Published on July 15, 2019.
This article criticizes NHK’s reporting of public opinion polls and its news-editing practices, arguing that it highlights the approval and disapproval ratings of the Abe administration while failing to properly address the declining support for the Constitutional Democratic Party.
It criticizes NHK for repeatedly giving large close-ups and lengthy airtime to Kiyomi Tsujimoto, even though her party’s support rate had fallen to 5.6 percent, thereby making a minor party appear as if it were one wing of Japan’s two-party system.

July 15, 2019.
A party that it would not be an exaggeration to call a fringe party was treated as if it were one wing of Japan’s two major parties, with her face shown in close-up every time and given long airtime.
Among those who watched NHK’s announcement of its public opinion poll results both last time and last night, all people of keen insight must surely have noticed it.
They must have noticed the blatant bias in the reporting by those who control NHK’s news division… especially those who control the final editing section.
Even when I say blatant, it is something that only people with eyes to see can understand… while toward the general public, who do not understand it at all, they are carrying out blatant impression manipulation.
The reason I deliberately said the general public is that, recently, when Asahi Shimbun deliberately brought over from Germany a young man who calls himself a philosopher, under Asahi sponsorship and NHK cooperation, and NHK broadcast a special program, at a panel discussion organized by Asahi, Koichiro Kokubun, who, when I was still watching TV Asahi’s Hodo Station, used to appear frequently as a commentator while being flattered by Furutachi in a way that made one’s teeth ache… a typical example of an unbearable man, a hawk-faced man who seemed to have been born mouth first… a man who prides himself on having studied in Paris and being thoroughly familiar with contemporary philosophers.
He raised his voice toward the German young man in order to make him criticize the Abe administration.
“Regarding the falsification of official documents by government offices, the general public does not raise voices of anger, do they?”… what foolish general public does he think seriously believes the Mori-Kake uproar created by Asahi Shimbun, the boss of biased reporting and fake reporting?
This man receives quite a large appearance fee from television, so perhaps he also thinks television is everything.
Leaving that aside.
What is NHK’s editing?
First, their so-called public opinion poll is a thing based on about 1,000 responses… needless to say, they ask leading questions in line with the intentions of NHK’s news division… and, moreover, fixed-line telephones are the main method.
Both last time and this time… they prominently report that the approval and disapproval ratings of the Abe administration are neck and neck.
When I happened to be watching last time, I thought, “Huh?”… the final party-support ratings… in one sense, this is probably the most essential part of all.
For this part, there was only the announcement: “The other results are as follows.”
There was no comment at all on its content.
The reason immediately became clear.
It was because the support rate for the Constitutional Democratic Party, which they support, had finally fallen far below 10 percent, a miserable figure.
Last night was even worse… that support rate had fallen still further… to 5.6 percent, down 1.9 points from the previous survey.
It is an unmistakable fact that NHK’s news-editing department is siding with Kiyomi Tsujimoto, and that NHK’s news programs have shown, to a nauseating extent, close-ups of the face of the woman who is the foremost figure in Baikoku Giin, a work of labor by a person with eyes to see, and have allowed her to criticize the Abe administration to her heart’s content.
The public support rate for the Constitutional Democratic Party, in which she is active as the face of the party, is… even in NHK’s own public opinion poll, 5.6 percent.
It is a well-known fact that NHK has repeatedly shown the face of this woman in close-up and provided her with long airtime, as if a party that it would not be an exaggeration to call a fringe party were one wing of Japan’s two major parties.