JAPAN: Lawmakers in trouble over 'edited' TV programme

Liberal Democratic Party pair accused of pressuring network to drop unfavourable depiction of Hirohito

The Straits Times
Friday, January 14, 2005

By Kwan Weng Kin

Two ruling party politicians, both seen as among Japan's future leaders, are in hot soup for allegedly pressuring the country's public broadcaster to alter the contents of a programme that originally depicted the late Emperor Hirohito as being guilty of war crimes.

Mr Shinzo Abe, acting secretary-general of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), and Trade Minister Shoichi Nakagawa were fingered in a report by the influential Asahi Shimbun daily.

The television programme in question was about a mock tribunal organised by civic groups which found the government guilty of allowing the military to force thousands of Asian women to become so-called 'comfort women' to provide sexual services to front-line troops in the last war. The tribunal also found the late emperor guilty of allowing it to happen.

According to the Asahi, Mr Abe and Mr Nakagawa hauled up executives of the NHK network, after learning of the contents of the programme, and urged that it be dropped.

Right-wing groups had also demanded that NHK shelve it.

In the programme, eventually aired in January 2001, the emperor's role was not mentioned and three minutes' worth of interviews with former comfort women were lopped off.

Yesterday, Mr Satoru Nagai, the NHK chief producer then in charge of the programme, who blew the whistle on his bosses last month, told a press conference that he was sure the edits were due to political interference.

'The final programme was completely different from the debate that actually took place. It was clearly the result of political pressure,' he said.

Fighting back tears, Mr Nagai added: 'I fretted for four years whether to tell or not. But I felt I had a duty to say the truth.'

The producer also laid the blame squarely on NHK chairman Katsuji Ebisawa. 'He has a heavy responsibility for allowing political interference in news reporting. He should resign.'

NHK has denied the charges.

So too have the two politicians.

'Reports must be fair. Opposing opinions should be heard. I said what I had to say as a lawmaker. It was not political pressure,' said Mr Abe, who was deputy chief Cabinet secretary at that time.

Both Mr Abe and Mr Nakagawa are known for their nationalist bent and were leading members of a group of lawmakers that supported the rewriting of school history textbooks.

The latest affair is, however, unlikely to hurt either man as the LDP has never been enamoured of the press.

The latest allegation of government censorship of the NHK comes at a low point for the public broadcaster, which has been dogged by a series of scandals, prompting calls by the public and by some of NHK's own staff for Mr Ebisawa to step down.

Opposition politicians have promised to raise the issue in parliament.

Date Posted: 1/14/2005