This essay criticizes the excessive media frenzy surrounding Fujii Sota’s winning streak, exposing the deeper dysfunction of Japan’s television networks and major media outlets.

Using the media frenzy over a teenage shogi player as an example, this essay argues that Japan’s mass media has lost its sense of proportion and seriousness.

2017-06-22
Because a junior-high-school shogi player, Sota Fujii, achieved 28 consecutive victories since his debut, television stations are making a tremendous fuss.
It is certainly an impressive achievement.
But is it really something that television networks across Japan should be making such an uproar about?
For example, can Sota Fujii stop China’s arrogance?
Can he voice the criticisms that must be directed at China?
Can he accomplish Japan’s prosperity and security better than anyone else?
Can he, disregarding his own physical condition, conduct diplomacy that surveys the globe for the sake of Japan and the world?
When Barack Obama and European leaders fall into fierce arguments, can he impress the world’s leaders with quick-witted and appropriate responses?
The answer is, needless to say, no.
In other words, at this very moment, there is truly a great individual standing before us.
Yet media such as Asahi Shimbun and NHK have never reported on that great figure in the way they report on Sota Fujii.
Those men and women who call themselves newscasters may relentlessly attack this great individual with utter nonsense, but they have never shown even a single smile.
Today, I realized that this is clear proof that Japan’s media has gone mad.