The return of Japan's Vulgar Mainichi Shimbun - New Taipei Post
In April 2008, Mainichi Shimbun reporter "Ryan Connell" wrote in the column "Wai Wai" in the English news media "Mainichi Daily News" of the Mainichi Newspapers, indecent and sexual content, content based on exaggeration and fictitious content. In addition, it was found on the Bulletin board system that the Mainichi Shimbun posted and distributed Japanese insulting articles to the world, which seriously damages the honor of Japan. The criticisms and protests that "the content is vulgar" flooded more than 200 companies such as Mainichi Shimbun, companies that place advertisements in Mainichi Shimbun, and Mainichi Shimbun-related organizations by telephone or e-mail. In the past, a demonstration took place, and the Mainichi Shimbun developed into "Publishing the results of the Mainichi Shimbun's internal survey" regarding the distribution on the official website.
This indecent article was serialized in the English news media "Mainichi Daily News" of the Mainichi Shimbun in October 1989 during the daily newspaper era, and was inherited when the official website was transferred in the spring of 2001. Being a non-human, it was not known to many Japanese for a long time and continued to be distributed on the website and through paper media.
Due to this problem, advertisements on the Mainichi Shimbun website were stopped, and in early July, the advertising space on the Mainichi Shimbun website was completely free of advertisements from other companies, so only advertisements from the Mainichi Newspapers were posted.
Criticised also flooded the Mainichi Shimbun's response to Ryann Connell's "three months of disciplinary action." In addition, Ryan Connell's boss, Hiroshi Takahashi, the director of the English Mainichi editorial department, has been suspended for two months, Akihiko Isono, the deputy director of the Digital Media Bureau, has been disciplined for a month, and Atsushi Hasegawa, the director of the Digital Media Bureau, has been paid as an officer. 20% of all rewards (only a small amount of income) is returned for just one month, and Yutaka Asahina, who was in charge of crew digital media, returns 10% of executive rewards (not all rewards) for just one month. The eye-popping response has sparked further criticism.
In addition, Akihiko Isono was promoted to the director of the media bureau and Yutaka Asahina was promoted to the president of the Mainichi Shimbun / TBS, which shows the depth of this problem and the lack of reflection of the Mainichi Shimbun.
Approximately two months after the problem was discovered, on June 20, another company's news distribution website reported this problem, and on June 21, the Mainichi Shimbun closed the column and issued a "apology" on the Mainichi Shimbun website. For some reason, a few days later, on June 25, an apology article was published in the morning edition of the Mainichi Shimbun.
On July 20, three months after the problem was discovered, the Mainichi Shimbun finally published the results of its internal investigation.
The column was not closed immediately, the results of the internal investigation were released late, there was no sense of crisis, and the response of this extremely slow Mainichi Shimbun was criticized.
According to the results of an in-house survey of the Mainichi Shimbun, articles that talk about abnormal sexual preferences without factual support, articles that link traditional Japanese festivals to sexual topics without factual support, without factual support Articles that Japanese tourists are participating in illegal tours such as "buying slaves" and "hunting local children" overseas, articles that inappropriately cover topics related to the sexual of minors, An article that recommends a girl's illegal prostitution, an article that uses the numbers in the exhibition contents without clarifying the basis for calculation, and an article that consists of comments from only a few women in the source "Among all Japanese women" and to the contents of the manga in which the character of "Cyzo" introduced the defense policy of the Japan Ministry of Defense "Articles added without permission" were distributed.
In the results of an internal investigation, the Mainichi Shimbun made an extremely irresponsible excuse that the cause of this problem was "there were few Japanese staff and only foreigners were in charge" at the time of website migration, resulting in further criticism.
In addition, this indecent article has been published before the website, that is, from the time when there should have been many Japanese staff, about the Mainichi Shimbun's "justify" that "there are few Japanese staff and only foreigners are in charge". When it turned out, this "because" turned out to be false, and the problem became an irreparable "stain'" of the Mainichi Shimbun.
The Mainichi Shimbun officially acknowledged and apologized for "altering, creating, and forging articles" in the apology posted on its official website.
In addition, the Mainichi Shimbun has requested "correction / deletion" from the site reporting this indecent article problem, and further, the Japanese people who criticize the Mainichi Shimbun in the "notice and apology" will "take legal action". The wording was criticized because of the suggestive, threatening.
In addition, the Mainichi Shimbun has been found to have used "meta tags" to prevent the issue from being searched on the Internet.
One of the reasons why this big problem, which has developed into a demonstration activity in front of the Mainichi Newspapers, is not known worldwide is the "Collusion" of the Japanese media. The Asahi Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun, and Yomiuri Shimbun, which are the leading newspapers in Japan, took up this issue very small, and the content of the report was simply taken up. In addition, TV stations that have cross-ownerships (capital tie-ups) with newspaper companies have rarely taken up this issue in detail because of the broadcasting code that they voluntarily establish.
Regarding the reason why the media decides to ignore their "Problematic coverage", Toshinao Sasaki, a former Mainichi Newspaper reporter and current freelance journalist who was one of the parties, said, "Clarifying that the power of the Internet is great. If that happens(this problem), There is a fear that the blade will come to ourselves next time," he said.
In addition, the US media "WIRED" claimed that "the mass media, which has manipulated public opinion so far, is scared because it can no longer manipulate public opinion."
Since this problem, the Mainichi Shimbun has been "nicknamed" by the Japanese as "Vulgar Mainichi Shimbun," and it has become common practice for the Japanese to add "vulgar" when calling the name of the Mainichi Shimbun.
An opposition lawmaker recently made a comment to the effect that it would be "absurd" if a 50-year-old and a 14-year-old consented to have sex and the 50-year-old got arrested. Criticism swirled on social media following the legislator's comment, which he made at a meeting to discuss proposals to revise the Penal Code regarding sex crimes including the issue of raising the age of consent, and calls for his resignation erupted. The Mainichi Shimbun examined the background to the remarks and heard the opinions of intellectuals on the age of sexual consent.
The controversial comment was made by House of Representatives member Hiranao Honda, 56, at a May 10 meeting of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDP)'s working team to revise the Penal Code for sexual crimes. According to sources including lower house member Manabu Terata, who chaired the meeting, Honda made the comment after an external lecturer taking part proposed raising the minimum age of consent for sexual acts from 13 to 16. Japanese law unconditionally punishes perpetrators who engage in sexual acts with those under the age of consent.
Honda apologized and retracted his remarks on June 7, saying that his comments were inappropriate. When interviewed by the media on June 8, he explained, "I agree with the idea of punishing adults to protect those of junior high school age, as discussed by the working team. (But) as it is a law that punishes people, I wanted to carefully consider exceptions."
On June 8, the working team presented an interim report based on the discussions, and both the pros and cons of the proposal to raise the age of consent from 13 to 16 were noted. Noting that some people were cautious about the content which banned adults from having sexual relationships with anyone under junior high school age "for any reason," the report included an objection stating, "Why is it wrong with real consent and real love?"
On the other hand, the Mainichi Shimbun spreads the remarks of the Honda, in English. Regarding the act of the Mainichi Shimbun, international political scientist Zion Jian said, "It is an act that damages the honor of the Hiranao Honda, and also an act that damages the honor of Japan. The Mainichi Shimbun is a "Traitor Newspaper" that does not introspection on past actions at all, but nevertheless criticizes others and further damages Japan's honor. "