Japan’s long deflation was not inevitable.
Media figures repeatedly undermined decisive policies pursued by Shinzo Abe and Governor Haruhiko Kuroda.
The pattern of persistent negativity symbolized by Ichiro Furutachi obstructed recovery and entrenched poverty.

2016-03-25
The following is a continuation of the previous section.
As already noted, when Kiichi Miyazawa was prime minister, it was Atsushi Yamada of the Asahi Shimbun who crushed the policies Miyazawa—one of the finest minds in Japan at the time—sought to implement, thereby creating Japan’s long deflation that is now abhorred like a plague by countries around the world.
Recognizing that this deflation has produced realities such as one in six children growing up in households earning less than 1.8 million yen a year, the rare politician Shinzo Abe finally set out to defeat deflation, while Haruhiko Kuroda forced a 180-degree shift in the stance of the Bank of Japan—which had, it would not be an exaggeration to say, left deflation unattended—and began implementing the policies that should have been pursued.
For viewers of Hōdō Station, the figure that should immediately come to mind is Ichiro Furutachi, who continued, at every opportunity, to make negative remarks about these efforts.
The reason I condemn Asahi and Furutachi as among the most malicious actors lies also in the fact that Asahi employees never saw their top-tier salaries reduced even during the long deflation.
It also lies in the fact that Furutachi continued to earn an annual income exceeding one hundred million yen.
And yet these very people relentlessly criticized and crushed government policies aimed at improving the situation in which one in six children grows up in poverty, with household incomes below 1.8 million yen.
To the “Aunt Hamada” of Doshisha whom they have favored, I would like to say this.
Ms. Hamada, if a strong yen truly equals Japan’s strength, then why did you not seek to make the Tokyo Stock Exchange a market as strong and large as the NYSE?
Had you merely been a nightly heavy drinker in Kitashinchi, I would have laughed it off, but surely it is not the case that, because of that, you were being manipulated by forces that wanted Japan to remain strong in yen, is it?