The following is from "Masayuki Takayama Criticize US, Shina, Korea, Asahi," published on 2013/12/10 by Masayuki Takayama, the one and only journalist in the postwar world, Themis, 1000 yen.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but for people worldwide.
Everyone will be amazed at the sharpness of his tongue as he reveals and conveys the truth to us.
It is no exaggeration to say that this is his best book regarding sharpness of argument.
Emphasis in the text other than the headline is mine.
The reason newspapers are not subscribed to is that they ignore "national interests."
Asahi Shimbun and other newspapers claim that "newspapers are fair," but if you read them, they are bad for your health.
Americans read "newspapers.
The number of people who read newspapers is decreasing rapidly.
In one year, the number of copies has decreased by 980,000.
In Nakano Ward, Tokyo, the number of subscribers has dropped to less than 40%.
It is said that this is a terminal symptom.
We often hear the excuse that people have become less interested in the printed word or that the Internet or other new media have appeared on the scene.
Or it is because the business is outdated, like newspaper delivery.
I have heard such stories since my days as a correspondent in Los Angeles twenty years ago.
It is not from "progressive Americans" but Japanese newspaper people who came to the U.S. to investigate the advanced state of newspapers in the U.S.
But I was skeptical.
Because in the townhouse where I lived then, four out of five households, except for a widower businessman, had a newspaper.
Newspapers were distributed in the middle of the night by young men on motorcycles.
It was just like in Japan.
At Christmas, people gave money to the newspaper deliveryman to express their appreciation for his hard work, just like mail delivery.
The landlord told me the minimum price was $20, and if you delivered newspapers to 50 houses, it would be $1,000.
I remember I was a little surprised.
I was surprised to find out that there were no deliveries on weekends.
Instead, Sunday paper was piled up in front of the supermarket, and single people would buy it and read it while drinking coffee at Starbucks.
A TV column for one week's worth of questions was also tucked in.
The newspaper delivery system is almost the same as in Japan, and quite a large number of Americans read print newspapers.
Newspapers vs. Politics in "Daijō-kan edict stipulating punishment for defamation."
Amartya Sen, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, had an interesting analysis of Japan.
He is amazed at the tremendous growth in newspaper circulation since the Meiji Restoration.
In fact, in the history of the Meiji era, a "Society for Explaining Newspapers in an Easy-to-Understand Way'' appears.
The government bought newspapers, mailed them to each prefecture, and gathered "selected priests and priestesses of the appropriate caliber in each village to read the newspapers to the children, women, and children.
Even local children knew where Japan was going in the international community.
As a result, Japan had already surpassed the U.S. and was closing in on Great Britain regarding the total volume of newspapers and other publications in the 1890s.
The modernization of Japan was done with the help of hired foreigners, but only the newspapers were produced by the Japanese.
The only difficulty was that the Meiji government was controlled by foot soldiers and persons of low status from Choshu, while intellectuals from the Bakufu clan ran the newspapers.
Newspapers, for example, took an arrogant attitude and provided harsh commentary on Hirofumi Ito, Kaoru Inoue, and others who were using public funds to create and enjoy luxurious Rokumeikans.
On the other hand, the Ashigaru regime cracked down on newspapers with its "slander law," and the newspaper and politics became traditional opposites.
The U.S., on the other hand, had noticed the ability of newspapers to manipulate public opinion and, from the time of Thomas Jefferson, embraced the newspapers to help run the country's government.
Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, recruited as many as 50 newspaper journalists to become government officials and bureaucrats and is said to be the president who "controlled the United States with newspapers.
The tradition is still alive today, and the Obama administration is said to have used the newspapers to its advantage in its reelection campaign by recruiting many newspaper reporters to work on policy and other issues.
The Democratic Party has traditionally used this method.
Therefore, when U.S. newspapers say "newspapers fight against state power," they always mean "fight against the Republican administration," as in the case of Nixon's Watergate scandal.
Asahi says its mission is to topple the power.
If newspapers, which hold public opinion, and the administration are this close, the nation can conduct diplomacy on the back of public opinion.
Navy Admiral Kato Kanji, who once attended a disarmament debate in Washington, wrote that while "the U.S. newspapers were all in support of the U.S. proposal to scrap the Anglo-Japanese alliance," Japanese newspapers were more concerned with criticizing their governments, and "without being able to position themselves with public opinion as their ally," they were defeated by the United States.
Japanese newspapers do not care about the national interest.
There are bound to be idiots who say, "It's the duty of newspapers to bring down those in power with violent devices'' (Yoichi Funabashi, former chief editor of the Asahi Shimbun).
What happened as a result?
Open a newspaper, and you will find out.
Koreans and Chinese who are not eligible for welfare benefits receive more welfare benefits than Japanese.
Yet, the newspapers do not even demand a change in the law.
With the Beijing government's approval, the Chinese attacked Japanese businesses in Qingdao, looted them, and set them on fire. Japanese nationals were also attacked.
Yet, the government does not protest to Beijing.
Nor did it demand compensation for the damage.
South Korea's foolish president insulted the Emperor of Japan.
The newspapers reported that the government recommended South Korea for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council, even though it would have severed diplomatic relations with the country.
He also helps the economy.
No newspaper writes about it as funny.
Martin Fackler, the Tokyo bureau chief of the New York Times, wrote that the Japanese who landed on the Senkakus were "bizarre nationalists.
In the 1980s, Britain and Argentina fought the Falklands War.
The same New York Times wrote with refreshing patriotism and sympathy about how the British people in London were burning with warlike spirit.
Is it not racist to hatefully write that the Japanese are nationalists when they do the same thing?
He also writes that the Japanese "raised the flag of the rising sun" when they landed on the Senkaku Islands.
The flag that once tormented the people of Southeast Asia."
This article continues.
2023/11/5 in Osaka
