With more than 100k tweets, #“I don’t want to pay money to (public broadcaster) NHK anymore” is now trending in Japan. Why is NHK facing this wave of antipathy? Users criticize that in the current debate on links between LDP and Unification Church 1/7 #もうＮＨＫに金払いたくない

https://twitter.com/mas__yamazaki/status/1554697125908611072

NHK is trying to keep the issue on a very low profile and once it is mentioned “by the way”, coverage is taking sides with LDP by just reporting official statements without any proper contextualization. On top of that, parliamentary debates on the issue are “hidden” by simply 2/7

It is an open secret: LDP politician in Kobe frankly confirms the close ties between LDP and Unification Church. “Depending on the person they may be closer or less close, but EVERYONE in the LDP has connections (to UC)”, he says 1/6

https://twitter.com/okada_tarumi/status/1545538261375782912

Thankfully he gives more evidence by citing an article by Nikkan Gendai from 2019, right after the election. The article refers to Abe’s new cabinet as being “truly a cult cabinet”: 12 of his cabinet members are associated with Nippon Kaigi, 12 with the Unification Church 2/6

Absolutely agree. As many were wondering about the peculiar way the JP mainstream media is reporting about the motives of Abe’s assassinator, i.e. not mentioning that “particular religious group”, and as someone researching JP media and public discourse, here some thoughts(1/10)

https://twitter.com/mrjeffu/status/1546092481573720064

This avoidance of concrete names/ topics (called #agendacutting ) seems less motivated by a social responsibility toward that group (e.g. bc of fear of hate crimes) but rather by a fear that someone influential will get in trouble if that specific name was made widely public 2/10