This essay demonstrates that the author’s definition of journalism is identical to that expressed by Takeshi Umehara in his dialogue with the late Kazumi Takahashi, clearly defining the roles of politicians and journalists and condemning Japanese media for reducing the Lockheed scandal to a childish domestic spectacle.

This is exactly the same as what Takeshi Umehara said about journalism in his dialogue with the late Kazumi Takahashi. January 1, 2017. “Politicians and Journalists.” April 26, 2011. I wrote exactly the same thing as what Takeshi Umehara said about journalism in his dialogue with the late Kazumi Takahashi. Please refer to the relevant chapter. The corresponding portion is bolded below. “Politicians and Journalists.” Politicians are professional politicians. In other words, they are people who have made politics the profession of their own lives. Journalists are also professional journalists. In other words, they are people who have made being a journalist the profession of their own lives. What is politics? It is the act of governing and administering the state. As already defined, politicians are those who win elections and reflect the voices of the electorate, that is, the citizens, in policy. What is journalism? It is something that provides accurate facts to the citizens. When facts are concealed, it is something that thoroughly thinks with one’s own mind and verifies with one’s own feet, even if the subject lies at the ends of the earth. Because danger always accompanies this, it is also something that deserves respect. This is a truly major point. For more than the past twenty years, the mass media in Japan has forgotten what journalism is. Even in the Lockheed scandal, which marked the beginning of this tendency, instead of flying to the United States to examine the state of the American aerospace industry at the time, the global political situation, what Lockheed had done throughout the world, and how other countries responded, they were content to rely solely on information fed through the press clubs. They wrote and reported it as though it were a major incident that occurred only in Japan, and they did nothing but send a genius political leader who appeared in postwar Japan to prison. They did not report why Lockheed committed such acts or how other countries decided to deal with them. Although it was a multinational incident, they treated it as a purely domestic affair. The daily frenzy, reducing it to “Tanaka Kakuei equals evil” in a manner worthy of kindergarten children—truly befitting a mental age of twelve—created what Japanese journalism is today. I am convinced of this.