This article republishes an essay originally posted on April 3, 2019.
At a time when many Japanese welcomed the new era name “Reiwa” and support for the Abe administration was rising, it examines how the Chunichi Shimbun published critical coverage that cast a shadow over the opening of a new era, and sharply criticizes that editorial stance.
Through the issues of the Japanese era-name tradition, the Foreign Ministry’s move toward exclusive use of the Western calendar, and media-driven impression management against the Abe administration, it questions distortions within Japan’s postwar public discourse.

2019-04-20
Many of the Japanese people are welcoming the new era name.
The Abe administration is also supported by more than fifty percent.
In contrast to this, the Chunichi Shimbun is like Japan’s own traitorous left.

The following is from an essay posted on 2019-04-03 under the title,
An Article Picking Fault with “Reiwa,”
by someone who follows The Turntable of Civilization.
The passages between asterisks are mine.

We Japanese have cherished era names as something traditional to a degree perhaps unique in the world.
If one traces the nature of era names in ancient times, era names and calendars were the privilege of the Son of Heaven.
However, in Japan, from the first year of Taihō onward, era names have been used continuously without interruption for more than a thousand years down to the present, and over that long history they have become established and cultivated within the daily lives of the Japanese people.
When it comes to such Japanese tradition, I absolutely cannot tolerate the kind of thinking that says era names should be abolished and treated lightly.
The fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would deliberately issue an official document at this stage saying “unify under the Western calendar” is because there is a major ringleader of tradition-destruction within the ministry.

What this proved is that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an organization so foolish and good-for-nothing that, while it can act full-fledged only in doing something this stupid, it cannot even analyze the disastrous situation surrounding the final WTO committee.
Indeed, it even gave the impression that the Foreign Ministry itself had been completely taken over by the intelligence organs of China and the Korean Peninsula, and was perhaps even siding with South Korea.

Just before the era was to change on May 1, it is unthinkable that something like this should be made public at precisely the moment when a new age is beginning.
In that respect, I was deeply disappointed that Foreign Minister Kōno, despite holding such an important position in the Japanese government, could not even steer his own ministry.

One example of criticism directed at “Reiwa” appeared in an article that occupied more than half of page 11 of the Chunichi Shimbun dated April 3, 2019.
What sort of headlines were used in this special feature, “Excavating Topics: Tracking the News”?

• “The Prime Minister’s ‘Reiwa’ Press Conference Was Virtually a Policy Speech”
• “Full of Discomfort”
• “Work-Style Reform, Total Participation ‘Unrelated to the Era Change’”
• “In Contrast to Heisei, a Staging of ‘I Decided It’?”

Looking only at these headlines, critical phrases are lined up regarding Prime Minister Abe’s press conference, and as a result the Chunichi Shimbun is indirectly critical of the era name “Reiwa” itself as well.
There was not the slightest trace of self-righteousness in Prime Minister Abe’s remarks.
In answering questions, he was indicating that if, through the era change to “Reiwa,” Japan could build a society in which all one hundred million people are actively engaged, then Japan’s future would be bright, and he was saying that this era change should serve as the occasion to aim for a new age.
Yet the Chunichi Shimbun stresses things such as “Work-style reform, total participation ‘unrelated to the era change,’”
as though the only thing in its head were bringing down Abe, and it is engaging in impression management that Abe is at fault.
This is exactly the same stance as that of South Korean commentators, and the same way of thinking as those who simply hate the Abe administration.

Because support for the Abe administration jumped by as much as nine points with the change to “Reiwa,” they hurriedly wrote a large critical article and launched a campaign.
Your newspaper is an agitator with exactly the same disposition as the South Korean leftist newspaper Hankyoreh.
Many of the Japanese people are welcoming the new era name.
The Abe administration is also supported by more than fifty percent.
In contrast to this, the Chunichi Shimbun is like Japan’s own traitorous left.