A critique of NHK’s News Watch9 coverage of the Okinawa referendum, exposing how Japan’s state broadcaster allegedly manipulates public opinion while monopolizing public airwaves.

February 23, 2019
The time has long since come for the Japanese people to know with anger, to loudly rebuke the tax-thieving figures at NHK with anger, and to dismiss them.

Last night I was watching NHK’s Watch9, and I was made to witness firsthand the extreme maliciousness of those producing this program.
Most viewers, I suspect, did not notice their intent at all.
The reason I noticed was because I had been reading the special feature analyzing the situation regarding the Okinawa prefectural referendum to be voted on tomorrow, which was published in yesterday’s issue of Shukan Shincho…in which Masayuki Takayama’s contribution this week must have struck all discerning readers as extraordinary.
The feature reported that among the three choices, “neither” was likely to receive the most votes.
Needless to say, this would be the most troubling outcome for the anti-base faction.
It is no exaggeration to say that there has been no more malicious reporting than last night’s Watch9.
What were they doing…they presented one young Okinawan…as usual, a specifically chosen individual…who had participated in anti-base movements as a student but later developed a different perspective and recently supported a Liberal Democratic Party candidate, and depicted him as being in doubt.
The conclusion was that he would not choose “neither,” and the program ended by having the young man say exactly that.
The anti-base faction and those producing NHK’s Watch9 are likely in a deeply collusive relationship.
Yet we have continued for seventy years since the war to overlook the fact that Japan’s state broadcaster calmly engages in such behavior.
It goes without saying that such misconduct is not something a broadcasting station that monopolizes public airwaves granted by the Japanese people virtually free of charge…let alone Japan’s state broadcaster…should ever be allowed to do, and the time has long since come for the Japanese people to recognize this with anger, to loudly rebuke the tax-thieving figures at NHK, and to dismiss them.