This chapter exposes how Asahi Shimbun concealed crucial facts by deliberately obscuring part of a document photograph, revealing a textbook example of media manipulation.

This chapter documents a concrete case of visual manipulation by a major newspaper, demonstrating how selective obscuring of documentary evidence can fabricate political scandals without factual basis.

2017-06-26
This is a continuation of the previous chapter.

I have mentioned several times that Abiru Akira of the Sankei Shimbun is one of the very few genuine newspaper reporters left among today’s journalists—so few that it would not be an exaggeration to say that almost none remain in today’s media.

His serialized column of June 23 proves the correctness of my assertions one hundred percent.

At the same time, this article allows people around the world to see, at the same moment, just how childish and malicious Asahi Shimbun truly is.

The facts are such that one is led to believe that Asahi reporters must be the children of senior officials of Chongryon, resident Koreans in Japan, or agents of South Korean intelligence organizations.

Rampant Fake News

On the morning of the 22nd, when I switched the television to a commercial broadcast, the face of Yasunori Kagoike, former chairman of Moritomo Gakuen, filled the screen.

On the night of the 21st, Mr. Kagoike had visited the private residence of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, attempting to return one million yen which he claimed had been donated, but was refused, after which he responded to questions from reporters.

Mr. Kagoike was holding a bundle of paper he claimed was one million yen in cash, but only the top and bottom bills appeared to be genuine ten-thousand-yen notes, while the inside seemed to consist of white paper.

Were not both the Moritomo Gakuen issue—which caused an uproar in the Diet and even led to sworn testimony—and the Kake Gakuen issue—which lowered cabinet approval ratings—nothing more than “fake news,” smoke created where there was no fire?

No matter how much the media pursued it with words like “suspicious,” “dubious,” or “untrustworthy,” no factual evidence approaching the core of the matter ever emerged.

Instead, vague expressions such as “son-taku” or “outward obedience with inward resistance” flew about, and the impossible demand to “prove the nonexistence of facts”—the so-called devil’s proof—was brazenly imposed.

An Unnatural Photograph

“Having myself been in the position of being written about, I understand very well how fake the Kake issue is. Fake news is rampant.”

At a press conference on the 1st, Liberal Democratic Party Diet member Koizumi Shinjiro pointed this out.

The Kake issue flared up all at once because of Asahi Shimbun’s front-page lead article in the May 17 morning edition titled “New Faculty ‘Prime Minister’s Intentions’” and “Documents Recorded at the Ministry of Education.”

The article claimed that regarding the establishment of a new veterinary faculty by Kake Gakuen, the Ministry of Education had recorded statements such as “we were told by the Cabinet Office that ‘the highest level of the Prime Minister’s Office is saying this’” and “‘we heard it was the Prime Minister’s intention.’”

That may be so, but the photograph of the document attached to the article, titled “Cabinet Office Response to Matters for Ministerial Confirmation,” is puzzling.

For some reason, the lower portion of the photograph is darkened and difficult to read.

However, when one looks at the same document released by the Ministry of Education on the 15th, the obscured portion clearly states the following:

“If it is framed as a ‘National Strategic Special Zone Advisory Council decision,’ since the Prime Minister serves as chair, it may appear as though the instruction came from the Prime Minister.”

In other words, it was a discussion about making it look as though it were the Prime Minister’s instruction—precisely the opposite of evidence that any such instruction actually existed.

Yet in Asahi’s photograph, that critical portion was unnaturally concealed.

Under these circumstances, one can hardly object to this being called “impression manipulation.”

This chapter continues