The structure is that distorted bureaucrats like Tanino are corroding Japan, and Asahi continues to supply the lies that are the basis of this. Asahi's crime is indeed grave.
November 29, 2022
The following is from a unique feature on a dialogue between Takayama Masayuki, an exceptional journalist in the postwar world, and Iiyama Akira, a spirited critic who has appeared on the debate stage with aplomb, titled "Congratulations: Asahi's death throes as its circulation falls below 4 million copies," published in the monthly magazine WiLL on November 26.
The emphasis in the text other than the headline is mine.
The media's negligence in not trying to verify the many things that are of concern
Asahi's circulation falls below 4 million copies
Takayama
I always enjoy reading Iiyama's Sankei column, "Giving the newspapers a pep talk!"
Iiyama
Thank you.
Takayama
The media really is in trouble.
It has been officially announced that the Asahi Shimbun's circulation has fallen below 4 million copies.
Iiyama
That figure probably includes "forced subscriptions," which force retailers to buy more than the number of subscribers.
Takayama
Yes.
Some say that if you exclude that figure, the actual figure is just a little over 3 million copies.
Forced subscriptions can be advantageous for retailers.
If the retailer can say to the outside world, "We're distributing this much," they'll get suitable inserts.
Their actual income will increase.
For example, the inserts can be more effective if the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reaches about 100 households while the Asahi newspaper reaches 300.
However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has caused a sharp decline in inserts.
As a result, not only is it pointless for Asahi retailers to receive more forced subscriptions, but they've become such a burden that some retailers have even gone out of business.
Naturally, the number of forced subscriptions has decreased.
Iiyama
That's good news (laughs).
It's been long since people stopped reading newspapers, but the figures are finally catching up.
The media has changed a lot.
Takayama:
The change in the media has also accelerated the loss of readers.
When I was still working, reporters in the social affairs department had a strong sense of justice.
Political affairs reporters also reported with a certain level of political ethics.
However, reporters today are different.
They only nitpick at what people say and do and are only interested in doing anything to trip up politicians.
Mochizuki Isoko of the Tokyo Shimbun is a perfect example of this.
Iiyama:
It is not limited to Asahi.
Takayama
It includes correspondents, too.
They should look at the facts and write accurately, but they don't.
The media's reporting on the Abe shooting terrorist incident is also very questionable.
The first thing social affairs reporters should do is get the full story from the police.
However, the media doesn't have any original information and only leaks from the police are being circulated.
Iiyama:
Early after the incident, information was circulated that Yamagami was a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, which seemed unnatural.
Takayama
Moreover, the image of "former MSDF member = evil" was the leading one.
Then, information spread that his family had become involved with the former Unification Church and had a grudge against it.
I wondered when this was, and it was 20 years ago.
So, when did he decide to carry out the terrorist attack? It was in the past year.
I need some clarification.
*The public, including myself, must have just remembered that, for some reason, it was widely reported that he was a former MSDF member at first.
As I was sorting through this part, I became even more convinced.
There is no other country in the world that wants to portray the MSDF as the bad guy except for China.
(Maybe Korea is the same)
I'm even more convinced that China was behind Yamagami's manipulation.*
Iiyama
It doesn't make sense.
Takayama:
Yamagami says that his parents went bankrupt because of donations, and he is self-indulgent and unable to serve as an SDF officer.
So, he is struggling to make ends meet, but he rents two apartments and drives around in a car.
He even bought expensive machine tools needed to make modified guns.
It's strange, no matter how you look at it.
I can't help but suspect he has a sponsor.
Also, some opinion magazines have picked up on this.
Still, the explanation for the trajectory of the bullet that hit Abe seems to contradict the circumstances of Yamagami's shot, which is of concern.
According to Fukushima Hidetaka, a professor at Nara Medical University, the bullet penetrated from top to bottom.
But Yamagami shot from bottom to top, as seen in the video.
The angle is clearly different, but no media has pointed this out.
Some are dismissing it as a conspiracy theory, like Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy.
A reporter from the social affairs department would be the one to answer such questions.
Iiyama
The whereabouts of the bullet are also unknown.
Takayama
It seems designed to fire three shots at once, but Yamagami fired twice - even if one shot hit Abe, the remaining five shots have not been found.
It has been five days since the Nara Prefectural Police finally investigated the scene.
It's a really sloppy investigation.
However, media outlets have yet to look into that point.
As a reporter, you should investigate the facts more, not just say that no bullets were found.
Also, where did Yamagami learn how to make a gun?
It's said that he got the materials and manufacturing methods for a gun on the internet, but I don't think that's really possible.
There are so many things to be concerned about, but the media doesn't try to investigate.
Iiyama:
No facts have been revealed.
Like a "tragic hero."
Takayama:
Meanwhile, the issues surrounding the former Unification Church are the focus of attention and social affairs reporters are only pursuing the collusion between LDP politicians and the former Unification Church.
Iiyama:
They are also actively covering the "poor religious second generation" who fell victim to the former Unification Church.
In response to this, they are becoming more and more radical, calling for not only the revocation of the former Unification Church's religious corporation status but even an order to disband it.
When comparing the doctrines and practices of the Unification Church objectively, it is difficult to conclude that the former Unification Church is overwhelmingly more dangerous than other religions. Even with the issue of second-generation religious believers, children born to Muslim parents are determined to be Muslims by birth.
Abandoning one's Islamic faith (apostasy) is punishable by death, so unless one is in a very favorable environment, one cannot escape it for the rest of one's life.
On the other hand, Yamagami did not follow the former Unification Church.
Yamagami's mother is said to have donated 100 million yen, but her family background is wealthier than the average family.
The newspapers ignore these facts and portray Yamagami as one of the tragic victims of the former Unification Church, almost as if he were a "tragic hero."
In particular, the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers publish the impressions, feelings, speculations, and thoughts of "experts" daily, repeatedly blaming conservative ideology and traditional values and the LDP for promoting them as policy.
While they defend and sympathize with Yamagami as one of those victims, they also suggest that the murder of Abe, a symbol of conservatism, was his own doing.
They also do not hesitate to spread conspiracy-like rumors that the former Unification Church controls the LDP.
Perhaps influenced by such rumors, more than one million yen in cash donations have been sent to Yamagami nationwide.
Yamagami has undergone a psychiatric evaluation, but he is being treated as a hero without his knowledge.
It is a genuinely abnormal situation.
Strange coincidences
Takayama:
I can't believe it.
Of course, there are many problems with the former Unification Church.
We should take a closer look at the actions of its founder, Sun Myung Moon.
He was anti-communist at first and called North Korea Satan.
So, it is not surprising that the then-prime minister, Kishi Nobusuke, had contact with the former Unification Church.
On the other hand, Sun Myung Moon also strongly criticized Japan's 36 years of imperial rule, calling Japan the "devil" and beginning to demand atonement from Japan.
However, in 1991, Sun Myung Moon joined hands with Kim Il Sung, who was supposed to be Satan.
He gave Kim Il Sung money and took down the anti-communist flag.
All that remains are the Japanese, who must atone.
"Make any donations you can to atone for the sin of colonial rule committed by our ancestors," they told Japanese believers, selling expensive vases and Bibles and sucking out 60 billion yen a year.
Iiyama:
The former Unification Church built a vast building called the Cheon Jeong Gung Museum near Seoul, but it's astonishing to learn that more than 90% of the donors are Japanese.
Takayama:
And they held mass weddings.
Financially well-off Japanese women were forced to marry poor Korean men from rural areas who didn't even speak Japanese.
It was a human sacrifice in the name of atonement.
Regarding the Korean Peninsula, it is hard to overlook that Japanese newspapers, especially the Asahi Shimbun, strangely match the actions of North Korea and the former Unification Church.
After the Korean War, the land of North Korea, which became a battlefield, was devastated, and many people died.
At a time when there was a shortage of workforce to rebuild the country, the Asahi Shimbun suddenly started a campaign saying, "North Korea is a paradise on earth."
For ten years, they continued to report that the North was rich and vibrant, including reports from the local area.
As a result, 90,000 working Korean residents in Japan returned to the North.
Those who left their poor homeland to sneak into Japan are very suspicious.
The Asahi Shimbun's "North is a paradise" reporting was so thorough that it made such people want to return voluntarily.
Yoshinaga Sayuri's "The Town with a Cupola" also appealed to people to return to the North from the silver screen.
When I decided to do so, boarded a repatriation ship, and arrived, I found that what lay ahead was hell.
Next, in South Korea, as mentioned above, Sun Myung Moon and Kim Il Sung joined forces in the spring of 1991 and lowered the flag of anti-communism.
After that, Sun Myung Moon specialized in collecting donations from Japanese believers.
When he criticized Japanese imperial rule, saying, "Satan Japan has done terrible things," the Asahi Shimbun responded by starting Uemura Takashi's Kim Hak-sun story, in which "comfort women open their mouths" six months after the Moon-Kim Il Sung meeting.
The story was structured so that the abduction of comfort women, which Yoshida Seiji fabricated and set on Jeju Island, also happened in Seoul.
They then ran Chuo University's Yoshimi Yoshiaki's story "Military Involvement in Military Comfort Women" on the front page.
Later, the story "200,000 Korean women were made into sex slaves" was created, and the Japanese government's diplomacy of apology to Korea began.
Iiyama:
The more avid Asahi readers you are, the lower the barrier to joining the former Unification Church.
Takayama:
In fact, Sun Myung Moon also spoke to his Japanese followers about the deeds of Satan Japan based on articles in the Asahi Shimbun.
The words of a former member were published in the Sankei Shimbun.
"When I was a child, I read the Asahi Shimbun at home, and at school, my teacher from the Japan Teachers Union taught me that "Japan did many bad things before the war. That's why I readily believed the church's teachings," he said.
Recently, actress Maki Yoko is said to have told the Korean media, "I wanted to apologize for the past. I was ashamed of the fact that I was Japanese."
That's how the atonement view of history was instilled in the Japanese people.
Iiyama:
Then came the Kono Statement and the Murayama Statement.
Takayama:
Exactly.
Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa abdicated, and the government officially recognized it.
After that, Sun Myung Moon called on Japan to atone, and as Asahi continued to report plausible lies, even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs got involved.
His name was Tanino Sakutaro, a primary school classmate of pro-China Fukuda Yasuo.
After the Tiananmen Square incident, this man received a request from China, silenced the prime minister and foreign minister, and unilaterally had the emperor visit China.
He's the worst kind of man.
This man wrote the Kono Statement, which supports Sun Myung Moon's view of history and officially recognizes what Asahi calls comfort women. He also wrote the Murayama Statement, which aligns with Moon's statement that "Japan is Satan, the invader."
It is the structure in which distorted bureaucrats like Tanino are corroding Japan, and Asahi continues to supply the lies that form the basis of that.
Asahi's crimes are truly grave.
However, now Asahi has cleaned its mouth and criticized Sun Myung Moon, using it as ammunition to attack the LDP.
Asahi had contact with Kim Il Sung and cooperated with Sun Myung Moon.
Iiyama:
How insincere.
Takayama:
That despicableness is Asahi's characteristic (laughs).
To be continued.
2024/12/2 in Kyoto
November 29, 2022
The following is from a unique feature on a dialogue between Takayama Masayuki, an exceptional journalist in the postwar world, and Iiyama Akira, a spirited critic who has appeared on the debate stage with aplomb, titled "Congratulations: Asahi's death throes as its circulation falls below 4 million copies," published in the monthly magazine WiLL on November 26.
The emphasis in the text other than the headline is mine.
The media's negligence in not trying to verify the many things that are of concern
Asahi's circulation falls below 4 million copies
Takayama
I always enjoy reading Iiyama's Sankei column, "Giving the newspapers a pep talk!"
Iiyama
Thank you.
Takayama
The media really is in trouble.
It has been officially announced that the Asahi Shimbun's circulation has fallen below 4 million copies.
Iiyama
That figure probably includes "forced subscriptions," which force retailers to buy more than the number of subscribers.
Takayama
Yes.
Some say that if you exclude that figure, the actual figure is just a little over 3 million copies.
Forced subscriptions can be advantageous for retailers.
If the retailer can say to the outside world, "We're distributing this much," they'll get suitable inserts.
Their actual income will increase.
For example, the inserts can be more effective if the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper reaches about 100 households while the Asahi newspaper reaches 300.
However, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has caused a sharp decline in inserts.
As a result, not only is it pointless for Asahi retailers to receive more forced subscriptions, but they've become such a burden that some retailers have even gone out of business.
Naturally, the number of forced subscriptions has decreased.
Iiyama
That's good news (laughs).
It's been long since people stopped reading newspapers, but the figures are finally catching up.
The media has changed a lot.
Takayama:
The change in the media has also accelerated the loss of readers.
When I was still working, reporters in the social affairs department had a strong sense of justice.
Political affairs reporters also reported with a certain level of political ethics.
However, reporters today are different.
They only nitpick at what people say and do and are only interested in doing anything to trip up politicians.
Mochizuki Isoko of the Tokyo Shimbun is a perfect example of this.
Iiyama:
It is not limited to Asahi.
Takayama
It includes correspondents, too.
They should look at the facts and write accurately, but they don't.
The media's reporting on the Abe shooting terrorist incident is also very questionable.
The first thing social affairs reporters should do is get the full story from the police.
However, the media doesn't have any original information and only leaks from the police are being circulated.
Iiyama:
Early after the incident, information was circulated that Yamagami was a former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force, which seemed unnatural.
Takayama
Moreover, the image of "former MSDF member = evil" was the leading one.
Then, information spread that his family had become involved with the former Unification Church and had a grudge against it.
I wondered when this was, and it was 20 years ago.
So, when did he decide to carry out the terrorist attack? It was in the past year.
I need some clarification.
*The public, including myself, must have just remembered that, for some reason, it was widely reported that he was a former MSDF member at first.
As I was sorting through this part, I became even more convinced.
There is no other country in the world that wants to portray the MSDF as the bad guy except for China.
(Maybe Korea is the same)
I'm even more convinced that China was behind Yamagami's manipulation.*
Iiyama
It doesn't make sense.
Takayama:
Yamagami says that his parents went bankrupt because of donations, and he is self-indulgent and unable to serve as an SDF officer.
So, he is struggling to make ends meet, but he rents two apartments and drives around in a car.
He even bought expensive machine tools needed to make modified guns.
It's strange, no matter how you look at it.
I can't help but suspect he has a sponsor.
Also, some opinion magazines have picked up on this.
Still, the explanation for the trajectory of the bullet that hit Abe seems to contradict the circumstances of Yamagami's shot, which is of concern.
According to Fukushima Hidetaka, a professor at Nara Medical University, the bullet penetrated from top to bottom.
But Yamagami shot from bottom to top, as seen in the video.
The angle is clearly different, but no media has pointed this out.
Some are dismissing it as a conspiracy theory, like Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy.
A reporter from the social affairs department would be the one to answer such questions.
Iiyama
The whereabouts of the bullet are also unknown.
Takayama
It seems designed to fire three shots at once, but Yamagami fired twice - even if one shot hit Abe, the remaining five shots have not been found.
It has been five days since the Nara Prefectural Police finally investigated the scene.
It's a really sloppy investigation.
However, media outlets have yet to look into that point.
As a reporter, you should investigate the facts more, not just say that no bullets were found.
Also, where did Yamagami learn how to make a gun?
It's said that he got the materials and manufacturing methods for a gun on the internet, but I don't think that's really possible.
There are so many things to be concerned about, but the media doesn't try to investigate.
Iiyama:
No facts have been revealed.
Like a "tragic hero."
Takayama:
Meanwhile, the issues surrounding the former Unification Church are the focus of attention and social affairs reporters are only pursuing the collusion between LDP politicians and the former Unification Church.
Iiyama:
They are also actively covering the "poor religious second generation" who fell victim to the former Unification Church.
In response to this, they are becoming more and more radical, calling for not only the revocation of the former Unification Church's religious corporation status but even an order to disband it.
When comparing the doctrines and practices of the Unification Church objectively, it is difficult to conclude that the former Unification Church is overwhelmingly more dangerous than other religions. Even with the issue of second-generation religious believers, children born to Muslim parents are determined to be Muslims by birth.
Abandoning one's Islamic faith (apostasy) is punishable by death, so unless one is in a very favorable environment, one cannot escape it for the rest of one's life.
On the other hand, Yamagami did not follow the former Unification Church.
Yamagami's mother is said to have donated 100 million yen, but her family background is wealthier than the average family.
The newspapers ignore these facts and portray Yamagami as one of the tragic victims of the former Unification Church, almost as if he were a "tragic hero."
In particular, the Asahi and Mainichi newspapers publish the impressions, feelings, speculations, and thoughts of "experts" daily, repeatedly blaming conservative ideology and traditional values and the LDP for promoting them as policy.
While they defend and sympathize with Yamagami as one of those victims, they also suggest that the murder of Abe, a symbol of conservatism, was his own doing.
They also do not hesitate to spread conspiracy-like rumors that the former Unification Church controls the LDP.
Perhaps influenced by such rumors, more than one million yen in cash donations have been sent to Yamagami nationwide.
Yamagami has undergone a psychiatric evaluation, but he is being treated as a hero without his knowledge.
It is a genuinely abnormal situation.
Strange coincidences
Takayama:
I can't believe it.
Of course, there are many problems with the former Unification Church.
We should take a closer look at the actions of its founder, Sun Myung Moon.
He was anti-communist at first and called North Korea Satan.
So, it is not surprising that the then-prime minister, Kishi Nobusuke, had contact with the former Unification Church.
On the other hand, Sun Myung Moon also strongly criticized Japan's 36 years of imperial rule, calling Japan the "devil" and beginning to demand atonement from Japan.
However, in 1991, Sun Myung Moon joined hands with Kim Il Sung, who was supposed to be Satan.
He gave Kim Il Sung money and took down the anti-communist flag.
All that remains are the Japanese, who must atone.
"Make any donations you can to atone for the sin of colonial rule committed by our ancestors," they told Japanese believers, selling expensive vases and Bibles and sucking out 60 billion yen a year.
Iiyama:
The former Unification Church built a vast building called the Cheon Jeong Gung Museum near Seoul, but it's astonishing to learn that more than 90% of the donors are Japanese.
Takayama:
And they held mass weddings.
Financially well-off Japanese women were forced to marry poor Korean men from rural areas who didn't even speak Japanese.
It was a human sacrifice in the name of atonement.
Regarding the Korean Peninsula, it is hard to overlook that Japanese newspapers, especially the Asahi Shimbun, strangely match the actions of North Korea and the former Unification Church.
After the Korean War, the land of North Korea, which became a battlefield, was devastated, and many people died.
At a time when there was a shortage of workforce to rebuild the country, the Asahi Shimbun suddenly started a campaign saying, "North Korea is a paradise on earth."
For ten years, they continued to report that the North was rich and vibrant, including reports from the local area.
As a result, 90,000 working Korean residents in Japan returned to the North.
Those who left their poor homeland to sneak into Japan are very suspicious.
The Asahi Shimbun's "North is a paradise" reporting was so thorough that it made such people want to return voluntarily.
Yoshinaga Sayuri's "The Town with a Cupola" also appealed to people to return to the North from the silver screen.
When I decided to do so, boarded a repatriation ship, and arrived, I found that what lay ahead was hell.
Next, in South Korea, as mentioned above, Sun Myung Moon and Kim Il Sung joined forces in the spring of 1991 and lowered the flag of anti-communism.
After that, Sun Myung Moon specialized in collecting donations from Japanese believers.
When he criticized Japanese imperial rule, saying, "Satan Japan has done terrible things," the Asahi Shimbun responded by starting Uemura Takashi's Kim Hak-sun story, in which "comfort women open their mouths" six months after the Moon-Kim Il Sung meeting.
The story was structured so that the abduction of comfort women, which Yoshida Seiji fabricated and set on Jeju Island, also happened in Seoul.
They then ran Chuo University's Yoshimi Yoshiaki's story "Military Involvement in Military Comfort Women" on the front page.
Later, the story "200,000 Korean women were made into sex slaves" was created, and the Japanese government's diplomacy of apology to Korea began.
Iiyama:
The more avid Asahi readers you are, the lower the barrier to joining the former Unification Church.
Takayama:
In fact, Sun Myung Moon also spoke to his Japanese followers about the deeds of Satan Japan based on articles in the Asahi Shimbun.
The words of a former member were published in the Sankei Shimbun.
"When I was a child, I read the Asahi Shimbun at home, and at school, my teacher from the Japan Teachers Union taught me that "Japan did many bad things before the war. That's why I readily believed the church's teachings," he said.
Recently, actress Maki Yoko is said to have told the Korean media, "I wanted to apologize for the past. I was ashamed of the fact that I was Japanese."
That's how the atonement view of history was instilled in the Japanese people.
Iiyama:
Then came the Kono Statement and the Murayama Statement.
Takayama:
Exactly.
Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa abdicated, and the government officially recognized it.
After that, Sun Myung Moon called on Japan to atone, and as Asahi continued to report plausible lies, even the Ministry of Foreign Affairs got involved.
His name was Tanino Sakutaro, a primary school classmate of pro-China Fukuda Yasuo.
After the Tiananmen Square incident, this man received a request from China, silenced the prime minister and foreign minister, and unilaterally had the emperor visit China.
He's the worst kind of man.
This man wrote the Kono Statement, which supports Sun Myung Moon's view of history and officially recognizes what Asahi calls comfort women. He also wrote the Murayama Statement, which aligns with Moon's statement that "Japan is Satan, the invader."
It is the structure in which distorted bureaucrats like Tanino are corroding Japan, and Asahi continues to supply the lies that form the basis of that.
Asahi's crimes are truly grave.
However, now Asahi has cleaned its mouth and criticized Sun Myung Moon, using it as ammunition to attack the LDP.
Asahi had contact with Kim Il Sung and cooperated with Sun Myung Moon.
Iiyama:
How insincere.
Takayama:
That despicableness is Asahi's characteristic (laughs).
To be continued.
2024/12/2 in Kyoto
