EDITORIAL: Grand coalition meetings

A suggestion that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) should form a grand coalition was an extraordinary idea and the product of two meetings between the party leaders. But just who mediated those meetings?

Minshuto chief Ichiro Ozawa revealed in his news conference when he retracted his resignation that "a certain person" had approached him with the idea. He then followed this person's requests and met "someone representing Prime Minister (Yasuo) Fukuda," which led to the party leaders' meeting.

Ozawa did not reveal the name of this "certain person," but it was apparently Tsuneo Watanabe, The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings chairman and the paper's editor in chief. Numerous news organizations, including The Asahi Shimbun but not The Yomiuri Shimbun, agree it was Watanabe.

If Watanabe did indeed mediate a meeting between the prime minister and the leader of the main opposition party, and urge them to form a grand coalition, did his actions not overstep the boundary of proper conduct befitting the leader of a media organization?

The Yomiuri Shimbun led by Watanabe advocated in its August editorial after the Upper House election that the LDP and Minshuto should take the big step toward a grand alliance. Of course, it is very natural for a news organization to provide its opinions about the current political situation and advocate what it believes is the correct path that Japanese politics should follow.

And there will certainly be occasions when newspaper reporters meet politicians and give them their opinions. There is nothing wrong with a reporter getting close to those in power as a means to gather information.

But the sole purpose of those actions should be to spread the media organization's view or to report the facts. If a reporter arranges a secret meeting between party leaders to make one's vision come true, then that is going too far.

Watanabe is a heavyweight in Japan's newspaper industry. He was once chairman of Nihon Shinbun Kyokai (NSK), or the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association. This year, he received the NSK's newspaper cultural award, not only for his role as head of The Yomiuri Shimbun, but also for his contributions to society.

At the same time, he had been an ace political reporter since his youth, and cultivated a wide-reaching network of influence within political and business circles.

When reading Watanabe's memoirs, one comes across many episodes of how he had not just gotten very close to those in power, but had actually influenced politics.

His memoirs are full of colorful backstage anecdotes about what went on in Japanese politics. But no doubt many people eventually felt rather uneasy about how he went about acting in virtual collaboration with the people he was supposed to be covering.

Journalists are supposed to report the facts. But here was one reporter creating those facts behind closed doors. People may naturally doubt whether reporting and opinion pieces of journalists are really fair.

One challenge many reporters must face is how to get really close to a subject without crossing the line. Many political reporters wrack their brains over the acceptable distance one should keep from politicians.

The Yomiuri Shimbun ran a big article saying it was Ozawa who proposed the grand coalition. When Ozawa described the claim as "totally groundless," the Yomiuri ran a piece demanding Ozawa "tell the truth."

Meanwhile, the Yomiuri has reported virtually nothing about who mediated the meetings. Much remains murky about how those meetings took place. Doesn't The Yomiuri Shimbun have information that is closest to the truth? We expect the newspaper to report the truth and honor the readers' right to know.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 10(IHT/Asahi: November 13,2007)