The following is from Masayuki Takayama's latest book, "Henkenjizai: Who Buried Shinzo Abe?
This book is the latest in a series of bound editions of his famous columns in weekly Shincho, but the original text has been polished to make it even easier to read.
He deserves the Nobel Prize for Literature for this one book alone.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
Asahi Discovers "Certain People"
The monkeypox epidemic has begun, and on July 23, the date of the outbreak, Director-General Tedros of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a "public health emergency of international concern.
It is the same man who, when the Wuhan coronas, now a global pandemic, broke out, said, "There is not much to worry about."
Even though he was slapped on the cheek by Xi Jinping with a bill, he was calm at that time, but this time, his facial expression changed.
Everyone was terrified that a severe disease must have broken out.
Then, a WHO panel of experts reconsidered whether it was an emergency.
California declared a state of emergency on its own, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also began to take action.
At the same time, the first case of monkeypox appeared in Japan, and newspapers began to write about it, but I had no idea what kind of disease it was or why the world was making such a fuss about it.
The Asahi Shimbun, for example, explains how the first patient came into contact with an infected person in Europe and became ill after returning to Japan.
The circumstances are similar to those of the first coronavirus patient.
At that time, the patient was a Chinese returning from Wuhan, but Asahi concealed his nationality.
This time, too, the nationality will not be revealed.
The article goes on to say that the disease is "in the same category as rabies" and is "transmitted through the patient's bodily fluids and blood.
It would seem that the patients are infecting people by biting them.
However, "most of the infected patients recover with minor illnesses," and another article says, "care should be taken not to prejudice the patients.
The same is true on television.
One week after Tedros's statement, on a TV Asahi news program, Akira Ikegami, who has always had nothing to do with the truth, told people not to worry because "even if you contract it, it will be mild'' and "it will heal quickly.''
Is it an emergency, or is there nothing to worry about?
Since the Japanese news reports were not clear, I checked the Bloomberg news agency to see what Tedros had to say.
The gist of his statement is that "this infection can be contained if specific measures are taken for particular people.
By specific people, I mean "men who have sex with men" or "men who have sex with an unspecified person of the same or opposite sex.
In layperson's terms, it is a second HIV.
When a smallpox vaccine against the disease was first administered in New York City, men were the only people waiting in line to receive their doses.
Monkeypox is so named because it was initially a disease of monkeys.
According to records, it was discovered in Zaire in 1970, and it was treated as an endemic disease in the region for a long time.
However, a few years ago, a case of infection was discovered in the United States, and as many as 50 mutant strains have been found.
The disease is now spreading rapidly around the world.
Twenty-two thousand people have been infected worldwide, a quarter in the United States.
Fortunately, there is an effective vaccine, but the way Asahi writes about it, it is hard to see what kind of people should be afraid of.
If one were to discern Asahi's feelings, they would be accused of "inflaming public prejudice" if they named LGBT G people.
Is that what they are afraid of? Or perhaps they were worried that gay people would accuse them of "betrayal and exposure" even though they thought they were on the side of the weak?
Around the same time, the gay-sensitive Asahi newspaper ran an article on its society page with the headline, "We want to know the truth.
The article reported that a lawsuit filed by the wife of a finance bureau official who committed suicide in the Moritomo Incident against her husband's boss had been concluded.
It is a trivial story that deserves an insignificant article. Still, the headline was probably added out of a desire to "splash water" on the mood of mourning for former Prime Minister Abe, who was killed by a bullet.
Asahi fabricated the Moritomo scandal out of resentment toward the former prime minister, who exposed the comfort women's lie and reduced Asahi to a third-rate paper.
In general, in this case, the dead husband said that there was no unfair discounting or discovery.
The reason he was forced to commit suicide was because of the opposition party members who took advantage of Asahi and abused him.
Instead of discussing the "truth" here, you should have the courage to report the truth for Gay.
(August 11-18, 2022 issue)
