Japanese publisher Kodansha Ltd. is set to publish an apology after a line in the popular manga series “Outside Director Kosaku Shima” caused an uproar online for suggesting that protesters against construction work for a U.S. base relocation in Okinawa Prefecture are hired for daily allowances.
The manga by Kenshi Hirokane, the latest of the long-running Kosaku Shima series depicting a man’s career through the Japanese corporate ladder, has been published in Kodansha’s weekly comic magazine “Morning.” In the scene in question, people protesting the Japanese government’s land reclamation work for the relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma from Ginowan to the Henoko district of Nago, both in Okinawa Prefecture, are portrayed as “part-time workers receiving daily wages.”
A spate of criticism of the scene flooded X (formerly Twitter), such as, “The content is fake.” In response, Kodansha on Oct. 21 announced that it would publish an apology to the effect that the description was “hearsay with no confirmation from the parties concerned” and that publishing the scene “was a careless decision, albeit the work being fiction.”
‘Hired for daily pay’
In the controversial scene, published in the 46th issue of “Morning” released on Oct. 17, protagonist Kosaku Shima and others visit Okinawa, where they dine while viewing the landfill work. A woman believed to be a local resident explains to them about the work, saying, “That’s the U.S. military’s Henoko reclamation area. The work is for relocating the Futenma airbase to this area.” She then tells Shima, “There are a lot of people protesting as part-time workers. I, too, was hired for a daily wage before.” As one of the reasons for the protests, it is explained, “There are concerns that the base relocation may destroy the ecosystem, such as coral reefs.”
‘Careless albeit being fictional’: Kodansha
After a Mainichi Shimbun inquiry, Kodansha issued via email a comment by the editorial team and author Hirokane. Regarding the background to depicting the scene, they explained, “The author and an editor in charge traveled to Okinawa and gathered information necessary for creating the story, focusing mainly on the tourism industry. Over the course of that process, they heard from several prefectural residents that ‘there are part-time jobs to protest against the construction of the new base,’ and reflected it in the story.”
Regarding the description in question, the email said, “It was hearsay with no confirmation from the parties concerned. We would have to say it was a careless decision, albeit the work being fiction, to have nevertheless portrayed the matter definitively, let a character utter the line, and for the editorial department to have published it,” adding that the publisher will “apologize” to readers.
The publisher said it plans to release these comments in an issue to be released next week or later, and correct the content when publishing in book form.
‘No evidence of cash payments’
Claims that participants in anti-base movements are paid daily wages have become an issue in the past, and a court has ruled that “there is no evidence” to such claims.
In 2017, Tokyo Metropolitan Television Broadcasting (Tokyo MX)’s program “News Joshi” featured protests against the construction of U.S. military helipads in the Takae district of the Okinawa Prefecture village of Higashi. The program suggested that participants in the protest were paid daily wages.
The Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization (BPO)’s Committee for the Investigation of Broadcasting Ethics issued a view that the program was a “serious violation of broadcasting ethics,” on the grounds that “it cannot be said that the program proves the veracity” of such claims.
A co-representative of a human rights group, who was named in the program as “the mastermind who professionally provided funds” sued the show’s production company for defamation. The Tokyo District Court ruled that there was no evidence of cash payments to protesters, and ordered the production company to pay 5.5 million yen (approx. $36,000). The ruling was finalized in 2023.
(Japanese original by Hiroya Miyagi, Digital News Group, Hiroshi Higa, Naha Bureau)
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