This article discusses how the Asahi Shimbun’s reporting on the Yoshida Testimony and the comfort women issue has harmed Japan’s reputation domestically and internationally. Through critiques by Ryusho Kadota and journalist Masayuki Takayama, the text reveals systemic ideological distortion, lack of factual investigation, and a pattern of reporting aimed at demeaning Japan. It calls for accountability, journalistic reform, and recovery of integrity in Japanese media.

Asahi Shimbun has persistently demeaned the Japanese people through its reporting on the “Yoshida Testimony” and the comfort women issue, and the structural problem behind this is analyzed in detail and criticized by Ryusho Kadota and Masayuki Takayama.
Without investigating the facts, Asahi has forced Japan into disadvantage on the international stage through self-indulgent ideology.
This content exposes Asahi’s posture and includes strong arguments calling for the normalization of journalism and for the Japanese people to recognize the pathology of such reporting.

The author asks Asahi—and the rest of the newspaper industry that imitates it—what the purpose is in using all of its influence and eloquence solely to demean the Japanese.
June 10, 2019.
Yesterday, I carried three books with me as companions for the round-trip Shinkansen journey.
Among them was a book by Ryusho Kadota, and I felt that I must urgently share one particular chapter with all Japanese people and with the people of the world, so I asked a close friend who is an avid reader to help.
My friend then asked whether I had read the book review column in yesterday’s Sankei Shimbun and showed it to me.
Masayuki Takayama rarely writes book reviews, but my friend said he had the feeling that Takayama would write one about this book.
The review was also directly related to the chapter I intended to introduce.
The review will be shared following this chapter.

“The Yoshida Testimony” Reporting — Asahi Shimbun’s Malice
The Yoshida Testimony Reporting and the Comfort Women Reporting

Asahi Shimbun is, to the Japanese people, truly a “mysterious existence.”
There is no other media outlet in Japan that has demeaned Japan and the Japanese internationally and driven the nation into disadvantage to such an extent.
Due to Asahi’s reporting, Japanese people have suffered tremendous harm.
For example, on August 11, 1991 (Heisei 3), Asahi turned the issue into a major problem by presenting Korean comfort women as “women taken to the battlefield under the name of the Women’s Volunteer Corps and forced to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers.”
As is now widely known, that reporting completely destroyed Japan-Korea relations and has become a major obstacle for Japanese youth trying to engage with the world.
In that era when poverty dominated society, women who—due to various circumstances—unfortunately entered the sex trade existed in both Japan and Korea.
There were many unfortunate women who entered such work with a guaranteed monthly salary of 300 yen, nearly 30 times higher than a soldier’s pay.
However, because of Asahi’s reporting, those women were turned into people who were “forcibly taken” to battlefields and “forced into prostitution.”
Consequently, it was the Japanese people themselves who were demeaned.

The “Yoshida Testimony” reporting that Asahi began on May 20, 2014, shared the same fundamental structure.
The scale of the campaign shocked everyone—
Not only was it featured as a giant headline across the entire front and second page, but Asahi also created a dedicated special page in its online edition (Asahi Digital).
In these articles, Asahi reported that on the morning of March 15, 2011, 90% of TEPCO employees at Fukushima Daiichi “retreated from the plant” in “violation of orders from the plant director.”
In other words, Asahi claimed that the vast majority of personnel fled the scene, “defying orders.”
And Asahi asserted that this was revealed in the “Yoshida Testimony,” a document from the government’s accident investigation committee, which Asahi claimed to have obtained.
If true, it would be a groundbreaking scoop of unprecedented scale.
But was it true?
This article continues.

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Below is the book review written by Masayuki Takayama, published in Sankei Shimbun.

Calling for a Return to Sanity
The Disease of Newspapers
Written by Ryusho Kadota (Sankei Shimbun Publishing, 880 yen + tax)

There is no shortage of people who say, “This part of Asahi Shimbun is bad.”
It is not just “this part.”
Everything is bad.
Asahi spread the lie of the comfort women for thirty years and demeaned the Japanese.
That alone should have been enough justification for the newspaper to be shut down, yet it continues pretending nothing happened.
And people around it are too lenient.
Weekly Bunshun’s “Newspaper Skepticism” column still treats Asahi as a respectable major newspaper.
Those who once spoke out against Asahi have mostly disappeared.
I thought we were about to witness the full revival of Asahi’s self-righteousness—when suddenly the author appeared in this paper’s column “Katsu on Newspapers!”
This book mainly compiles those writings, but it also includes the Yoshida Testimony scandal, with which Asahi has a deep entanglement.

During the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, the dedication of Plant Director Masao Yoshida and his subordinates who stayed at the site was praised around the world.
The Yoshida testimony prepared by the government investigation committee was non-public, but Asahi claimed to have obtained it and reported that “700 subordinates deserted out of fear of death,” mocking the world’s recognition.
Since the source was a confidential document, there was no way to immediately verify the truth.
However, the author had interviewed Yoshida for long hours and had also listened to the stories of his subordinates.
Through steady investigative reporting, he exposed Asahi’s false reporting and revealed the lie.
The reporter who wrote the Asahi article had not even visited the site.
The goal was not to report truth—
but to find ways to demean the Japanese.
Reporters today no longer conduct field reporting, the author says, and that has led to the decay of newspapers.
Without reporting, yet claiming “we are fighting with our pens against those who want war,” they are in a state of self-delusion, refusing to look at reality.
Thus, when faced with the shameless actions of China and South Korea, they suppress legitimate arguments by invoking baseless masochistic historical narratives like “never forget the suffering of colonial oppression and invasion.”
In the Megumi Yokota abduction case, they wrote that it was “an obstacle to Japan-North Korea friendship negotiations,” and regarding Renhō’s dual nationality, they insisted that “pure Japanese identity is not so important.”
The author asks Asahi—and the newspaper world that imitates it—what the purpose is of using all of their influence and eloquence only to demean the Japanese.
The author is from Tosa.
His voice hardened by ocean winds once caused President Donald Trump to turn around in the Ryogoku Kokugikan and offer a handshake.
With that same powerful voice, he now demands that today’s newspapers regain their sanity.
It is a book that should be read first and foremost by the reporters of Asahi Shimbun.
Review by Masayuki Takayama (Journalist).