An early-morning reflection arguing that Japanese TV fixates on politicians and comedy while ignoring the real work of firms and workers who build the nation. The state should be a watchdog protecting its workers; the media must cover economics, foreign affairs, and philosophy in real time. A pledge to write responsibly for decades, closing with a line from Miyamoto Musashi.

In a blog post from 2011, the author sharply criticizes Japanese television for focusing solely on political press conferences and comedy shows, neglecting to show the true “masters” of the country: its workers and corporations. The author defines the state as a “watchdog to protect its workers” and argues that the current situation, where politicians and entertainers dominate the media, is a complete reversal of priorities. He claims that this distorted media landscape is the reason Japan fell into a long-term deflationary spiral and urges the media to report on the economic and social realities that truly matter.

Last night I went to bed earlier than usual, so of course I woke up earlier.
Watching TV, I thought about what television has been like up to now—especially the commercial networks.
A scrum of five networks and the newspapers crowd around politicians’ press conferences and “doorstep” gaggles.
After that it is comedy shows—wide shows that might as well be classed as comedy, too.
On top of that, there are formulaic dramas made with a mental age of thirteen.

At the core of building a nation are the great firms and the small and medium enterprises.
Japan has companies that hold top global market shares in many fields and fight day and night around the world, and that is what makes a nation.
Politics, to put it bluntly, exists to support the endeavors of these companies and the wide array of workers.
A feudal “top-down” mentality puts the cart before the horse.

Because humanity cannot eliminate the existence of evildoers, police are necessary—basically a necessary evil.
But if things head in the direction where the police and prosecutors think they are the ones building the country, it is finished.
A watchdog may bark, but it is impossible that the dog should sit in the place of honor as the master of the house.
It is the same for a nation.
Those whose labor produces the food and the profits—the workers—are the masters.
Those who eat because of taxes paid by workers are, not to put too fine a point on it, watchdogs.

(The state is a watchdog that exists to protect its own workers.)
— My morning tweet.

If TV shows only politicians’ faces and comedy, there is no life of the masters on screen.
What are the masters doing?
What problems do they face?
What is the current state of foreign countries?
What are other countries thinking, and where are the business opportunities?
There is a mountain of things that ought to be broadcast.

Moreover, the economy is a living thing, changing from moment to moment each day, so there should be an infinite supply of material—more than production can keep up with.
And as the human philosophy and principles at the root of business, those must of course be discussed.
TV and newspapers ought to be workplaces so busy they have no time to sit still.

Because people naturally prefer to loaf, they recycle the same talent, secure a certain rating, land sponsors, and say that is enough—“Right, job done.”
And with that, the highest salaries in Japan are decided.
If you show nothing of the masters and keep showing watchdogs and entertainers as mere diversion, then it becomes impossible to see what must be done—economically and diplomatically, as a nation.

Even among workers, fewer than ten percent are elites who see the whole; ninety percent see only their own post.
What the mass media are supposed to do—what TV and newspapers must do—is to convey the total state of our country across all fields, the realities of foreign nations, and the ever-changing policies, as well as history and the public sentiments that arise from it.

The twenty-plus years of showing only politicians’ faces and comedians’ faces produced the Japan that existed before March 11.
Japan sank into the first prolonged deflation in the history of advanced nations.
The only ones lively were politicians, entertainers, and TV people, because that is what they had made.

As for the rest, read my newsletter—in my case, a serialized book, effectively self-published.
If you think my words lack truth and are not worth hearing, then stop your subscription at that moment.
For the next forty years, writing will be my work, and I will take responsibility for what I write—
I will not write drivel.

It is only because I have lived as a worker and am unknown that I do it this way, but it is no different in substance from your buying a book at a bookstore.
The countless books on the shelves cannot measure up to my words—
If you are a reader, you already know why.
What resonates with my words are the books of true scholars, true songs, true artists, and true people—great personages.

If you cannot establish yourself as the real thing and see the world rightly, life becomes a night of specters.
Every manner of evil creeps in, and not only do you waste your one life, in the end there is nothing but war.

Miyamoto Musashi said, “I revere the gods and buddhas, but I do not rely on them.”