure that actively undermines Japan’s international role and domestic public opinion.

June 29, 2016
The following is an essay published on July 22, 2015, titled “Last night’s TBS News 23 was truly awful.”
Last night’s TBS News 23 was truly awful.
I have written that until recently Japan continued to provide large-scale economic assistance to China in the form of ODA.
China, in order to secure resources, has in recent years continued to provide the largest amount of economic assistance to Africa in the world.
I wrote of my concern that Japan’s funds may have been used wholesale for this purpose.
Japan is a country where the “Turntable of Civilization” has turned, not by arbitrariness but by divine providence, as readers well know, and as a nation that must lead the world alongside the United States, it is only natural for Japan to provide economic assistance to Africa.
Among recent prime ministers, Prime Minister Abe, the most genuine politician, has, as readers know, begun in earnest to restart economic assistance to Africa.
China and South Korea, which persistently engage in anti-Japan propaganda, cannot possibly view this favorably.
Anti-Japan propaganda is also carried out as a movement to lower Japan’s value internationally.
The Japanese government decided to provide ODA for large-scale agricultural development in Mozambique.
It is impossible for everyone involved in any development project to be one hundred percent satisfied.
Last night’s News 23 reported that a farmer in the region opposed Japan’s ODA out of fear that his land might be taken away.
It was said that an NGO covered all of this farmer’s travel expenses to Japan, had him voice opposition to the Japanese government, and broadcast it widely on News 23.
There certainly exist remarkably well-funded NGOs, but there was absolutely no explanation of what kind of organization this NGO was.
In other words, it was a so-called civic group.
Is this not a truly chilling story?
Incidentally, when I was examining the circulation figures of the Sankei Shimbun and the Asahi Shimbun, I was surprised to learn that the Mainichi Shimbun still had more than three million subscribers, since I had believed it to be effectively finished long ago.
In other words, the Mainichi Shimbun’s influence on public opinion cannot be underestimated, and TBS wields far greater power in shaping Japanese public opinion than the Mainichi.
Is this not truly frightening?
Even so, where in the world, especially among advanced nations, can one find television stations and mass media that so gleefully report only things that demean their own country?