Written on May 8, 2019, this essay expresses a strong sense of unease at the content and sequencing of NHK News Watch 9, which moved from a segment on problems with China’s Belt and Road Initiative to a lengthy feature on a woman claiming past sexual victimization, and then immediately to coverage of the Empress’s ceremony.
Seeing the repeated use of the words “perpetrator” and “victim,” the author argues that the program resembled a form of manipulative propaganda, reinforcing the narrative that Japan is the perpetrator while they are the victims.

2019-05-08
They have kept saying it… Japan is the perpetrator, and they are the victims…
I felt that this was the most malicious propaganda of that very claim.
And on top of that, immediately after such a feature… they broadcast the Empress’s ceremony.

As I was casually watching NHK’s Watch 9 just now, it said that there are problems with China’s Belt and Road…
Oh, I thought, perhaps Watch 9 too has started to become reasonable, and so I began really watching the television…
But the moment that subject ended…
Quite abruptly…
They began broadcasting, at considerable length…
A story about the activities of a woman who said she had once suffered sexual victimization.
Repeated again and again in the captions… “perpetrator” and “victim” and so on…
I felt to the point of thinking that this was a malicious impression-manipulation program created by Zainichi Koreans or people connected to Chongryon.
In other words…
What they have kept saying…
Japan is the perpetrator, and they are the victims…
I felt that this was the most malicious propaganda of that very claim.
And on top of that, immediately after such a feature…
They broadcast the Empress’s ceremony…
This way of structuring a program is not something a decent Japanese person would do.