A single photograph from a casual gathering became emblematic of the Kake Gakuen controversy, despite lacking substantive relevance.
An insider account examining media framing and narrative construction.

At that time nearly fifty people were present, and the photo merely captured the brief moment when I was able to greet the Prime Minister and Chairman Kake.
2018-01-30.
The following continues from the previous section.
Since there still seem to be people who have doubts about my relationship with Kake Gakuen and its chairman Kotaro Kake, I would like to clarify the facts here.
On the Asahi Shimbun Digital page titled “Topics related to Koichi Hagiuda,” an article dated June 20 featuring a photograph of me chatting with Prime Minister Abe and Mr. Kake while holding canned beer is still displayed at the very top.
This photo was originally posted on my blog on May 10, 2013, and was taken during a barbecue held by Lake Kawaguchi during Golden Week that year.
Nearly fifty people attended, and the photo simply captured a brief moment when I was able to greet the Prime Minister and Chairman Kake.
Naturally, topics such as special zone applications were not discussed at all.
Nevertheless, this photograph came to be reported as if it symbolized the Kake Gakuen issue itself.
The narrative became: “Although Hagiuda claims he has no relationship with Chairman Kake, here is a photo showing them on friendly terms. He must be lying.”
To reinforce that impression, the Asahi Shimbun still displays this photograph at the top of its page.
However, this is not the truth.
To be continued.

This photograph was shown on NHK’s Watch 9 by Arima, and Kuwako made remarks such as “It’s hard to say there’s no relationship when you see this…,” which amounted to the most malicious form of impression manipulation for those engaged in reporting.
If one knows the above facts about this photograph, it clearly demonstrates that those currently controlling NHK’s news division—and their central figure, Ōkoshi—are closely aligned with the Asahi Shimbun.
My own inference is that Ōkoshi, essentially a former University of Tokyo baseball club member, had long revered Hiroshi Hoshi, a senior figure in the press club and a prominent Asahi reporter, partly due to their shared Tohoku roots in Fukushima and Niigata.
In other words, the circumstances surrounding this single photograph clearly prove that those who now dominate NHK’s news and the Asahi Shimbun are connected.
Seeing is believing.