Originally published on October 21, 2019.
Based on an article by Tamura Kazuhiro titled “Astonishing: The Asahi Shimbun’s English Edition Still Continues to Publish Malicious False Reports,” this essay examines the problem of the Asahi Shimbun’s English edition continuing to describe comfort women as “women forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers.”
Through the false perception fixed in international society, reporting by The New York Times, and the deceptive circuit of mass media, it argues that the Asahi Shimbun should fulfill its responsibility to correct misunderstandings for the sake of the next generation.

October 21, 2019.
For the sake of the children who will carry the next generation, I feel sorry, and I would like the Asahi Shimbun to stop this once and for all.
On the contrary, should it not begin activities to actively clear up the misunderstandings of international society?
The following is an article I discovered on the internet just now.
It is a fact related to the chapter I published today.
Astonishing: The Asahi Shimbun’s English Edition Still Continues to Publish Malicious False Reports.
August 17, 2019, 6:00 a.m.
Tamura Kazuhiro.
Asahi has done it again.
For many Japanese people, August 15 is a day to mourn the victims of the war, but apparently the Asahi Shimbun is different.
I pointed out the false report in the Asahi Shimbun’s English edition of August 8 in my August 11 article in Agora, but on the following August 15 it also distributed, in its English edition, an extremely malicious false report of the same kind.
Because I want Japanese people to be widely informed of the reality of this evil deed that takes advantage of Japanese people’s weakness in English, I will examine it again.
From the Asahi Shimbun site and KBS News: Editorial Department.
The false report in the August 15 English edition of the Asahi Shimbun.
False-report portion: “The president said his administration will ‘do its best to restore the dignity and honor of the victims,’ referring to women forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese soldiers.”
Since I hesitate to post the Japanese translation of the whole sentence, if I may be allowed to cut out only the “women forced to—” portion, an expression that is not factual—“women who were forced to do—”—has been inserted in Japanese terms.
Quoted article: “Moon avoids row with Japan as ‘comfort women’ day is observed THE ASAHI SHIMBUN August 15, 2019 at 16:35 JST”
The false-report portions are in bold by the author; the same applies below.
The malicious descriptions continued.
I am originally careless, but regarding this theme, partly because of the unpleasantness of the articles, I had not been continuously monitoring the English edition.
Therefore, when I searched past articles in the Asahi Shimbun’s English edition this time using the keyword “Comfort women(woman),” in addition to the two articles above, I was able to confirm at least five descriptions, or articles, in the past year alone that differ from the facts, as listed below.
I will go back in chronological order.
False report 1: Article of July 31, 2019, about the “After Freedom of Expression?” exhibition.
False-report portion.
One exhibit shows photos of Korean former comfort women in China. “Comfort women” is a euphemism for women who were forced to provide sex to Japanese troops before and during World War II.
Quoted article: Exhibits deemed too controversial set for display at the show in Nagoya.
By HWANG CHUL/ Staff Writer July 31, 2019, at 15:55 JST.
False report 2: May 6, 2019, about a former comfort woman’s donation of 500,000 yen to a Korean school.
False-report portion.
I was forced to become a comfort woman when I was very young,” said Lee, who was part of the women forced to provide sex to Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. “I cannot stand to see children of similar ages to myself at that time being discriminated against.
Quoted article: Former ‘comfort woman’ donates to help fight discrimination.
By TETSUAKI OTAKI/ Staff Writer May 6, 2019, at 17:00 JST.
False report 3: February 1, 2019, about the postponement of Japan-South Korea general-level exchanges.
False-report portion.
The two countries had aimed to expand the scale of the defense exchange programs after relations improved with the 2015 Japan-South Korea agreement on resolving the issue of “comfort woman,” who were forced to provide sex to the Japanese military before and during World War II.
Quoted article: Japan, S. Korea postpone defense exchanges amid bickering.
By YOSHIHIRO MAKINO/ Correspondent February 1, 2019, at 15:30 JST.
False report 4: August 15, 2018, about the installation of a comfort woman statue in Taiwan.
False-report portion.
Taiwan was a Japanese colony from 1895 to 1945.
Many Taiwanese women were forced to provide sex to Japanese troops as “comfort women” during World War II.
Quoted article: Taiwan unveils ‘comfort women’ statue, demands an apology, redress.
By HIDESHI NISHIMOTO/ Correspondent August 15, 2018 at 17:05 JST.
False report 5: August 15, 2018, about President Moon’s “Comfort Women Day” speech.
False-report portion.
Comfort women refer to those who were forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese troops.
Quoted article: Diplomacy alone cannot resolve ‘comfort women’ issue, says Moon.
August 15, 2018 at 16:20 JST.
The false report common to all of them.
As listed above, what is common to the Asahi Shimbun English edition articles is the following kind of description.
Comfort women = those who were forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese troops.
In Japan, this is not a fact.
No matter how much investigation was carried out, no evidence emerged that the Japanese military forced them, and the Asahi Shimbun itself acknowledged and apologized for the false report in 2014.
This is a digression, but after then-President Kimura Tadakazu resigned to take responsibility, he achieved a form of “private-to-private amakudari” as a specially appointed professor at the International University of Health and Welfare, backed by the prestige of the fourth power.
Incidentally, this university achieved the remarkable feat of establishing a medical school by using the National Strategic Special Zone system, and although this is only a supposition, inviting the former president of the Asahi Shimbun as a professor may have been part of a careful media strategy.
The reason Asahi does not correct itself is that “facts in Japan do not equal facts in international society.”
Even though the matter developed to the point of the president’s resignation to take responsibility, the Asahi Shimbun continues to write false descriptions in its English edition and never withdraws them.
There was a reason for its strong reporting stance.
Comfort women were forced to provide sex to wartime Japanese troops.
In international society, this still remains the “truth.”
“Comfort women” is a term that indicates “women forced to have sex by the Japanese military,” and they are “sex slaves.”
However, as far as Korean women are concerned, this is an empty set.
Just as “There was nobody” is structurally an affirmative sentence but semantically a negative sentence, the expression “women from the Korean Peninsula who were forcibly taken away and made into sex slaves” exists as an expression, but in reality they did not exist.
However, as a result of losing the international propaganda war, they came to “exist” in international society.
It should be noted, however, that there are said to have been some victims, such as Dutch women.
Using as its basis or ally this false story that has become fixed internationally, the Asahi Shimbun’s English edition likely continues to distribute to international society matters that are regarded as false reports in Japan.
Unfortunately, outsiders cannot know the internal circumstances, so this is no more than supposition.
Examples of how comfort women are reported in international society.
The New York Times, hereafter NYT, which has an office in the Tokyo headquarters of the Asahi Shimbun, typically reports on comfort women in the following manner.
I will give several examples.
Example 1: “including forced labor and sexual slavery.”
Example 2: “Korean women who were forced to work in brothels for Japan’s military during World War II.”
Author’s note: brothel means a house of prostitution.
Both are excerpts from The New York Times, August 4, 2019; the reporters were Motoko Rich, Edward Wong, and Choe Sang-Hun.
Example 3: “Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japan’s Imperial Army.”
Excerpted from The New York Times, December 28, 2015; the reporter was Choe Sang-Hun.
The same reporter writes in the NYT.
Incidentally, in the above NYT articles, a reporter named Choe Sang-Hun wrote them jointly or alone.
Is he a reporter stationed, or living, somewhere around Seoul?
I have no intention of questioning him, but if one thinks in terms of the article distribution structure, he may be a Korean or Korean-American living in South Korea who has no choice but to write articles reflecting the local situation.
I do not want to believe that personal resentment is reflected in the pages of the newspaper.
The source is the Asahi Shimbun.
However, even if the Asahi Shimbun’s English edition tries to excuse itself by saying that it is “matching the evaluation in international society,” the present situation in which an evaluation of Japan that differs from the facts has spread through international society was, in the first place, greatly shaped by the role played by the Asahi Shimbun.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that “the Asahi Shimbun was the main actor.”
However, presenting the evidence to support this hypothesis would likely require an enormous amount of work.
This too is a technique of deception.
This false reporting in the English edition also uses a deception technique often used by the mass media.
Specifically, it is a “circuit” that creates the following kind of howling.
Stage 1: Japanese media report groundless content as a suspicion.
Ignition.
Stage 2: Third parties, such as foreign countries or domestic opposition parties, make a fuss over it as a problem.
Spread of fire.
Stage 3: Japanese media report the uproar domestically as if it were someone else’s affair.
Fueling.
The following is a refrain.
This criminal infinite loop is a traditional performing art of the Asahi Shimbun, and the Asahi still continues its efforts so that the flame of tradition will not go out.
Japanese people should have condemned it more strongly at the time of the KY coral incident.
The Asahi Shimbun, for example, while persistently criticizing the Abe administration over Moritomo and Kake, pretends not to know anything when it becomes a lawsuit, saying, “We did not report such a thing.”
The deception technique that the Mainichi Shimbun confessed to was also a technique at which the Asahi Shimbun was skilled.
My article: “The Mainichi Shimbun That Confessed to Its Technique of Deception.”
Regarding this false report in the English edition as well, it is probably convincing itself through a logic of evading responsibility: “We are not the source.
International society reports it that way, so we are only writing in accordance with that.”
But in this case, the source is the Asahi Shimbun’s biased campaign.
For the sake of the children who will carry the next generation, I feel sorry, and I would like the Asahi Shimbun to stop this once and for all.
On the contrary, should it not begin activities to actively clear up the misunderstandings of international society?
Tamura Kazuhiro.
Director of Alpha Arithmetic Classroom, a private tutoring school for arithmetic and mathematics.
Born in 1968.
Graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1992.
After working at a securities company, he became head of public relations and CFO at a listed company, then became independent.