'Fear' and 'favor' chill newsroom at Japan Times after 'forced WWII laborer,' 'comfort women' changes

With the assent of Donald Trump to the Oval Office, thus giving him an unimaginable bully pulpit allowing him to accelerate his attacks on journalists and the press.  With his unveiled criticisms it gave other world leaders the green light to follow his lead.  In Japan for example direct criticism is usually avoided. Yet, given the OK, political leaders in Japan began directly attacking what they considered the liberal press.  The focus of  their grievances was the Asahi Shinbun over their coverage of Japan's actions during World War especially in the areas of comfort women and forced labour. 

At the Japan Times, following the papers sale its editorial policy on these issues was changed and terms comfort women and forced labour were dropped. 

Early in December, dozens of journalists and editors from the Japan Times gathered for an emergency meeting in a glass-walled conference room in their brand-new 14th floor office.

On the agenda was a single, incendiary issue: the newspaper's new descriptions of how Japan compelled thousands of foreigners into military brothels and labour during World War Two.

In the past, the Japan Times described Korean workers as "forced laborers" and comfort women as those "forced to provide sex for Japanese troops before and during World War II."

But the five-sentence note published on Nov 30 said the country's oldest English-language paper would refer to Korean workers simply as "wartime laborers."

The paper also said that because of the varied experiences of comfort women, it would describe them as "women who worked in wartime brothels, including those who did so against their will."

Such terms are social flashpoints in Japan and a topic of bitter dispute with South Korea, whose government argues comfort women were clear victims of wartime abuse.

Japan Times Caves To Shinzo Abe

The Japan Times joins NHK, Asahi Shinbun and the Yomiuri Shinbun  in capitulating  to Japan's conservative Liberal Democratic party in reporting on the many controversial policies and war crimes committed by the imperial government and the imperial army.  Shinzo Abe Japan's current Prime Minister has worked diligently to alter how the Japan's war time history is portrayed.  From out right denial to historical revisionism.  Perhaps, that's due to his grandfather (His hero) former Prime Minister Kishi, who was a member of Tojo's wartime cabinet. Serving as Minister for Arms Procurement.  

At the bottom of an article the Japan Times published following a court decision on forced labour in Seoul which ruled in favour of the plaintiffs. 

In a decision that critics said aligned it with the conservative agenda of the prime minister, Shinzō Abe, the Japan Times said it had used terms “that could have been potentially misleading” when reporting on the contentious subjects.

It was the latest media row about how to define notorious parts of the country’s wartime record.

The Japan Times said: “The term ‘forced labour’ has been used to refer to labourers who were recruited before and during world war two to work for Japanese companies. However, because the conditions they worked under or how these workers were recruited varied, we will henceforth refer to them as ‘wartime labourers.’”

The explanation appeared at the foot of an article about the South Korean supreme court’s decision this week to order Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate 10 former forced labourers. The ruling, and a similar decision last month, have soured ties between Tokyo and Seoul, with Japan’s foreign minister, Tarō Kōno, calling them “totally unacceptable”.

Don't Like The News: Call If Fake And Jail Those Who Spread It

Taking a page from the Donald Trump play book (All news that shows me in a bad light is fake.) the government of Malaysia has introduced legislation to parliament that if passed would imprison those convicted of spreading false or defamatory news whatever that maybe. 

The prime minister, Najib Razak, has been dogged by a multibillion-dollar corruption scandal involving an indebted state fund, and activists fear the new law could be used to criminalise critical opinions on government misconduct. A general election is widely expected in the next few weeks.

The anti-fake news bill, which must be approved by parliament, calls for penalising those who create, offer, circulate, print or publish fake news – or publications containing fake news – with a 10-year jail term, a fine of up to 500,000 ringgit (£90,000) or both.

The bill defines fake news as “any news, information, data and reports which is, or are, wholly or partly false whether in the form of features, visuals or audio recordings or in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas”.

It covers all media and extends to foreigners outside Malaysia if Malaysia or its citizens are affected.

Not to worry Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has taken up the mantra as well with his attacks on the Asahi Shinbun

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has continued to criticize the Asahi Shimbun national daily over its coverage of a favoritism scandal involving Osaka-based school operator Moritomo Gakuen.

Abe has attacked the paper five times during recent Diet deliberations, while posting a message describing the Asahi as "pitiful" on the Facebook page of a ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) legislator.

Tokyo Olympics: When Newspapers Become Sponsoring Cheerleaders

The Japanese press is rather compliant in comparison to their western counterparts.  Self censorship and press club's known in Japan as Kisha ensure that any opposing view will be constrained by the need for inclusiveness and access to government press releases and officials.  You're asking why is this relevant? Because the four biggest newspapers in Japan became official sponsors of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic games.  

On January 21 these publicans the Yomiuri Shinbun, Mainichi Shinbun, Nihon Keizai and the Asahi Shinbun announced in front page articles they had paid to become official sponsors of the games.  Usually one would view the press as arbiter of good governance and accountability over public funds being used for a private purpose.  With these four nationwide publicans agreeing to monetarily support the Olympics they have willingly abstained from their mission of holding the government and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Organizing Committee to transparency and accountability.


 Because it’s never too early to talk about how expensive the Olympics will be, Tokyo Shimbun pondered the question on Feb. 6 and found out that no one involved has a clue about the cost of the 2020 Games.

In 2007, the organizers of the 2012 London Olympics already had a good idea of how much they were going to pay — the equivalent of ¥1.6 trillion — and from that point the British government checked and revised the estimate every six months, and then made the figures public. In the end, their projection exceeded the actual amount paid by ¥60 billion.

Everyone Tokyo Shimbun asked shrugged. Last December, when news outlets reported that the cost of the games would be about ¥1.8 trillion, much more than the ¥350 billion Tokyo claimed when it made its initial bid, Toshiro Muto, the head of the organizing committee, said, “We don’t have a comprehensive expense estimate yet.” To gain some perspective, the paper asked an expert on public works projects, and he said that new projections for the construction of some venues are already three times their initial estimates.

Shinzo Abe And The LDP Work To Stifle The Press And They're Suceeding

The Japanese government under the leadership of Shinzo Abe and the Liberal Democratic Party have since returning to power in December of 2012 worked hard to marginalized, intimidate and quash any voice which is critical of the ruling party.   Members of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are about half a step from being out right authoritarian.

When Abe appointed the new director of NHK Japan's national public broadcaster (paraphrasing here) he stated that the broadcaster wouldn't stray from the government line.  NHK is supposed to be neutral, giving all sides a place to voice their agreement or disagreement with government policy.  By coming straight out and articulating a policy that parrots the governments NHK can no longer be seen as objective observer of the news or government policy.  


NHK hasn't been the only target of the government the Asahi Shinbun has been on the receiving end of an endless string of abuse from the government and more than 8,000 right wing activists  who have sued the newspaper over a series of articles they published in the 1980's and 90's about Comfort Women.

The 18 articles were formally retracted last year. 

According to the suit filed with the Tokyo District Court, the plaintiffs, including researchers, journalists and lawmakers, demanded that ¥10,000 in compensation be paid to each person, arguing the major daily “damaged Japanese people’s personal rights and honor.” 

It also demands the paper run an ad to apologize for “spreading erroneous facts to international society.”
The left-leaning daily withdrew the 18 stories last August because they focused on a man named Seiji Yoshida, who claimed to have participated in rounding up females for use as sex slaves by the Japanese military.

Recently their efforts have focused on individual reporters and commentators appearing on various news programs.

 It was an unexpected act of protest that shook Japan’s carefully managed media world: Shigeaki Koga, a regular television commentator and fierce critic of the political establishment, abruptly departed from the scripted conversation during a live TV news program to announce that this would be his last day on the show because, as he put it, network executives had succumbed to political pressure for his removal.
“I have suffered intense bashing by the prime minister’s office,” Mr. Koga told his visibly flabbergasted host late last month, saying he had been removed as commentator because of critical statements he had made about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Later in the program, Mr. Koga held up a sign that read “I am not Abe,” a play on the slogan of solidarity for journalists slain in January at a French satirical newspaper.

Yes, Shinzo Abe and the rest of the LDP are a bunch of scumbags who live in world of their own construct.  A world where Japan was humiliated by its defeat in World War II, a place where no war crimes or crimes against humanity were committed by the Japanese Imperial Army, a place where history must be rewritten so it reflects their beliefs  and a world where blind obedience is the only way.

Let's face it they could bring back authoritarian rule they would.

Another 2,100 War Crimes Deniers Sue Asahi Shinbun

Feeling left out after more than 8,000 war crime denying fools sued the Asahi Shinbun for its publication of articles dealing with the Japanese Imperial Armies use of comfort women during World War II a further group of 2,100 nonintellectuals have decided to join the fun by filing a lawsuit  in Tokyo District Court.  The purpose is a forced denial of history by the Japanese so they won't feel ashamed about their countries past.  

More than 2,000 people are suing the liberal Asahi newspaper to demand that it place advertisements in U.S. and European newspapers, apologising for its coverage of wartime sex slavery, saying it has stained Japan’s reputation, local media said Thursday.
The move is the latest salvo in the battle over Japan’s history, which pits an increasingly aggressive revisionist right wing against an ever-more cowed mainstream that accepts the country’s guilt over its World War II atrocities.
They argued that the Asahi’s historical reports on the so-called “comfort women” system were instrumental in forging global opinion that the Japanese state and its military were involved in organising a formalised system of sex slavery.
They also claim that the paper’s reports contributed to the drive to build statues of former “comfort women” in California and other U.S. locations, which they say led to their mental distress.

So called comfort women?  Forgetting just for moment that some of these women are still alive and that there is clear historical evidence to back their claims what can these morons hope to gain?  That they'll be nominated for the Darwin Awards or that they'll be hired by Fox News which like them exists in a world of lies, denial and propaganda.