Originally published on April 21, 2019.
This essay looks back on how Asahi Shimbun and television media once again tried to bring down Abe by promoting anti-nuclear power, constitutional pacifism, and fear of escaping deflation, only to see their expectations shattered in the general election.
Through the anti-LDP campaign waged by Ichirō Furutachi, Akihiro Ōtani, Mino Monta and others, the hopes placed in Yukiko Kada, and the grave miscalculations of Ichirō Ozawa and Asahi, it exposes how far Japan’s postwar discourse had drifted from political reality.

2019-04-21
Ichirō Furutachi kept repeating, in a voice like that of a funeral master of ceremonies, that Yukiko Kada, with her post-nuclear stance, was the right choice.
Everything was exactly the same as the lineup that had previously brought down the earlier Abe administration.

What follows continues from the previous chapter.

It was all so terrible that it led to a general election in the twelfth month.
Even so, Wakamiya seems to have believed that television politics still retained its magical power.
That was why, on the very day of the general election, December 16 of last year, Asahi’s front-page headline read, “Will the government change, or survive?”
They still believed, by more than half, that the Democratic Party government could survive.

For Asahi, in its editorials, called for abandoning nuclear power, denounced the LDP for advocating constitutional revision, and stirred up fear by portraying escape from deflation as a dangerous gamble.
Idiots like Akihiro Ōtani and Mino Monta kept shouting day and night exactly in line with Asahi’s editorials, crying that nuclear power must be abandoned and that the LDP wanted to seize a metal bat, while Ichirō Furutachi kept repeating, in a voice like that of a funeral announcer, that Yukiko Kada, with her post-nuclear stance, was the right choice.

Everything was exactly the same as the lineup that had brought down the previous Abe administration.
With this, there was no reason why the foolish masses would not move in an anti-Abe direction.

Even if the Democratic Party lost some seats, it would still win more than one hundred.
Ichirō Ozawa told Yukiko Kada, “If you stand, one hundred seats are certain.”
Asahi read the situation the same way.
Even if the LDP gained somewhat, the Democratic Party government could survive by drawing in a swarm of vulgar minor parties.

That was why the headline appeared as it did, yet the result was a crushing defeat.
Most shocking of all was the defeat of Kada, who, in perfect fidelity to the postwar regime, had spoken of upholding Article 9 of the Constitution, abandoning nuclear power, and rescuing the weak.
To be continued.