Written on 2019-05-21.
This testimony describes how the Asahi Shimbun copy desk, which once possessed objective news judgment and editorial authority, was weakened after the Hirooka era and turned into a mere technical shop under top-down orders and left-wing control of speech.
Through concrete examples involving coverage of Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong, it reveals the reality of one-dimensional control developing inside the newspaper.

2019-05-21.
What I experienced in the Osaka copy desk was being told, during the Cultural Revolution era, that we must not publish a cartoon of Mao Zedong.
That angered me too.
When I shouted in a loud voice, everyone was looking upward.
The chapter I posted on 2018-07-14 under the title, “Especially during the time of Mr. Hirooka and Beijing correspondent Akioka Ieshige, it was terrible. Orders would come saying to put Akioka Ieshige’s ridiculous China-adoring copy at the top,” entered the real-time top 10.
Suppressing the discretion of the copy desk and turning it into a technical shop.
Inagaki.
A little earlier I said that before Mr. Hirooka there had been a very liberal atmosphere, did I not.
There were people on the left and on the right.
And people could speak rather freely.
The union did its own kind of thing, but it was not something that bound people.
Hongo.
At the end of the year I joined the company, there was the “Ninety-Six Strike.”
At that time, the copy desk, the very pivot of the editorial bureau, joined the strike contrary to management expectations, and so the quality of the newspaper became miserable.
For Mr. Shinobu, the senior executive who had come from the copy desk, that must have been a severe blow.
But when Mr. Hirooka took power, the very first thing he did was to strip the copy desk of its authority.
Until then, all the top executives at Asahi Shimbun had experience in copy editing.
Mr. Ogata, Mr. Midoro Kazuo, Mr. Shinobu, and Mr. Kimura had all worked in copy for a long time.
Within Asahi, there was almost an unwritten rule that unless you had done copy work, you could not become an executive.
The reason was that, although the copy section belonged to the editorial bureau, it could not do its work unless it surveyed the entire business of the company, such as when to issue an extra, how to make a special edition, or what sort of advertisement could not be carried.
And on top of that, while understanding readers’ needs, the copy desk was the place that decided this is today’s front-page lead, or this should be cut down to ten lines.
That is why people who had experienced copy work came to understand the whole business of the company.
But Mr. Hirooka had no experience in copy.
Neither Mr. Mori nor Mr. Watanabe had any.
Among the presidents after Hirooka Tomoo, there were hardly any with copy experience.
On the contrary, they disliked the copy desk and weakened it.
Inagaki.
When I entered copy, I was told, “Your very first duty is to make an objective judgment of news value.”
Does this deserve the top position or not.
Should this be given three columns or not.
We were told that we ourselves had to make such judgments first, and I remember being fired up by that.
That sort of spirit and pride has now disappeared.
Hongo.
Instead, orders began to come down from above.
Inagaki.
Yes, orders started coming from above.
Especially during the time of Mr. Hirooka and Beijing correspondent Akioka Ieshige, it was terrible.
Orders such as putting Akioka Ieshige’s ridiculous China-adoring copy at the top began to pass through without any judgment at all.
So we became nothing more than technical copy men whose only concern was whether the page looked good.
Ishikawa.
So the section lost its authority.
Inagaki.
I was a cheeky one, you see, and during my time on the Osaka copy desk I once cut down one of Mr. Mori’s ridiculous articles that read like a mere impression essay, and I got scolded for it (laughs).
Hongo.
And in Tokyo that would swell into an outrageous incident.
After Mr. Mori became editorial chief, the copy desk could no longer touch opinion pieces, even if they contained factual mistakes, typos, or omissions.
They turned the copy desk into a mere technical group.
That was a very major change.
One-dimensional control of speech.
A standard method of the Left.
For example, I think it was in Showa 41, after Mr. Hirooka took power.
An order went out saying that we must not use photographs of Chiang Kai-shek.
Inagaki.
Ah yes, something like that did happen.
Hongo.
Without any explanation of the reason, Chiang Kai-shek’s face was declared off limits.
In the copy desk there was a handover notebook containing notices, and before beginning work each day we always checked it.
When I read that order, I thought, come on now, do not say such ridiculous things.
Was not Chiang Kai-shek the benefactor who said “Repay enmity with virtue” and returned Japan’s soldiers safely.
When I raised my voice inside the company and said, surely you do not mean we will not even use his photograph when he dies, the desk chief stopped me, saying, “Hey, you, no, no, no.”
Inagaki.
What I experienced in the Osaka copy desk was being told, during the Cultural Revolution era, that we must not publish a cartoon of Mao Zedong.
That angered me too.
When I shouted in a loud voice, everyone was looking upward.
We used to call them flatfish.
The ones who only kept looking upward were the ones who rose in rank.
Gradually, even people who did not know how many columns a story should be given became important copy editors and desk chiefs.
That was the ridiculous age that arrived.