In Japan, even private individuals willing to pay large sums are effectively barred from publishing opinion advertisements in major newspapers. In 1990, the author attempted to place a full-page nationwide ad in Nikkei questioning whether the government’s credit controls violated the Constitution, offering 35 million yen, but it was rejected due to priority given to corporate financial ads. This experience convinced him that Japanese journalism lacks true freedom of expression. He argues that had such opinions been published nationwide, Japan’s “lost 20 years” might not have been so devastating, and he harshly criticizes the degeneration of newspaper advertising and the hypocrisy of press freedom.

On the Journalism of Our Country
2010-07-30

In this country, strangely enough, even if an unknown person like myself wishes to make a proposal to the nation and is willing to pay a large sum of money to do so, the newspaper companies will not publish opinion advertisements submitted by such unknown individuals.

For example, in April of Heisei 2 (1990), there was at the time the advertising bureau chief of the Osaka branch of the Nikkei newspaper, who regularly came to hear my views.
I asked him, quite simply and urgently, to publish a nationwide, full-page advertisement across the entire page.
The cost was 35 million yen, and at that time, there was absolutely no problem for our company in affording it.

“Dear Ministry of Finance and Governor of the Bank of Japan.
Does the present volume of credit controls not violate the Constitution in the following two respects?

First, (since I am not what one would call a leftist, I will deliberately avoid using the word ‘workers’) real estate businesses are, in fact, a collection of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Does this not infringe upon the right to livelihood of the employees who work there?

Second, does ordering that no money be lent to a single industry or a single line of business not violate the freedom of occupational choice?
Even without going that far, the foundation of capitalism lies in the system of private property, from which finance (banks) emerged by lending money against land as collateral, and eventually securities and the stock market came into being.
You are shaking that very foundation to its core.

To order that no money be lent to a single industry or a single line of business—is that not fascism rather than democracy?”

He replied, “April and May are fully booked, so we will arrange to have it published in June.”
Yet when June arrived and no response came no matter how long I waited, I called to inquire, only to be told, “We are terribly sorry, but June is also completely filled with large corporate financial statement advertisements.”

At that moment, I instantly realized that the journalism of our country is not truly journalism at all.
Because newspapers such as The New York Times or The Washington Post would never refuse to publish, even for 35 million yen, an article that seeks to make a proposal to the nation or to correct the nation’s mistakes.

You may believe that there is freedom in this country, but I do not think there is any real freedom at all.
He had been a good man, and he used to say that he had never met a company president who thought the way I did, and that was why he visited us regularly.
But after I told him, “Never again set foot in our company,” I have not met him even once since.

Do you not think, dear readers, that if that opinion advertisement had been published at that time in Nikkei and delivered to every subscribing household nationwide, the “lost twenty years” might at least have been somewhat less severe?

Until recently, the advertisements in the Asahi Shimbun were dreadful.
They were like the pages of a sports tabloid.
Pressed by the recession and the Internet, newspaper management must now be gasping for breath.

I would like to propose something to you.
Rather than filling your pages with such dreadful advertisements, why not offer full pages to individuals who wish to publish their opinions?
At present, I myself have no such financial leeway, but there must be many people at the height of their prosperity who do.

I think this would be most appropriate for journalism, which is supposed to stand under the banner of freedom of expression.
After refining any unnecessarily harsh expressions and clearly superfluous parts, and after advising on layout, 35 million yen would be earned.
That would be a substantial source of revenue.

(274) John Lennon – Help Me to Help Myself – YouTube