Ooh. You gonna get called for this. I don't read the Japan Times anymore (their web site is a piece of crap and updated, it seems, when they feel like it) but you may be onto something. I know they pay their staff crap - maybe the real benefit is an extensive tatami timeshare and lifetime of servitude to the NK ideals?
I wonder how SGI harass individuals. Let me know when you find out.

Yeah, I've wondered why they publish Ikeda's editorials too. The editorials themselves are generally inoffensive mush, but…

This explains why Martin Webb dresses like a Mormon. No, wait, he dresses like a Diorman. Different sect.

Very Hedinistic.

You're going to have to wait in line behind the tabloids for your dose of harassment. "Friday" had a story in July claiming that a powerful Japan Times board member with links to SG had arranged for Ikeda to write a monthly column. After a mass protest by Times employees, the paper recruited a few other influential figures to share the column with Ikeda, in the name of balance. Apparently, the JT-SG link is strong enough that some staff are worried that SG may be looking to buy the paper outright.

Thanks for that info. I would have been surprised if someone had not already picked up the story, but I could not find much in a simple google search.

Here is a link to the original Friday story from June.

As a former JT editor, I can confirm that there are many Soka Gakkai members among the Japanese staff at the newspaper.
Their influence is felt over story placement and there have been past incidences of paid Soka Gakkai advertisements disguised as actual news stories.
Each time it happened while I was there, there was much complaining on the news floor, but the "stories" ran nevertheless.

And any explicit mention in news stories of New Komeito being "the political arm of Soka Gakkai," which is in contradiction of the constitutional separation of church and state, was always vetoed by higher-ups.

dear david, i think i lost your email again (and don't want to use the bloody mxxxxspce mail service, it's too slow), could you please send me a note so i can write you?

olivier

oh and my email:

allegralamm@yahoo.fr

I translated the Friday article for whoever's interested.

Oh and that blog you linked to is awesome.

Until it recent sale last Feb to TV Tokyo, the Japan Times owned the Tokyo engrish radio station, InterFM (76.1 FM). The station runs cho-kimoi Soka Gakkai International ads at discount whenever they have gaps in their regular paying advertisers.

Tangentally, read Mike Rogers’ report, Japanese Right-Wing Lunatics describing a typical Tohihada Minoru comedy routine..."During the first ten minutes of the show, glassy eyed, he sings the praises of Soka Gakkai, the Buddhist group that claims one-tenth the population of Japan. The routine spirals into paranoia; he starts banging on about cosmic energy and confides that Soka Gakkai control the TV stations and entertainment industry, so he signed up in order to become famous. He segues into a familiar story for many Japanese. Five or ten years after graduation, out-of-the-blue, there is a mysterious call from a forgotten classmate. A cheerful and meandering reminiscence follows, with the caller finally coming to the point – vote for Komeito (a right-wing political party), join Soka Gakkai and buy Amway....."

Also: Soka Gakkai leader makes waves at The Japan Times
--Japan Foreign Correspondents Club, by Chie Matsumoto, Tue, 2006-07-18

Marxy, man, I think you're on to something HOT here. I remember seeing a news item in JT about esteemed rock (if the band has Japanese women in it) columnist Simon Bartz being canonized for saving a drowning a kid and thinking, ''surely this is a SGI-backed scheme to clean up the paper's scruffy image and pave the way for Mr. Ikeda's ascension to the helm.'' It was sooo obvious.

But as for the ''unsigned editorial'' (um, all editorials lack bylines), I dunno. While in typical JT style, the editorial doesn't pack much of a punch, if you actually read the second half, it's not really toeing the party line.

But still, though, you've got the scent. Run with it. Do a little more digging in those tabloids. Gotta be a smoking gun in there somewhere.

To JT, the former Japan Times editor: Any chance the SG connection explans those bizarre "Xyzland National Day" advertorials? I've always been curious about those. They aren't news, obviously, and Togo and French Guyana et all can't be shelling out big money for placement. So is the paper giving them the space gratis as part of some SG-inspired campaign to promote world peace?

I don't think the JT has become a propaganda rag for the church, but clearly the editorial is picking up a lot of SG stories that a different paper would not bother reporting on. Add that to the fact that there are a couple of well-known SG members/sympathesizers filling executive roles and rumors of a huge SG buyout of subscriptions at full price and you've got some SG influence on the content.

Even though the story leaked a couple of months ago, I hadn't heard about it. I came to my conclusions by just repeatedly seeing SG-focused stories over a long-period. If they don't want people to know about the SG influence from just looking at the articles, they are doing a terrible job.

Bartz is the last person SGI would enlist to polish up their image, or that of the JT.

He did actually plunge into a fast-flowing river and save a young kid's life.

That story's accompanying photo, of a dishevelled hack receiving the award with a glowering expression on his bedhead-framed face, proves the point.

There is absolutely no cult connection, and Bartz would be quick to tell anyone right where to shove it (in very colorful language) if he was ever approached with an offer of any kind of promotional activity that would threaten his greatly prized personal integrity.

The snide comment r.e. favoring bands with female members doesn't ring true if you know his devotion to all-male outift Guitar Wolf.

And whatever SGI connection there is at the JT has nothing to do with the National Day pages, which do actually represent a healthy revenue stream for the rag.

Jona, sunyatsen is quite correct: The National Day pages are produced as pure promotional content for the various embassies and provide the paper with an annual, guaranteed tidy sum for minimal effort. The pages are written by embassy staff and basically stuck straight into the paper, with little attention to house style, factual correctness or layout. Everyone acknowledges they're crap, but hey, they pay the bills.

Taro, InterFM was never owned by The Japan Times. Both are owned by Nifco, maker of plastic fasteners lik eth eones that hold your backpack closed. Trivia: The oddly shaped roof of the Japan Times building is supposed to look like the receiving end of a Nifco fastener.

As for Simon: The only cult he belongs to is that of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, baby. And yes, he most certainly does favor girl bands. Search on his name in the JT archive and you'll see a disproportionate number of girl band reviews. Interviews are a great way to meet chicks.

The Japan Times has been passively or actively on the block for sometime. Foreign investors ran the rule over it a few years ago. They could not take control of InterFM because of restrictions on foreign control of broadcasting licences (it was sold separately earlier this year to TV Tokyo).

If Soka Gakkai have any interest in the paper, they are taking their own sweet time about it. Financially, it makes a good deal more sense for them to continue as a major client than to seek full ownership but return on investment has not always been the decisive factor for the cult's decisions.

The Washington Times loses a lot of money every year, no? The point is to control media, not to profit.

Is the change in leadership at the (arguably) most powerful non governmental organization in Japan news? I would venture that it is.

In other countries such as the U.S., you can bet that a change in leadership in the Episcopal church, or the Baptist Convention would receive some serious attention, albeit not front page space. With that said, I am pretty sure the new Cardinal in NY was on the cover of the Times, the Post, and News when he was selected a few years ago.

It seems more remarkable that none of the other newspapers picked up on the item. The fact that other tabloids ignored the news seems more indicative of an aspect of the Japanese character to ignore unpalatable or disagreeable news just because its unpalatable or disagreeable.

JT- Thanks for the info. Curiosity satisfied.

The fact that other tabloids ignored the news seems more indicative of an aspect of the Japanese character to ignore unpalatable or disagreeable news just because its unpalatable or disagreeable.

Thank god JT has some connections to SG or otherwise they would have never lived up to journalistic standards and gone on to ignore the story.

Hey, sunyatsen, I'm not saying Simon Bartz was enlisted. On the contrary, I think he was set up. SGI agents singled out a JT black sheep, produced an event in which child actors thrashed around in the river and Simon, as any human would, came to their aid. No doubt, he is now a changed man. See? Problem solved. I wager that in future columns, Mr. Bartz will have dropped his Hunter S. Thompson swagger.

And Marxy is so right. The Washington Times, I mean, the Tokyo Post, they all want to simply control the flow of information, to twist our thoughts. They don't give a damn about profits. They leave that to the poor fastener-makers.

And it's blogs like this that are freeing us from the manacles of oppression. I stand up and applaud the efforts of commentators such as Marmus and Moxy who can see through the matrix. If it weren't for them, where would we get the REAL dope on Japan?