Nuclear Supporters in the Media

[Hammer]

This newspaper clipping is making the rounds among some of my Facebook friends at the moment. It's a list of people who hold high positions in the media (TV), who simultaneously hold influential positions in Japan's various nuclear power promotion groups.



You can see the names of the various TV companies down the left: NHK, NTV, TBS, Fuji, Terebi Asahi, Terebi Tokyo, terebi Osaka, and Tokai Terebi. Below the company names are the positions held at those companies by the people listed in the corresponding rows in the center column (lots of presidents and chairmen). Then to the right of the names in the center column (in brackets) are the positions they hold in the nuclear power industry.

At the very top, for example, NHK's "Keiei Mondai Iin" (commissioner for administration problems) also happens to be the chairman of TEPCO. The president of Sankei Shinbum (Fuji TV) also just happens to be the permanent director of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum.

Etc.

This is sick.
So what are our chances of getting a balanced view via the major media outlets?

[Jack]

One of the many reasons I will not pay NHK.

I read last year that the plant operators where the single biggest contributers to the various elected officials in every prefecture accept Okinawa because they don't have a nuclear plant.

[Gaspard de Coligny]

Private nukular power could not exist without corruption and public funds...

News at 11...

(tip, if you want to go with an insanely dangerous technology, at least don't do it for the quick bucks...)

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

This came as a bit of a shock...so does being so naive to have allowed myself to be shocked by this.

[Taro]

WO0T! We get a mention in this book review as a place, "where gaijin can gripe to their drunken hearts’ content."

Book review: Fresh Currents
Spike Japan | 2012/11/09
[Fresh Currents: Japan's flow from a nuclear past to a renewable future can be downloaded for free and quickly here. It is also available from good bookstores, priced ¥2,000.]
<big snip>
...The Gold, the undisputed gold <in the errors made in this book>, though, goes to a chart (on p46) that purports to delineate the contemporary Connections between Media & The Nuclear Industry. It begins like this:
. . . NHK [Japan’s BBC]
. . . Management Issue Committee, Gaishi Hiraiwa
. . . (is also President of Tokyo Electric Power Co., Inc.)
. . . and then moves on to the most powerful private-sector TV station:
. . . NTV
. . . Owner of Yomiuri Newspaper, Matsutaro Shoriki
. . . (is also Chairman of Japan Atomic Energy Commission)
“That’s odd,” I thought, “I don’t remember any Hiraiwa serving as president of Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) in recent years. What’s the source for this chart?” It turned out to be an URL, which turned out to be a BBS, Expat Café (“A home for displaced souls”) where gaijin can gripe to their drunken hearts’ content about the miseries of their exile lives. You can see the original post here. “Hmm,” I thought, “Should books with ambitions to stake a place in a serious debate stoop to sourcing material from paralytic idiots? And where did this chart come from originally?” A moment rootling around the Interwebs turns up the book that looks to be the source, Dangerous Talk by Takashi Hirose, published in…1987. But it gets worse, for even back in 1987 this was a *historical* chart, as while Gaishi Hiraiwa (1914-2007) served as chairman of TEPCO (the above “president” is a mistranslation on the part of the Fresh Currents folks) from 1984 to 1993, Matsutaro Shoriki (1885-1969) was chair of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission for less than a year, that year being…1956. If wrong were a star, this chart would be a red supergiant.
More...

[Hammer]

We also get called "paralytic idiots," and accused of living miserable lives.

I poked around trying to learn the identity of the person who is so liberal with the insults and condemnation without really knowing who he or she is talking about, but it seems he/she has covered his/her tracks rather well. No name, no email address. There was a comment to that effect from a publisher who wanted to use something from the site too, so I guess it's not just me.

So in case you manage to stop frothing at the mouth long enough to swing by to see if we've noticed your rant review, Mr. or Mrs. Spike person, I don't drink. There are a couple of other teetotalers on the board too, so you might want to start by revising your clever subhead for our little BBS. I'm not particularly miserable either, although you'd have to ask the other posters about their individual levels of happiness ... which is something you should probably have done before publicly making libelous assumptions. That sort of thing can get you into trouble.

Actually, the whole "review" amounts to little more than blanket opprobrium, with nothing nice to say about anything. Miserable life, perhaps?

Anyone know who's behind Spike Japan?
Or do I need to put the research department to work.

[vanpa]

We also get called "paralytic idiots," and accused of living miserable lives.

Kind of ironic, bearing in mind the main theme of the "Spiked Japan" blog is detailing the terminal decline of small-town provincial Japan in depressing, statistically-backed detail.

Anyone know who's behind Spike Japan?
Or do I need to put the research department to work.

"Spike" is a British guy, and according to this 2009 post "a (very) small 
business proprietor" in the Akebonobashi area of Tokyo. Vague mental notes indicate reading somewhere that that business is a bar, but I might be wrong.

[Hugh Jørgen]

FFS, you gave disclosure where you got the newspaper clipping in the original post, giving the reader ample opportunity to accept it at face value or do their own legwork and see where it leads. To have some anonymous muckraker then insist that EC is somehow responsible for it's appearance in other media is ludicrous.

The guy also uses the name Pachiguy as an alias, and is part of the peanut gallery at Japan Today and elsewhere.

[Hammer]

Yup, Pachiguy. On Twitter too. Guess he plays pachinko a lot.

Anyway, all signs are pointing towards "waste of time." There's enough negativity around without having to deal with an anonymous curmudgeon.

[Hugh Jørgen]

Turns out he's not really anonymous - named both in another blog and in a newspaper piece:

The Guardian

[Hammer]

Turns out he's not really anonymous - named both in another blog and in a newspaper piece:

Looks like you nailed it (damn, you're good).
British translator (current) and teacher (former) in Japan.
Profile filed away for future reference.

[vanpa]

Turns out he's not really anonymous - named both in another blog and in a newspaper piece:

Looks like you nailed it (damn, you're good).
British translator (current) and teacher (former) in Japan.

And previously (from the Spike Japan article)

Once, in my criminal lawyering days

[Hammer]

And previously (from the Spike Japan article)

Once, in my criminal lawyering days

???
Why on earth would anyone in their right mind go from being a lawyer to a translator?

[vanpa]

Or lawyer to social media expert?

[Russell]

And previously (from the Spike Japan article)

Once, in my criminal lawyering days

???
Why on earth would anyone in their right mind go from being a lawyer to a translator?

Well, if a lawyer is found to be criminal, he will be banned from the profession, wouldn't he?

BTW, very impressed with your research department, Hammer!

[legion]

Expat Café (“A home for displaced souls”) where gaijin can gripe to their drunken hearts’ content about the miseries of their exile lives.

pretty fucking rich coming from someone whose blog is devoted to gloating over the demise of Japan, his biggest fan being Skippy, the Jonah of the gaijin forumites, once described as someone who would complain about having to breath

stand in a deserted factory and have a wank Spike

[legion]

ps

sorry for having the temerity to live in your Japan Spike

[Hammer]

Well, if a lawyer is found to be criminal, he will be banned from the profession, wouldn't he?

That thought that "criminal lawyer" might be more than just a job description did cross my mind.

BTW, very impressed with your research department, Hammer!

They really are on the ball, aren't they. I don't pay these guys nearly enough.

[wagyl]

As a long time reader of the Spike Japan blog - and I recommend it to everyone here - I can't help thinking that we are overreacting to some off-the-cuff and possibly misguided comments by the author. With the sometimes enjoyable but undeniably pointless bickering that we engage in, I can imagine that, to the casual visitor, we look no different to a lot of other sites - gaijinpot comes to mind - which could justifiably be described as a site where "where gaijin can gripe to their drunken hearts' content about the miseries of their exile lives." As I have done, and been criticized for, in the past, Hammer posted something of interest which he had seen elsewhere, for our information, really just to say "hey guys, look what I found!" Deeper investigation of the source, the sort of investigation that the author of Spike Japan enjoys, indicated that that information should be looked at a little more critically, not just taken at face value.

Where I think we have gone off the rails here is in the minor witch hunt, digging for dirt just because someone called us gripers who enjoy a tipple or three. I really think we are made of sterner stuff than that, sticks and stones etc. And it is not as though we are not guilty of the same crime from time to time. I remember very vividly how I felt when I thought that my online persona and real life identity were being examined by Christopher Johnson, so I am perhaps a little sensitive about this.

Hopefully this is just a one day flash in the pan and we will forget all about this. I would love to think that we will not do this sort of thing again lightly.

OK guys, there you have it. I have painted the target on my forehead now. Do as your conscience directs!

[Gaspard de Coligny]

I'm farting in your general direction...

BECAUSE!