This essay contrasts the harsh economic reality faced by classical musicians with the true contribution made to Japan’s national interest by orchestra members across the country. It questions the high salaries of NHK and television employees while emphasizing the daily discipline, training, and beauty created by musicians.

I believe it has long been one of society’s common understandings that it is not easy for most classical musicians to make a living.
I, too, had vaguely assumed that this was probably the case.
Needless to say, however, a vague assumption does not amount to correct understanding.
The other day, while I was waiting at a traffic light at an intersection, I thought that now was the time to confirm it, and I searched with the AI service to which I have a paid subscription.
I searched for the average annual salary of members of one well-known orchestra.
The result was not for the current fiscal year, but it is probably almost unchanged.
The average annual income was 5 million yen…almost exactly in line with the impression I had held.
At once, I thought the following.
The annual incomes of NHK employees and television station employees should be reversed with those of orchestra members.
For example, among the people referred to as female anchors at NHK, it is no exaggeration to say that there are virtually none who can be called journalists.
It is no exaggeration to say that none of them possess the ability to conduct their own reporting, write their own scripts, and convey truths that viewers had not known.
And yet their salaries are among the highest in Japan.
For the most part, these women merely read, under the title of “anchors,” scripts written by those infantile left-wing patients who control the news department and who are made up of a masochistic view of history and anti-Japanese ideology, people whose status as genuine Japanese is itself doubtful.
That they themselves possess the same sort of minds is obvious at a glance if one looks at Zenba and Ōkoshi, who moved from NHK to commercial television.
While such people, whom it is no exaggeration to call traitors to the nation and enemies of the state—because they are people who greatly damage the national interest and comment only on matters that harm Japan—earn not merely more than 10 million yen a year but even more than 100 million yen,
as a result of true training and true discipline…as a result of daily practice that may be described, without exaggeration, as among the most severe and demanding in this world, every orchestra throughout Japan holds magnificent, world-class concerts day and night in every region of the country.
Every venue is filled with the applause of people moved by the music—the resonance—that they create.
It is no exaggeration to say that they contribute to the national interest to the highest degree.
For there can be no beautiful country without beautiful hearts.
This essay continues.