An analysis of NHK’s watch9 commentary revealing how Japanese media trivialized Akie Abe’s rational response while implicitly trusting a proven liar.
The essay exposes ideological bias, intellectual complacency, and the media’s failure to grasp the true responsibility behind the Moritomo case.

Japanese media confusion over the Moritomo case reveals not complexity, but an inability to recognize obvious lies and misplaced blame.

2017-03-23

At the time watch9 was ending, a female newscaster reported the content that Akie Abe, unable to endure any longer, had posted on Facebook.
Having been raised as the genuine daughter of the founding family of Morinaga Confectionery, and as the wife of Japan’s prime minister, she wrote nothing more than what was natural and obvious in her rebuttal.
That was exactly what every rational-minded person in Japan, myself included, had felt.
Yet the male watch9 anchor commented, unbelievably, “Now things have become even more unclear,” speaking as though he believed the fabricated story of that notorious liar.
Watching him, I thought that Seiji Yoshida must have been of the same type.
Seeing this male anchor, I became convinced that it was inevitable that nearly all Japanese media had been so easily deceived by an outrageous lie.
They are unquestionably people who grew up subscribing to and meticulously reading the Asahi Shimbun.
Still, I wondered why they could be so profoundly foolish, and tried to imagine what was going on in their minds.
They must be fixated on the fact that Akie Abe accepted the role of honorary principal.
But think about it.
This man’s kindergarten had been officially commended once under the Democratic Party administration, and once again after being carried over under the LDP administration, as an institution of the Japanese state.
On top of that, he publicly claimed to be a conservative, and was even a member of Nippon Kaigi in Osaka.
Such a school—twice officially commended by the state—repeatedly implored Akie Abe to become honorary principal of the elementary school it was constructing with Osaka Prefecture’s approval.
I repeat: it was a school that the Japanese state itself had commended twice, starting under the Democratic Party administration.
Accepting the request and saying yes is, in fact, nothing that deserves blame.
If blame is to be assigned, it should be directed at the Democratic Party (now the Democratic Party for the People), which issued the first commendation.
The second commendation was surely issued as a bureaucratic formality, carried over as part of routine administrative succession.
It is the Democratic Party and the media that must be criticized.