Shigeaki Koga Claims That He Spoke Out During the Live Show to Protest against Kantei
The image is retrieved from kiikochan.blog136.fc2.com/blog-entry-4171.html
After the conclusion of the Hodo Station broadcast, in an interview with journalist Yasumi Iwakami, Koga stated the goal of his appearance was to object to Kantei (the Official Residence of Prime Minister).
The interview was originally scheduled directly after the broadcast, at approximately 11pm, but Koga was almost 50 minutes late. He was caught in a quarrel with TV Asahi’s officials who came out to condemn Koga’s actions in the show, and had to drive himself to the meeting place with Iwakami. In the interview, Koga stated he was surprised that the anchor Furutachi tried stopping him in the show, in light of remarks that Furutachi had made to him in private.In the green room, Furutachi admitted that he knew that there had been political pressure on Koga, but he was not able to do anything about it. For this reason, Koga thought that Furutachi would be sympathetic on air when he announced he would no longer be invited to the show due to political pressures.
Koga also understood that Furutachi needs to maintain this anchor position and is expected to behave in the manner of objecting to Koga’s claims. Koga stated that Furutachi is intimidated by the executives of TV Asahi and the CEO of his agency, that Furutachi was expected to deliver the news in a manner acceptable to the company. Furutachi tried stopping Koga so that he could tell the executives that he tried his best to stop the outburst. Koga assumed that there are many people who wonder why on earth he had to take such an extreme measure. He said that he would be an idiot to act this way if there was nothing to protest, but there was a big reason why he was compelled to speak out in this manner.
He said the reason why he had to speak out was Kantei’s personal attacks. During press conferences, although Chief Cabinet Secretary does not explicitly say his name, Koga is convinced that statements about a lad discussing horrible things lately are directed towards him. Secretary Suga also said that the remarks may have violated the Broadcasting Act. Article 4 of Broadcasting Act requires broadcasters to portray all relevant opinions when covering issues about which there are conflicting opinions. Koga believes these statements are also against him, in particular they are meant to imply the government will deny licenses to outlets supporting Koga’s position. While Koga claims that Suga discussed licensing with several reporters, and the government’s complaints against an individual critical of the administration, the information he has received is all secondhand. When asked by reporters, Suga would not say explicitly what individual the government may have had in mind.
Koga is convinced that anyone listening to Suga’s remarks would know the Secretary is talking about him, and claimed that these statements constituted indirect threats. He said that he was living with constant fear of threats by the government, but was continually encouraging himself to speak out. He gave a quote by Ghandi for why he ultimately decided to act: “ You have to act out not in order to change the world, but so that the world cannot change you.” Even if one person speaks out, it does not change the society or the world. Grow up. If you are accustomed to live in this mindset, you have been changed by the world. Koga said that if you do not want the world to change you, you have to speak out – especially when you are being threatened.
Koga feels bad for surprising the viewers and the staff of Hodo Station, but knew if he told the staff of the show he involved them, and the staff would have been interrogated by the executives of the show. Therefore, in order not to burden them with the responsibility of for Koga’s speaking out, he did it in an improvised way. Last time when he used the phrase “I am not ABE” on Hodo Station, he discussed it with the staff beforehand. On that occasion, the staff was interrogated by the executives but this time his actions were nobody’s responsibility but his own. That’s the reason why the banner of “I am not ABE” ended up made of a piece of paper, as he had made it himself just before the show.
The image is retrieved from kukkuri.jpn.org/boyakikukkuri2/log/eid1701.html
Many officials, including the head of the press bureau, mentioned that Koga took advantage of the show to fulfill a purely selfish goal. But Koga claims that he did not use the show to advertise himself, instead arguing he used it for a better future in Japan. Right now, Japanese media is in a critical situation. Though officials of TV Asahi mentioned that most people will not understand what Koga said, Koga claimed this was still important to say as it will give people an opportunity to think about the issue.
At the end of his report, Iwakami mentioned that the interview was incidentally conducted in front of a cemetery which seemed to symbolize the death of Koga’s career as commentator on the show. Koga said that while he will not be invited to the key stations in Tokyo, this will give more freedom to his activities, and does not plan on dying so easily.
( Source 1. iwj.co.jp/wj/open/archives/240770, 2.blogos.com/article/109055/).
