Apology of Leading Paper

President of Asahi Shimbun, a leading newspaper with seven million circulations, held a press conference in the evening of Thursday to announce his apology about the wrong report on Yoshida Interview, in which former Director of First Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, Masao Yoshida, told about the situation of the plant right after severe accident occurred three and a half years ago. He apologized on sending a wrong image as if workers with Tokyo Electric Power Company in the plant escaped from their responsibility against Yoshida’s order. That is an ordinary story in Japanese media, so far. What makes the story different from usual scandal is that some conservative papers do not stop criticizing Asahi, accusing that it eroded national interest.

There were three points in the apology of the president, Tadakazu Ito; wrong report of Yoshida Interview, delay of correction of the reports on comfort woman and rejection of an article of series column criticizing Asahi’s attitude on comfort woman issue. Ito also apologized in an article on Friday that expression of “retreat against director’s order” had been inappropriate in the article in May, in which it reported ninety percent of the workers evacuated against Yoshida’s order. Ito said the paper would make efforts of verification on why the mistake happened. Ito indicated that he would step down after paving a way to reform the news company.

Yomiuri and Sankei got excited with the apology of a big rival. In editorial, Yomiuri emphasized that Asahi’s apology on comfort woman had been too late to maintain Japan’s national interest. Yomiuri did not elaborate what exactly was the national interest it took as precious, anyway. The paper ignored the erosion of people’s interest when its president joined the governmental council for oppressive Designated Secrecy Protection Act and helped the government activate the law.

Possessing a bitter memory on wrong report of “death of Jiang Zemin,” Sankei looked to be paralyzed with victory. “We hope Asahi to retrieve honor of the workers with TEPCO and regain dignity of Japanese people,” said its editorial. The paper insisted that Asahi needed to apologize more. Mainichi accused those criticisms as too much, while it criticized Asahi’s insufficient effort for exact reporting and failure in apologizing soon.

This accusation game among media intensively ignores fundamental issue, which is that TOPCO was actually thinking about entire retreat leaving exploding reactors, regardless workers had escaped against director’s order or not. Dishonor of the leadership would never be shaken by such trivial arguments. One thing the people have to notice is that politics is willing to be involved in the discussion. “It is true that many suffered from the wrong report and honor of Japan was harmed in international society,” told Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. Right wing lawmakers required Ito’s testimony in the Diet. Be careful of this administration oppressing freedom of speech.