Tokyo Tsure Zure Gusa

This is a good article on the Ozawa situation.

This morning I watched ToKuDaNe, a Japanese morning news program for the first time in several months. (My son usually dominates the TV during this time slot with Dora, Little Bill, etc.) What I thought was interesting was the comparison of the Asahi and Yomiuri Newspapers’ coverage of the grand coalition proposal. Asahi reported correctly that it was Fukuda who proposed it, while the Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Ozawa had made the proposal. They followed this up with polls of Fukuda and Ozawa’s supporters’ views on the proposal. The finding was that Ozawa’s supporters were largely opposed to the coalition, and thus it would look bad for Ozawa to have proposed it, whereas Fukuda’s supporters were more neutral or positive about the coalition, and there would be no damage to Fukuda’s reputation whether he proposed it or not. Thus, the LDP (and Soka Gakkai) affiliated Yomiuri Shimbun was apparently deliberate in its false information.

It could be asserted that this was a form of political attack. In the Asahi article linked to above, Ozawa specifically calls this media misinformation unfair reporting.

Contrary to the Asahi English article, the Japanese Asahi is reporting that some agreements are being reached within the Democratic Party and that Ozawa may remain in his post.