Drawing on the ideas of Ryotaro Shiba and Inazo Nitobe, this essay examines Bushido as the moral foundation of Japan and criticizes postwar media and opposition politics that undermined Japanese honor.

He explained its substance by listing such elements as “Righteousness,” “Courage,” “Benevolence,” “Courtesy,” “Sincerity,” “Honor,” and “Loyalty.”
2018-01-01
Wishing you a very happy New Year!
The following is a chapter originally published on 2016-05-20.
In reality, the result of the editorial writers of the Asahi Shimbun, which turned out to be an outrageous force against Japan and the Japanese people, having dominated Japan, has led to today’s extremely unstable world.
Ryotaro Shiba stated that the Kamakura-period samurai were, so to speak, the prototype of the Japanese people.
Their spirit, he said, was to cherish one’s name above all else.
The following is a quotation.
Medieval samurai fought bravely while saying, “Guard your name,” and “A man lives for one generation, but his name lasts forever.”
They sought to achieve distinguished martial deeds that would leave a name for posterity and ensure the prosperity of their descendants.
Inazo Nitobe, comparing Bushido with Western chivalry, wrote that Bushido, born of Japan’s feudal system, constituted Japan’s moral code.
He explained its substance by listing such elements as “Righteousness,” “Courage,” “Benevolence,” “Courtesy,” “Sincerity,” “Honor,” and “Loyalty.”
The Asahi Shimbun is not a gathering of Japanese in spirit.
That is why, throughout the postwar period, they have not cherished the honor of Japan and the Japanese people, especially the honor valued by Japanese for the past two thousand years, but have instead stood on the side of the Chinese and Koreans to damage the name of Japan and its people.
What makes it even worse is that almost all of this has been done through lies.
They lacked entirely the spirit that any competent business leader possesses—the drive to make one’s country larger and stronger.
Instead, what prevailed was the belief that large corporations are evil, a notion that would be inconceivable in any country other than Japan, something Asahi readers should understand without being told.
Not only did they grow up reading the Asahi Shimbun, but opposition politicians who have adopted the articles and essays of this company’s editorial writers as their own thinking include not a single individual who questions the government in the Diet with a grand design to make this country larger and stronger.
They are a group of kindergarten children who believe that shrill voices and media-conscious attacks on the government constitute politics—or rather, it would not be an exaggeration to say they are a group akin to Koreans and Chinese who zealously devote themselves to attacking, belittling, and joyfully damaging the honor of Japan and the Japanese people.
Put simply, what the Asahi’s editorial writers say is that big business is evil and the Liberal Democratic Party is evil, and minds shaped by such arguments are those of Japan’s opposition politicians.
This essay continues.