The following is from Takayama Masayuki’s serial column in the last issue of Weekly Shincho, which was released yesterday.
This article also proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
A long time ago, an elderly female professor from the Monaco Royal Ballet School, who prima ballerinas around the world highly respect, visited Japan.
These are the words she spoke about the meaning of artists’ existence.
“Artists are important because they are the only ones who can shed light on hidden truths and express them.”
No one would disagree with her words.
It is no exaggeration to say that Takayama Masayuki is not only the one and only journalist in the postwar world but also the one and only artist in the postwar world.
This article also brilliantly proves the truth of my statement that Takayama Masayuki is more deserving of the Nobel Prize in Literature today than anyone else.
It is a must-read not only for Japanese people but for people worldwide.

Lacking the finishing touch
It all started with an article in the New York Times in July 1981 entitled “Strange Cancer Strikes 41 Homosexuals”.
Four of them died within days.
Soon after, a virus (HIV) was discovered, and it was understood that it was a terrible disease that destroyed the immune system and inevitably led to death.　
It was initially a tropical disease in the Congo, and it spread explosively among male homosexuals.
Rock Hudson and Anthony Hopkins died one after another.
Even if it was known to be a disease that affected gay and bisexual men, women could also become infected through bisexual men.
The first person to contract the disease in Japan was a foreign woman. Everyone was terrified.
Until then, I had dreamed of doing overseas reporting.
I could enjoy drinking in a strange country with strange people. In Rio de Janeiro, I became acquainted with students from the Escola de Samba and even drank with them at a boa ché.
＊No matter how much I searched, I couldn’t find anything about boa ché, so I’ll leave this English translation as it is.＊
The fear of HIV shattered all of these dreams.　
At the time of the Okinawa Summit, there were 30 million people infected with HIV, and it was reported that 80% of these were in sub-Saharan Africa.
Japan contributed 5 billion dollars to the region in ODA and helped train doctors and nurses.
However, even with this kind of support, within a few years, “9 out of 10 people died of AIDS”.
The disease was that virulent.　
So the people fled the country in droves, fleeing to former colonial powers such as Britain and France because they could receive treatment there even if they had developed the disease.
The British Minister for International Development, Clare Short, who was in a difficult situation, said at a summit meeting:
“Japan is devouring sub-Saharan Africa with its tied-up ODA. It’s like a dinosaur.”
Even though the allegations are baseless, the defeated country cannot even refute them.
When Japan forgave a debt of 5 billion dollars, the UK used the money to build a hospital in the local area and prevented patients from going to the UK.
This is called “diplomacy that uses other people’s loincloths.”
HIV is no longer a deadly disease, but it is still a terrible disease.　
At that time, Tedros of the WHO declared a state of emergency, saying, “There are signs of a significant outbreak of the even more frightening infectious disease, smallpox (monkeypox).　
In fact, this was the second time the WHO had issued a declaration.
The first time, two years ago, it was declared over without spreading too far, but this time, Tedros says, it has been confirmed in various places, including northern Europe.
This disease is very similar to smallpox, which has driven humanity to the brink of extinction many times.
The onset of the disease, with high fever and severe joint pain, is followed by the formation of pustules on the rash.　
Although the fatality rate is not as high as smallpox (50%), the way it is transmitted is the same as HIV.
It is also endemic in the Congo and spreads through sexual contact, reminding us of the fear when HIV first appeared.
It is also endemic in the Congo and spreads through sexual contact, reminding us of the fear when HIV first appeared.
It’s a terrible time.
I might have to give up my passport, but Tedros’s declaration of a state of emergency had a continuation.　
He said that to control the spread of the infection, “when men have sex with each other, they should reduce the number of partners they have sex with” and “they should refrain from having sex with new men.”　
In other words, people with smallpox were also gay or bisexual, and the declaration of a state of emergency was mainly intended to alert them to the situation.
The reason Tedros was so upset that he declared a state of emergency twice was because of his own problems.
Then, the other day, the Asahi Shimbun devoted a full-page feature to M-pox, discussing the horror it caused.
The article, written by the paper’s Johannesburg bureau chief, Imaizumi Susumu, describes a little girl who has contracted monkeypox and is covered “from head to toe” in a rash reminiscent of smallpox, complaining of “body pain.”
However, the article only says the infection is “mainly transmitted through contact with bodily fluids or blood.”
As Tedros said, it does not say that it is a sexually transmitted disease that is transmitted through sex between men.
So why did that little girl get infected?
That is not written.
Also, why don’t they write the crucial term “sexually transmitted diseases”?　
Will writing like that draw protests from gay and bisexual people?
I don’t think he is under the mistaken impression that all Japanese people these days are gay or bisexual.
I would like to understand that this report is just a case of drawing a dragon and forgetting to draw the eyes.

2020/11/15 in Kyoto