Despite having one of the freest media environments in the world, Japan has been ranked 72nd by Reporters Without Borders. This article exposes the absurdity of that claim by examining Japan’s actual media practices and internal contradictions in such rankings.

2017-05-07
Despite the fact that Japan’s level of press freedom is, in reality, overwhelmingly the highest in the world,
an international NGO calling itself Reporters Without Borders, headquartered in Paris—an organization that undoubtedly involves the Asahi Shimbun, so-called cultural figures, so-called civic groups, and so-called human-rights lawyers—
issued a truly laughable announcement ranking Japan last among the G7 countries and 72nd in the world,
and the Asahi Shimbun, in an attitude that can only be described as the height of foolishness, gleefully reported it.
This assessment targets Japan, a country with such boundless press freedom that it even tolerates placing an individual who is a bona fide elite member of Chongryon—an organization that acts in accordance with the wishes of North Korea—
an individual who retains a Korean name and is therefore presumably of Korean nationality,
in the position of foreign news desk editor at TV Asahi, one of the six networks that monopolize nationwide television broadcasting in Japan.
Japan is a country where press freedom has reached such an extreme level that this situation is permitted, a level so outrageous it defies common sense,
yet it is precisely this Japan whose press freedom is claimed to rank 72nd in the world.
Such foolish claims should cease immediately.
If there were any country with a higher level of press freedom than Japan, such a country would already have ceased to exist.
Up until three years ago, in August, there may have been some people deceived by your malicious conduct,
but you must understand that such Japanese citizens no longer exist.
Members of Reporters Without Borders, headquartered in Paris, you should know shame.
If you do not, what awaits you is nothing less than the most severe torment administered by Enma, the king of hell.