The Asahi Shimbun, one of Japan’s top newspapers, faced criticism from its own reporters this week after it initially refused to publish an outside journalist’s column saying Asahi should apologize over errors in its reporting.
The left-leaning newspaper ended up publishing the column Thursday, but the brouhaha illustrates the passions still roiling Japan and other Asian nations over the issue of Asian “comfort women” forced into sexual service for Japanese soldiers during World War II.
In early August, Asahi admitted errors in its comfort-women reporting and retracted articles quoting a now-deceased Japanese man who said he had forcibly removed Korean women from their homes for sexual service, as Japan Real Time reported at the time.
Akira Ikegami, a noted journalist and regular Asahi columnist, took up the issue in a column he submitted to the paper. In the column, Mr. Ikegami criticized the paper for what he described as sloppiness in corroborating its sources. He said the paper should formally apologize for its errors.
“After summoning the courage to publish a correction, if they do not apologize it ruins the attempt to fix the error,” he wrote.
The column drew parallels between Japan’s obligation to apologize for war crimes and the journalistic mistakes of the newspaper. Mr. Ikegami concluded the column with the words, “One must graciously acknowledge errors and then apologize. Whether in the relationships between nations or the morals of a reporter, is this principle not the same?”
Asahi initially rejected the column, drawing a firestorm of criticism not only from the paper’s usual opponents on the right but also from its own reporters commenting on Twitter.
“I am a loyal reporter and member of this organization, but hearing the news tonight truly made me furious. It is totally deplorable,” tweeted Hajimu Takeda, a reporter in the Asahi’s Osaka bureau.
“I am a person who loves the freedom of speech and expression. That that was obstructed [by this decision] enrages me,” wrote Daisuke Kanda, the newspaper’s Tehran bureau chief.
When Asahi said Wednesday night that it would publish the column after all, the move also elicited a range of commentary.
“That they didn’t go through with not publishing was a good thing. But the fact that they didn’t publish it in the first place is very serious. The impact is unfathomable. Reporters from now on will be exposed to the doubt that ‘If I write something against the opinion of the company, will it not be published?’ This is something which we will have to continue to face,” wrote Erika Toh, a staff writer for Asahi.
Author Kei Matsui wrote more favorably on the paper’s response, saying, “I think what the Asahi did was very admirable. Going from not publishing to deciding to publish, that was unbelievably clumsy. … After weighing the pros and cons, in spite of being aware of the awkwardness of the situation, they changed their stance [and published it]. That is something which cannot usually be done. I think very highly of it.”
In a fax sent to The Wall Street Journal, the Asahi Shimbun said, “We had delayed publication of this column, but after consideration within the company and conversations with Mr. Ikegami we have decided to publish it. We apologize to Mr. Ikegami and our readers for the trouble.” It added, “We recognize and allow for the personal expression of views of our reporters via Twitter who are registered as tweeting reporters.”
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五藤寿樹,
New York Timesは韓国と中国大好き。New York Timesは日本を大嫌い.
The Asahi Shimbun defamed Japan. It has to pay the price. The Kono Statement should be retracted.
なぜ、New York Timesは朝日新聞の捏造問題を取り上げないのであろうか。
それは、New York Times東京支局が朝日新聞東京本社内にあり、今回の池上彰問題とNew York Times問題は同じロジックによりNew York Timesは取り上げないのだと思う。
朝日新聞でも池上彰問題を掲載したのだから、New York Timesも朝日新聞慰安婦捏造問題を取り上げるべきだと思う。
There are several that should not be doing democracy, in the liberal state, but there is a forger of history in one of them. For history (historical), it is preferable to perform the proper interpretation based on the objective article is obtained.
(Existence confirmation of the witness can not be even in areas that are said to have been kidnapped in the first place) Source of witnesses of all is still unknown almost, the essence of comfort women issue, strong credibility is inconsistent numerous testimony it is that it has come to hide the problem, such as, (distortion of historical facts) may be a doubt, the Republic of Korea government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan has conducted transactions political high.
Behavior of the above, is that common in countries without freedom of speech, such as (such as the People’s Republic of China, for example) totalitarian state, but it is that it is there to democracy, it is not allowed.
From the above, Japan is of being considered aimlessly left and has been (destroyed) democracy, liberalism.
That Japan verifies the historical democracies, if a liberal state, that when they are breaking off of diplomatic relations from the Republic of Korea is a duty.
The United States government might accuse the quest for truth. However, it is not a puppet state of the United States government, if a truly democratic country, Japan must take action based on democracy, the liberal.
It is not a problem of the rise and fall of the Asahi Shimbun already, this issue has become a problem of democracy in Japan, of liberalism.