Published on July 30, 2019. This article introduces an essay by Takayama Masayuki and criticizes the Asahi Shimbun’s past malicious reporting, including its coverage of Yoshida Seiji’s testimony on the comfort women issue, the “This Is Poison Gas” report, the coral graffiti incident, and the NHK program-alteration report. It discusses Asahi’s attacks on Prime Minister Abe, its loss of subscribers, worsening business conditions, and criticism of Abenomics.

July 30, 2019.
Malicious reporting such as “This is poison gas,” “coral graffiti,” and “the lie about NHK program alteration” was all brought to a reckoning, and subscribers began abandoning Asahi in a landslide.
Regarding Abenomics, which has succeeded this much, Asahi evaluates it by saying, “There is no trickle-down,” and “It is a failure.”
That is only true at your company.
This is from an essay by Takayama Masayuki that I published on November 15, 2018, under that title.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
The beginning was a party-leaders’ debate before Abe assumed office as prime minister for his second term, when Abe pointed out that the comfort women issue was fake news by the Asahi Shimbun, which had ridden on the claims of the swindler Yoshida Seiji.
He said it was a rumor-mongering newspaper lacking the qualifications of a newspaper.
Asahi, which imagined itself to be a kingmaker, fainted at this insult.
The result of its plotting revenge was a total defeat in which it admitted Yoshida Seiji’s lies, and even the president lost his head.
That was not all.
Malicious reporting such as “This is poison gas,” “coral graffiti,” and “the lie about NHK program alteration” was all brought to a reckoning, and subscribers began abandoning Asahi in a landslide.
In the Nishiyama Takichi case, in which he toyed with a female clerk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and discarded her like a dirty rag, the Mainichi Shimbun lost as much as one-third of its circulation.
But this time, Asahi’s case is worse than that.
Its circulation continues to decline even now, and it will not stop even at half.
There are no reporting expenses or taxi tickets; night rounds used to be done by hired cars, but now they are done by subway.
In addition, an average salary cut of 1.6 million yen per person has been decided.
Regarding Abenomics, which has succeeded this much, Asahi evaluates it by saying, “There is no trickle-down,” and “It is a failure.”
That is only true at your company.
It blames its worsening business performance on Abe and curses him relentlessly.
Now impoverished, Asahi, from editorial chief Nemoto Seiki on down, runs out of control with the attitude that anything, even lies, is acceptable as long as Abe is brought down.
This essay continues.