This essay argues that the Asahi Shimbun’s hostility toward the Abe administration appeared repeatedly across its election coverage, editorials, and columns, revealing a long-standing institutional obsession with attacking Abe.
Tracing its pages after the general election, its diplomacy commentary, and even its 2005 reporting on the alleged alteration of an NHK program, it sharply indicts the abnormality of a newspaper that continues its attacks while never admitting a clear false report.

2019-07-12
The Asahi Shimbun’s posture of treating the Abe administration as an enemy appears frequently on its pages as well.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Abe-Bashing from Before He Became Prime Minister.
The Asahi Shimbun’s posture of treating the Abe administration as an enemy appears frequently on its pages as well.
Regarding the result of last October’s House of Representatives election, in which the Liberal Democratic Party won a sweeping victory, the front-page column Tensei Jingo wrote, “The cause of victory was not the prime minister. He was merely helped by an opposition that had lost its footing. Voters have not forgotten the prime minister’s habit of suddenly becoming overbearing once the election is over.” (October 23 edition)
On the following day, the April 24 column “Coordinate Axis” by editorial chief Kiyoki Nemoto on page I lamented that “the political landscape of the last five years has become a desolate one in which rules beneath even the Constitution are treated lightly,” and called for the following: “How can the swollen power of the prime minister be restrained? Can the ‘rule of law,’ which restrains power and guarantees the freedom of the people, be rebuilt? This must become the focal point of politics after the general election.”
(“Can the ‘Rule of Law’ Be Rebuilt?”)
One can sense the bitterness of sore losers who do not wish to admit the opposition’s defeat.
More recently, editorial writer Hayami Ichikawa wrote the following in his April 7 column “A Reporter’s View.”
“With the sudden decision on a U.S.-North Korea summit, it became clear that the prime minister’s favorite phrase, ‘Japan and the United States are together 100 percent,’ was an illusion. With South Korea, Japan has kept warning that on the Japan-South Korea agreement on the comfort women issue it will ‘not move even one millimeter,’ and cold relations continue.” “If those at the center of the administration declare ‘100 percent’ and ‘one millimeter,’ they bind diplomatic thinking.” “No high-spirited words are needed. Without demanding 100 percent, Japan should calmly reduce by even one millimeter the distance between itself and the related countries.” (“North Korea and Japan-U.S.-South Korea: How to Break the Negative Spiral”)
“100 percent” and “one millimeter” are metaphors, nothing more than nitpicking.
The Asahi’s “Fact Check” column, which points out each and every one of the prime minister’s Diet answers as wrong (×) or inaccurate (△), is also mere nitpicking.
There must have been many readers who were stunned to learn that the Asahi Shimbun continues to write editorials and commentaries like these. That allowing the Asahi Shimbun to continue to exist does not benefit Japan or the Japanese people is by now obvious to anyone.
Asahi’s “hatred of Abe” reporting began before Mr. Abe became prime minister.
On its front page dated January 12, 2005, Asahi reported: “NHK ‘Comfort Women’ Program Altered,” “Mr. Nakagawa and Mr. Abe: ‘Content Is Biased,’” and “Called in Executives the Day Before, Pointed This Out.”
However, it later became clear that it was not Shoichi Nakagawa and Shinzo Abe who summoned NHK, but that NHK executives themselves had gone to meet them.
Moreover, the meeting between Mr. Nakagawa and NHK executives took place not before the broadcast, but after it.
Despite being a clear false report, Asahi has to this day not acknowledged it as an error.
To be continued.