This essay documents a shocking moment in the North Yard controversy,
when elementary school children were used in a televised campaign
to promote a World Cup stadium on prime urban land.
It exposes how “green,” “eco,” and “children” were exploited
as tools of pseudo-moral manipulation.

2016-03-28
When I arrived in Kyoto the other day, the sky immediately turned cloudy,
so I gave up on photography and decided to read a book at the Starbucks beneath Kyoto Station.
I was reading Thus, in 2016, Japan’s Era Truly Began! by Kōjin Kusaka when a sudden thought struck me.
My “Turntable of Civilization” must have given great inspiration even to people like Mr. Kusaka.
In July 2010, I encountered the extraordinary confusion surrounding Osaka’s North Yard.
As I continued writing, I realized that this chaos was in fact orchestrated by Asahi Shimbun, as previously noted.
I am convinced that the North Yard affair was, in reality, an incident surpassing even the shipbuilding scandal.
Unable to remain silent, I fought alone for three months against Kansai economic organizations, Keizai Dōyūkai, and Osaka City Hall.
I believed I had stopped the attempt to nullify a development plan created over more than twenty years through the collective wisdom of the public and private sectors.
However, following the same pattern, an utterly unbelievable proposal emerged:
to build a soccer stadium on North Yard—one of only two super-prime locations in Japan—
and bid to host the World Cup.
At the time, Osaka’s mayor was Kunio Hiramatsu, a Democratic Party member and a former announcer for Mainichi Broadcasting System, that is, TBS.
I was so shocked that I lost the will to work for three days,
questioned my decision to choose Osaka as the stage of my life,
and nearly lost the will to live.
But I told myself this was absurd—there was no way I would let myself be destroyed by such stupidity.
During the first phase of confusion, the phrase used by those acting on Asahi Shimbun’s intentions was,
“Stop the second development phase and turn it into a green forest.”
During the second phase, Hiramatsu spoke of building an “eco-friendly soccer stadium.”
In this stadium uproar, even NHK was mobilized.
On the six-o’clock news known to all Osaka residents, cameras were brought into an elementary school in Minoo,
where students were made to write,
“Please build a soccer stadium in North Yard and invite the World Cup,”
on papers placed on their desks, and those images were broadcast.
NHK Osaka’s program staff must remember my question:
“What on earth is this, and who is doing it?”
Officials of the soccer association must also remember my words:
“What kind of fool anywhere in the world would build a soccer stadium on the corner of Ginza Four-chome?”
Green, eco, children—
these are the stock phrases and stock themes of Asahi Shimbun, the stronghold of pseudo-moralism.
I decided that I had no choice but to appear on the internet and began writing The Turntable of Civilization.
To be continued.