This essay examines why Asahi Shimbun continued spreading falsehoods in its comfort women coverage, ignoring contradictions and counterevidence for decades.
It traces the same pathology back to the “Journey to China” series, supported by testimony from a former Asahi journalist.

2016-08-24

In the coverage of the comfort women issue, including articles based on Seiji Yoshida’s false testimony claiming that women were hunted on Jeju Island in South Korea, Asahi Shimbun’s stance was subjected to severe criticism.
This was because it diverted attention from numerous questions and counterarguments, and for many years continued spreading falsehoods without admitting fault.
Regarding Yoshida’s false testimony, even the Japanese government has now come to state that it “was reported extensively by Asahi Shimbun as if it were fact, exerting a major influence not only on public opinion in Japan and South Korea but also on the international community.”
Hiroshi Hasegawa, a former Asahi Shimbun reporter of the same generation as Honda and now a journalist, laments as follows.
“Failing to take criticism and rebuttals into account, and not even interviewing Japanese parties concerned, is not journalism. It is nothing more than an agitational leaflet. The pathology seen in the comfort women issue already existed at an earlier stage, during the serialization of ‘Journey to China.’”
The first article of Part Two, “Mass Graves,” in the series “Journey to China,” published in the Asahi evening edition dated October 6, 1971.
After noting that criticism and doubts had been raised regarding Part One of the series, Honda began by saying, “I would first like to respond to representative doubts. First, regarding the expression ‘why dig up such things now,’ that is, the ‘now’ in ‘why now.’”
“The attitude of saying ‘why now’ and trying to avoid this issue not only intensifies distrust and wariness among Asian countries watching Japan, but the very act of thinking ‘why now’ may itself be a sign of covering one’s own eyes and fleeing from issues that must be addressed precisely now.”
When Sankei Shimbun raised questions about this series from more than forty years ago, Honda and Asahi may have thought, “why now.”
However, reexamining the distorted history created by “Journey to China” is precisely the “issue that must be addressed now,” especially after Asahi finally acknowledged its past false reporting on the comfort women issue.
( Honorifics omitted. )
This project was handled by Abiru Ruriko, Arimoto Takashi, Kawasaki Masumi, Takita Makiko, Tanaka Issei, and Harakawa Takao.