This chapter critically examines a September 2015 Asahi Shimbun column by international editorial writer Tetsuya Hakoda, arguing that the root cause of the deterioration in Japan–South Korea relations lies in Asahi’s fabrication of the comfort-women issue and its complete lack of remorse afterward.
The author contends that Hakoda’s portrayal of Prime Minister Abe’s seventieth-anniversary statement as a continuation of a policy of “disregarding South Korea,” together with his relatively favorable treatment of President Park Geun-hye, exposes the historical perspective and anti-Japanese disposition embedded in Asahi’s core editorial culture.
According to the author, Asahi distorted Japan’s realistic diplomatic efforts while refusing to confront its own grave responsibility.
The chapter further denounces the fact that such journalists and such a newspaper were allowed to dominate Japan’s media landscape for so long, and calls for Asahi to publish immediate apology ads and factual explanations in major newspapers around the world regarding its comfort-women reporting.

2019-04-22
Even so…
That a journalist so shoddy and so ugly…
Should lecture a nation and a government which, in substance, is still the world’s second great economic power, and in which, as a providence of God, “The Turntable of Civilization” is turning…

This is a chapter originally published on September 7, 2015.
What follows is an article that Tetsuya Hakoda, in charge of international editorials, wrote in Asahi Shimbun’s serialized column on September 4.
The passages in quotation marks are his words.
The passages between the asterisks are mine.
‘A summer filled with many milestones is coming to an end.
President Park Geun-hye of South Korea must not have felt at ease during August.
Because of Abe’s statement on the seventieth anniversary of the end of the war.’
At the time, I had not read this opening.
If this were an editorial written by a Korean journalist, there would be no problem at all.
But what is problematic is that this was written by a man at the core of a newspaper company called the Asahi Shimbun, a newspaper believed externally to represent Japan…
In other words, by a man who embodies the ideology of that newspaper company.
To state the conclusion that men of discernment can grasp in an instant…
This is why Japan–South Korea relations deteriorated.
‘The statement followed the Abe administration’s line of “disregarding South Korea.”’
It is already a historical fact that it was the comfort-women issue fabricated and spread to the world by the Asahi Shimbun that worsened Japan–South Korea relations.
Even so, Prime Minister Abe, as a politician, has tried somehow to improve relations…
But needless to say, that does not mean acknowledging attacks based on the other side’s absurd falsehoods.
From Japan’s point of view…
Holding back the unforgivable anger toward the Asahi Shimbun…
Within the reality called politics…
As I have mentioned many times, Prime Minister Abe is a rare realist in recent times.
A realist is a person who holds no distorted ideology whatever and looks straight at reality.
And in order to look straight at reality…
It goes without saying that one must also look straight at history, excluding distorted ideology.
That is why he was able to produce such a splendid statement…
But it is no exaggeration to say that all the hardships that haunted the making of this statement…
Were calamities brought about by the Asahi Shimbun.
Regarding the grave crime Asahi committed against Japan and the Japanese people…
There is not even the slightest sign of reflection…
This article by a reporter at the very core of Asahi tells us everything about Asahi.
‘Nevertheless, in her speech at the ceremony the following day celebrating the seventieth anniversary of liberation from colonial rule, Park gave a certain degree of recognition while expressing hope for Japan’s future efforts.’
Anyone would be astonished to learn that the person writing this is not a Korean but a Japanese reporter stationed at the center of Asahi.
‘The leaders of Japan and South Korea share certain similarities in personality.
In particular, their strong egos make matters complicated.’
But what kind of man is this, in the world.
All decent people would be utterly appalled.
This man proves, one hundred percent, the correctness of the definition I was the first in the world to make concerning what sort of people they are.
‘In that respect as well, although Park has a strong reputation domestically, this time she appeared to show the more “adult” response first.’
This man…
As I have mentioned many times…
Places Prime Minister Abe, a true statesman worthy of the Nobel Prize…
On the same level as Park Geun-hye, who knows not even the shame of tattling diplomacy…
Who does not even realize it…
No, he speaks as though placing Park Geun-hye above Abe…
So much so that one can only stand speechless.
‘What created today’s disastrous relations between neighboring countries was the overly narrow and inward-looking diplomacy on both sides.’
At this point, we can no longer remain merely dumbfounded.
Hakoda, what created today’s disastrous neighboring-country relations was…
What you people fabricated and spread across the world…
Which the children of Syngman Rhee, raised in an education system that was Nazism itself…
Or people under the influence of North Korea…
Have used as ideal material for anti-Japan propaganda…
Across the world…
Using the most outrageous falsehoods born of “bottomless evil” and “plausible lies”…
To persistently attack Japan and the Japanese people…
And the Japanese people, who may without exaggeration be called the gentlest and most humble people in the world…
Have at last reached the limit of their patience…
Hakoda has absolutely failed to notice this, failed to understand it.
Is this not truly a terrifying matter.
At the same time, what his article clearly indicates is…
That Asahi…
Has shown no reflection whatsoever regarding its fabricated reporting on the comfort women.
‘It was the overly narrow and inward-looking diplomacy on both sides.’
Such vicious people, without even knowing at all that they themselves are such beings…
Have the audacity to lecture the government of Japan.
Even so…
That a journalist so shoddy and so ugly…
And a newspaper company that lectures a nation and a government which, in substance, is still the world’s second great economic power, and in which, as a providence of God, “The Turntable of Civilization” is turning…
Should have monopolized Japanese journalism…
This has been the reality.
Japan and the Japanese people must not allow their monopoly to continue any longer.
Without a moment more of delay…
First, they must be made to take responsibility for the comfort-women reporting…
And in leading newspapers throughout the world…
As the Asahi Shimbun, they must immediately place apology advertisements and advertisements explaining the truth.
The stage at which the mistakes they committed…
Could be left neglected…
Has long since passed.