The following is from a feature article in the November 26 issue of the monthly magazine WiLL, titled "Celebration of Asahi's 4 Million Circulation Crisis," in which Masayuki Takayama, the one and only journalist in the postwar world, talks with Akari Iiyama, an up-and-coming critic who has sashayed onto the debate stage.
The emphasis in the text, except for the headline, is mine.
The media's negligence in not verifying what is bothering them
Asahi's circulation has dropped to less than 4 million copies.
Takayama
I always enjoy reading Mr. Iiyama's Sankei column "scolding against newspapers!
Iiyama
Thank you very much.
Takayama
The media is really going down the drain.
It officially announced that the Asahi Shinbun has less than 4 million circulations.
Iiyama
I'm sure that "forced paper," forcing dealers to purchase more paper than subscribers, is also included in that figure.
Takayama
That's right. Some say that if that figure is excluded, the total circulation is a little less than 3 million copies.
In fact, the "forced paper" is also an advantage for the distributors.
If the dealers say to the outside world, "We are distributing this many copies," they will receive suitable inserts—The actual income rises.
For example, if the Tokyo Shimbun reaches about 100 households, but the Asahi reaches 300 homes, the ad insertion can have a higher effect.
However, the number of ad inserts has plummeted due to the recent Corona disaster.
Therefore, even if Asahi dealers received extra paper inserts, it would not only be meaningless, it would become a burden, and some dealers even went out of business.
Naturally, the number of paper inserts also decreased.
Iiyama.
That's a good thing (laughs).
It has been a long since people no longer read newspapers, but the actual numbers are finally catching up.
The media has changed dramatically.
Takayama.
Besides, the media has undergone a significant transformation, accelerating the decline in readership.
When I was working, the Shakai-bu (society) department reporters had a strong sense of justice.
Political reporters also reported with a certain level of political ethics.
Today's reporters, however, are different.
All they do is to try and drag politicians down by their heels, no matter what it takes.
The Tokyo Shimbun's Isoko Mochizuki is a perfect example.
Iiyama.
It is not limited to Asahi.
Takayama
It includes correspondents.
They should look at the facts and write accurately, but they are not.
The Abe shooting terrorist incident is also highly questionable regarding the media's reporting attitude.
The first thing a social media reporter should do is to get the whole story of the incident from the police.
However, there is no original information from the media, and only leaks from the police side are being circulated.
Iiyama.
Early after the incident, information was circulated that the suspect, Yamagami, was "a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force," but it seemed unnatural.
Takayama
Moreover, the image of "ex-Marine Self-Defense Force member = evil" was prevalent.
Then next came the information that his family was hooked on the former Unification Church and grudged against it.
I wondered when this was and was told it was twenty years ago.
So when he decided to carry out the attack, it was in a year.
The story is nonsensical to someone.
*I am sure that the public, including myself, now remembers that it was widely reported that he was a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Forces at first.
I am even more convinced as I sorted through this section; China's the only country in the world that wants to demonize the MSDF. (Or South Korea, for that matter.)
My conviction that China was manipulating Yamakami was further deepened*.
Iiyama
The story doesn't match up.
Takayama
Yamagami rents two apartments and drives around in a car, even though his parents are bankrupt from donations. He is self-defeating and challenging to live with, unable to serve as a self-defense official.
He even buys expensive machine tools needed to make modified guns.
It is strange, no matter how you think about it.
It makes one wonder if he has a sponsor.
It is also curious that the explanation of the trajectory of the bullet that hit Mr. Abe is inconsistent with the circumstances of Yamagami's shooting, as reported in some newspapers and magazines.
According to the explanation of Hidetada Fukushima, a professor at Nara Medical University, the bullet penetrated from the top down.
But the situation in which Yamagami shot him is also shown in the video: he shot from the bottom up.
The angle is clearly different, yet none of the media are pointing this out.
Some, like Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, dismissed it as a conspiracy theory.
Social media reporters are supposed to respond to such questions.
Iiyama.
The whereabouts of the bullet are also unknown.
Takayama
It seems that the gun was designed to fire three bullets at once, but Yamakami must have fired twice - even if one of the bullets hit Mr. Abe, the other five bullets have not been found.
Even if one of the bullets hit Mr. Abe, the other five were never found.
It is a very sloppy way to conduct an investigation.
However, there are no media that touches on this point.
If you are a reporter, you should not just say, "No bullets found," but report more on the fact.
Where else did Yamagami learn how to manufacture guns?
It is said that he obtained the materials and manufacturing method of the gun on the Internet, but I don't think such a thing is possible.
There are so many things that concern me, but the media is not interested in verifying them.
Iiyama.
The fact is that nothing has been revealed.
It's like being a "tragic hero.
Takayama
On the other hand, the media focuses only on the problems of the former Unification Church, and the reporters of the Social Affairs Department only follow the cozy relationship between the LDP members and the former Unification Church.
Iiyama
The "poor second-generation religious victims" of the former Unification Church are also actively covered.
In response to this, the former Unification Church has become increasingly radical, saying that it should not only be stripped of its status as a religious corporation but also be ordered to disband.
When the doctrines and practices of the Unification Church are objectively compared, it is difficult to conclude that the former Unification Church is overwhelmingly more dangerous than other religions.
Even on the issue of the second generation religious issue, children born to Muslim parents are decidedly Muslim by birth.
Abandoning the Islamic faith (apostasy) is considered a crime punishable by death, so unless you are very fortunate in your environment, you will never get out of it.
On the other hand, the suspect, Yamagami, was not a member of the former Unification Church.
It is said that Yamagami's mother donated 100 million yen to the church, and her family environment is more affluent than an average family.
The media ignored these facts and portrayed Yamagami as a tragic victim of the old Unification Church as if he were a "tragic hero.
The Asahi and the Mainichi, in particular, daily publish the opinions, feelings, speculations, and thoughts of "experts," repeatedly blaming conservative ideology and traditional values and the LDP for promoting them as its policies, for which the suspect is a victim.
And while defending and sympathizing with the suspect Yamagami as a victim of this, it suggests that Abe, who was a symbol of conservatism, got what he deserved when he was killed.
They are willing to spread conspiracy theories that the former Unification Church controls the LDP.
Perhaps encouraged by such rumors, more than one million yen in cash has been delivered to the suspect, Yamagami, from all over Japan as support money.
Although the suspect has undergone a psychiatric evaluation, he is regarded as a hero without his knowledge.
It is indeed an extraordinary situation.
Strange coincidence
Takayama
I can't believe it. But, of course, there are many problems with the former Unification Church.
We should take a closer look at the movements of Sun Myung Moon, the church's founder.
At first, he was anti-communist and called North Korea Satan.
So it is not surprising that the then-prime minister, Nobusuke Kishi, also had contact with the former Unification Church.
On the other hand, Sun Myung Moon also strongly condemned Japan's 36 years of Japanese imperial rule, calling this one "Satan" as well, and began demanding atonement from Japan.
In 1999, however, Sun Myung Moon shook hands with Kim Il Sung, who was supposed to be Satan, gave money to Kim Il Sung, and withdrew his anti-communist banner.
All that remained were the Japanese, who had to be redeemed.
He sold expensive vases and Bibles to Japanese believers and siphoned off 60 billion yen yearly.
Iiyama
The former Unification Church built a grand building called the "Cheon Jeong Gung Museum" in the suburbs of Seoul, and I am stunned to hear that more than 90% of the donors on the list are Japanese.
Takayama
Furthermore, it is a joint wedding ceremony.
Economically well-off and affluent Japanese women were forced to marry Korean men from poor farming villages who did not even know Japanese.
It is a human sacrifice in the name of atonement.
As for the Korean Peninsula, Japanese newspapers, especially the Asahi Shimbun, have been reporting on the Korean Peninsula. In particular, it should not be overlooked that the Asahi Shimbun's coverage of the Korean Peninsula is strangely consistent with the activities of North Korea and the former Unification Church.
After the Korean War, the land of North Korea was devastated, and many people died.
At a time when there were not enough human resources to rebuild the country, the Asahi Shimbun suddenly launched a "North Korea is a paradise on earth" campaign.
The newspaper reported that the North was prosperous and vibrant for ten years, including reports from the region.
As a result, as many as 90,000 Korean workers in Japan returned to the North.
Those who abandoned their impoverished homeland and sneaked into Japan are paranoid.
Asahi's "North is Paradise" report was so thorough that these people wanted to return voluntarily.
Sayuri Yoshinaga's "The Town with the Cupola" also appealed from the silver screen to return to the North.
When they arrived on the ship, they found that the destination was hell. Next, in Korea, as mentioned earlier, in the spring of 1991, Sun Myung Moon and Kim Il Sung joined hands and lowered the anti-communist banner.
After that, Sun Myung Moon specialized in collecting donations from his Japanese followers.
If "Satan Japan did terrible things," he would denounce Japanese imperial rule, and the Asahi Shimbun would respond by starting Takashi Uemura's Kim Hak-sun story, in which "the military comfort women opened their heavy mouths" six months after the Sun Myung Moon-Kim Il Sung meeting.
The story consisted of the abduction of comfort women that Seiji Yoshida had fabricated on Jeju's island, also in Seoul.
Following up on this story was a front-page story by Yoshiaki Yoshimi of Chūōdai University, "Military Involvement in Military Comfort Women.
Later, the story "200,000 Korean women were made sex slaves" was created, and the Japanese government's apology diplomacy with South Korea began.
Iiyama.
It is lower the hurdles to joining the Old Unification Church for the more avid readers of the Asahi.
Takayama.
Sun Myung Moon actually also told his Japanese followers about Satan Japan's deeds based on the Asahi Shimbun article.
The Sankei Shimbun carried the words of a former believer.
《When I was a child, I read the Asahi Shimbun at home, and at school, I was taught by a teacher from the Japan Teachers Union that Japan had done many bad things before the war. That is why I honestly believed the teachings of the church.》
Recently, actress Yoko Maki told the Korean media, "I wanted to apologize for my past. I was ashamed of the fact that I was Japanese."
In this way, the historical view of redemption was planted in the Japanese people.
Iiyama
Then came the Kono and Murayama statements.
Takayama
That's right. Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa bowed to it, and the government officially approved it.
After that, Sun Myung Moon demanded atonement from Japan, and even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs got involved as Asahi continued to report plausible lies.
One such person is Sakutaro Tanino, an elementary school classmate of the pro-China Yasuo Fukuda.
After the Tiananmen Square protests, this man, at China's request, silenced the prime minister and foreign minister and single-handedly arranged the Emperor's visit to China.
He is the worst kind of man. This man wrote the Kono Statement, which endorsed the comfort women according to Asahi, based on Sun Myung Moon's view of history, and the Murayama Statement, based on Sun Myung Moon's idea that "Japan is Satan, the aggressor."
The structure is such that warped bureaucrats like Tanino undermine Japan, and Asahi continues to supply the lies that form the basis of the bureaucratic system.
Asahi's sins are indeed grave.
But now Asahi is wiping its mouth and blaming Sun Myung Moon, using him as an attack on the LDP.
It is despite the fact that Asahi was in communication with Kim Il Sung and cooperated with Sun Myung Moon.
Iiyama.
It is really brazen-faced.
Takayama
That sneakiness is a characteristic of Asahi (laughs).
