An introductory essay arguing that the Moritomo Gakuen scandal exemplifies covert foreign influence operations.
By examining media control, propaganda mechanisms, and the historical case of Hotsumi Ozaki, the article sets the foundation for understanding Japan’s vulnerability to long-term intelligence activities.

The Moritomo scandal illustrates how covert influence operations exploit media dominance and historical blind spots in modern Japan.

2017-03-21

While observing the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, discerning individuals must have thought that no one other than myself could write the truth of this matter.
I deliberately waited a few days before writing this.
During that time, I read an article in the Sankei Shimbun reporting that Kawazu cherry blossoms—planted along a former waterway by residents of Yodo and likely to become a new attraction in Kyoto—had reached full bloom.
I visited the site for three consecutive days and continued photographing the magnificent Kawazu cherry blossoms and Japanese white-eyes.
I succeeded in capturing exactly the photographs I had hoped for.

Now, to the main subject.

Japan has virtually no intelligence agency comparable to those of other countries, while China and South Korea possess powerful organizations.
Not only do such organizations exist, but these two countries also treat anti-Japanese propaganda as an indispensable tool for maintaining their regimes.
It is no exaggeration to say that this has become their national policy.
In other words, they are nations that continuously practice a form of Nazism toward Japan—stoking hatred against other countries and peoples to maintain political power—and can reasonably be described as hostile states toward Japan.
These countries employ every possible method to weaken Japan’s national strength and to undermine Japan’s credibility in the international community.
Yet many Japanese people know nothing of this, nor do they attempt to learn.

Why is this so?

Because the media most Japanese people read and watch can be said to be almost entirely under their control.
Intelligence agencies invariably train operatives.
Against individuals, all manner of operations—including honey traps—are carried out.
Against organizations such as so-called civic groups and against politicians, the provision of activity funds is almost certainly prioritized.
Daily stipends paid to elderly participants in anti-nuclear or anti-base movements are among the most obvious examples.
True intelligence activity, however, is conducted out of sight.
It is like a time bomb that has been planted.
That the Moritomo Gakuen scandal represents a textbook example of this reality is something that most Japanese citizens surely failed to notice.

Before entering the main argument, one must accurately understand Hotsumi Ozaki, once a leading figure within the Asahi Shimbun.

Hotsumi Ozaki (April 29, 1901 – November 7, 1944) was a Japanese commentator, journalist, and communist.
He served as a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, a cabinet advisor, and a researcher for the South Manchurian Railway Company.
As a key brain behind the Konoe Fumimaro administration, he occupied an important position in political and journalistic circles, maintained independent ties with the military, and influenced national policy through contact with the highest levels of government from the Sino-Japanese War through the period immediately preceding the Pacific War.
As a communist and revolutionary, he joined the Soviet intelligence organization led by Richard Sorge, known as the Sorge Spy Ring.
He engaged in espionage activities, which were exposed in 1941 as the Sorge Incident, and after trial he was executed as one of its ringleaders.

Life

A Sympathizer of Communism

Born in what is now Shirakawa Town, Kamo District, Gifu Prefecture, as the son of Hotsuma Ozaki, a reporter for the Hochi Shimbun, he moved to Taiwan at five months old after his father was invited by Gotō Shinpei to serve as chief editor of the Chinese-language section of the Taiwan Nichinichi Shimbun.
He grew up in Taiwan, attended Taipei Middle School and the First Higher School, and graduated from the Faculty of Law at Tokyo Imperial University, where he pursued graduate studies for one year.
Around this time, he became a sympathizer of communism, though he did not actively engage in political movements.
For example, while the Morito Incident occurred during his time at the First Higher School, he did not participate in social movements.
However, the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake and the subsequent killing of anarchists Ōsugi Sakae, Itō Noe, and Ōsugi’s six-year-old nephew by the military police inspired him to begin socialist studies.
His texts included Marx’s Capital, Lenin’s Imperialism, and The State and Revolution.
His interest in China began after reading Karl Wittfogel’s China Awakening.
In May 1926, he joined the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun and was assigned to the social affairs desk.
Among his contemporaries was Shinjiro Tanaka, who was later arrested in the Sorge Incident.
During this period, Ozaki belonged to socialist study groups and the Kanto Publishing Union under the alias “Genkichi Kusano.”

To be continued.