The redevelopment of Osaka’s Umeda North Yard, once a key national asset of Japanese National Railways, resulted in an extraordinary loss of public wealth. While Tokyo’s Shiodome district was sold through open international bidding, North Yard was deliberately undervalued. This essay examines how media influence—particularly by Asahi Shimbun—blocked foreign participation, including firms linked to George Soros, causing irreversible damage to national interests.

2016-03-29
The reason I wrote in this chapter that “what concerned the North Yard was, in reality, a scandal even greater than the shipbuilding corruption case” is as follows.
Many Japanese seem to have forgotten the enormous deficit of 30 trillion yen left as a burden on taxpayers when Japanese National Railways was dismantled and privatized.
However, JNR left not only massive debt but also valuable assets. Among them, the two assets that could have been sold at the highest prices to reduce the tax burden on the public were Tokyo’s Shiodome district and Osaka’s Umeda North Yard.
Tokyo pursued deregulation and regulatory openness, easing floor-area ratios and other restrictions to maximize value, and conducted international open bidding. Several plots were sold at prices exceeding one hundred million yen per tsubo, acquired by companies such as Dentsu and the real estate firm of Hong Kong’s wealthiest tycoon, Li Ka-shing. Magnificent buildings were quickly constructed, further enhancing Tokyo’s status as a global city.
In contrast, in Osaka, opinions from companies managed by the man who was then chairman of the Koizumi Cabinet’s Regulatory Reform Council were reported by the Asahi Shimbun, claiming that “if open bidding resulted in extremely high prices, it could reignite a bubble.” Such an argument was utterly inconceivable in Osaka’s depressed real estate market at the very bottom of Japan’s deflationary economy.
As a result, participation by bidders considering prices above one hundred million yen per tsubo—such as companies linked to George Soros—was blocked, leading to unbelievably low winning bids and causing an enormous loss to national assets.
When I was fighting alone, I had our company employees type on A4 paper each explanation I had given to the three parties mentioned earlier and deliver them to reporter Tagaya, who had written articles on North Yard under his own name.
Yet, strangely enough, there was no response whatsoever from Tagaya. In fact, the Osaka headquarters of the Asahi Shimbun should have felt the same outrage that I did.
As already stated, when I read an article written by Ōmae Kenichi in the monthly magazine SAPIO, I instantly realized that the true mastermind behind the confusion surrounding North Yard was the Asahi Shimbun itself.
To be continued.