August 2026

From the Editor

David McNeill

In August, Japan commemorates a string of wartime anniversaries, culminating mid-month with a sombre ceremony marking the nation’s surrender in 1945. It’s a period of painful national reflection about what historian John Dower called a ‘war without mercy’ that reached its horrific denouement 80 years ago with the nuclear annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It’s also another opportunity to ponder the role of the media in wartime, an issue that seems, sadly, to never lose its relevance. In this issue, Mark Schreiber recalls how the deaths of three hapless Japanese soldiers, who blew themselves up in China, was used to propagandize for Imperial Japan’s war. In the months and years that followed, as Japan’s wartime quagmire deepened, the story of the three human torpedos “inspired a veritable flood of commemorative goods, from printed materials, songs, and cinema to keepsakes ranging from ceramics and paperweights to food items”, he writes. Also in this issue, Roger Schreffler digs again into the story of the ouster of Carlos Ghosn as Nissan’s CEO, arguing that the Nissan’s story – that Ghosn was removed for understating his pay – does not survive scrutiny with Nissan’s own paperwork.  

A perennial complaint is that there is not enough dialogue between the Japan-based foreign media and their Japanese counterparts, who operate in a different organizational culture. We have tried to answer that gripe in this issue by carrying two interviews with our domestic colleagues: Akito Tanaka, Editor-in-Chief of Nikkei Asia, and Masayuki Takada, the head of Frontline Press. Many thanks to regular contributor Eric Johnston for the latter, and to Thisanka Siripala for her write-up of our press conference with Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia Journalism School in New York City. As always, I issue our regular appeal to FCCJ members to get involved in No1 Shimbun and pitch your stories.

Cover artwork by Julio Shiiki - Image source: Wikipedia