On the day North Korea announced its hydrogen bomb test, TV Asahi and Asahi Shimbun displayed a tone seemingly wishing for a stock market plunge—despite such a decline harming low-income citizens most. Their hostility toward Prime Minister Abe and decades of biased reporting raise the question: could Asahi have even encouraged events that would damage Japan’s markets? The author argues that such doubts are not absurd.

2016-01-09

What makes me truly view Furutachi, TV Asahi, and ultimately Asahi Shimbun as childish and malicious is their behavior on the day North Korea announced its hydrogen bomb test.
Furutachi turned to the commentator and said, “Even so, the stock market didn’t fall as much as I expected… I thought it would drop further.”
The commentator nodded in agreement.
Their tone practically conveyed that the stock market ought to have fallen more, or that they wished it had.
These people, who pretend to speak for low-income earners and those who are struggling, proved that such concern is nothing but a façade.
Anyone with even a kindergarten-level understanding of economics knows that when stocks fall, it is precisely low-income people and those without stable employment who suffer even more.
Why do they not understand this?
Because Furutachi earns well over a hundred million yen, and the commentators also enjoy stable, high salaries.
And needless to say, Asahi Shimbun—which has long been hostile toward Prime Minister Abe and eager to destroy his administration—believes that if stock prices collapse, they can bury Abe politically.
One cannot help but wonder whether Asahi, which effectively received its final judgment last August, attempted a desperate maneuver.
Given that individuals within their organization clearly have ties to North Korea—as evidenced by their reporting history—
Did they induce North Korea to conduct a nuclear test in order to crash Japan’s stock market and topple the Abe administration?
Considering the severity of Asahi’s long history of biased reporting, such speculation is far from absurd.