Takashi Uesugi’s Shoddy & Biased Fukushima Reporting?

If you follow the media scene in Japan, you’ve probably heard of Takashi Uesugi, a famous freelance reporter who is extremely critical of the country’s mainstream media.

Since last year, Uesugi has harshly attacked domestic mainstream media coverage of the Fukushima disaster. Foreign reporters seem to really like interviewing him, possibly because he tells them what they want to hear: that the international media is doing a better job than the Japanese media. The Japanese public are “brainwashed” sheep who believe everything the government and the corrupt domestic media tell them. The only big publications that dare report the truth are foreign publications…etc, etc.

Uesugi’s claims are often printed in the international media without any critical analysis or fact-checking. This is a shame, because Japanese netizens have exposed some of his statements to be totally false. Several examples can be found on a Wiki site devoted to scrutizing Uesugi’s statements about Fukushima.

Here are some translations of the Wiki’s content.

Back in April 2012, Deutsche Welle (Germany’s equivalent of the BBC) printed an interview with Uesugi. In response to a question about “Censorship in Japan” (Zensur in Japan), Uesugi tells them that a scary photo of the reactor no. 3 hydrogen explosion has been censored in Japan:

“Ich nenne nur ein Beispiel: Das Foto, das die Explosion in Reaktor 3 in Fukushima zeigt, ist – so vermute ich – in Europa ziemlich bekannt. In Japan nicht. Es ist auch ein Jahr nach der Katastrophe in den Medien nicht zugelassen. Nach wie vor behaupten die japanische Regierung und die Medien, dass es keine Explosion gegeben hätte. Würde man das Foto öffentlich zeigen, würde der Widerspruch offenkundig.”

Google translated:I will give just one example: The photo shows the explosion in reactor 3 in Fukushima is – I suspect – in Europe pretty well known. Not in Japan. There is also a year after the disaster in the media is not allowed. As before, say, the Japanese government and the media that there had been no explosion. If you were to show the photo publicly, the opposition would be obvious.

Yet, as the Wiki shows, two of Japanese largest newspapers – the Yomiuri Shimbun and Asahi Shimbun – ran the exact same photo on the front page of the March 18, 2011 editions.

The wiki site also picks apart Uesugi’s new book about how the Japanese mainstream media “hides” the “dangerous truth” from the public (大手メディアが隠す　ニュースにならなかったあぶない真実):

• Claims that the Japanese media coverage on March 14, 2011 avoided focusing on reactor #3, when all the major papers actually gave it major first page coverage.
• Claims that reporting of Tepco’s April 2011 dumping of water tainted with low levels (低濃度) of radiation was reported as “high levels” (ハイレベル) of radiation in the international media, but the record shows that major foreign media outlets used the same wording as the Japanese media. ( Uesugi’s statement could be true, if he was getting his news from conspiracy theorist media like Prison Planet and Beyond Top Secret.)
• Claiming that the Japanese mainstream media was telling people that food was safe and there was no radiation leaking in March 2011, and that one could only trust the reporting of freelancers and foreign reporters. Once again, scans of the front pages of major newspapers directly contradict him.
• Claiming that only the foreign media reported on radioactive contaminants in rainfall over Tokyo in March 2011 – scans of major newspapers show that was also untrue.
• Claims that the Japanese mainstream media coverage supported the idea that contamination stopped at the border of Fukushima prefecture. Nope.
• Claims that the Japanese mainstream media did not report about the September 19, 2011 anti-nuclear demonstrations. Nope.
• Claims that the Japanese mainstream media did not report on China’s March/April 2011 ban on food imports from Japan, but did report when some of the restrictions were lifted in November of 2011. Nope again.

These numerous criticisms combine to create a picture of a freelance journalist who is either careless or dishonest. Anti-Uesugi netizens would probably suggest that the latter is true.

[Hat tip to Avery ]

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