Photo by Yo Haga

It has been one year and nine months since the Freedom of the Press trial began. Both the plaintiff and defendant have presented their arguments. The witnesses to appear in court will be decided at the oral argument on April 23.

One of the witnesses requested by the defendant Kyodo News is Akira Matsumoto of the Social Affairs Department. He was the superior when the plaintiff Yoichi Ishikawa worked at the Chiba branch. He was in charge of giving instructions to reporters on reporting and editing articles.

Matsumoto will testify about Ishikawa’s work attitude. By claiming that Ishikawa “did not meet the standards of a Kyodo News reporter,” he aims to justify the revoking of Ishikawa’s permission to write outside the company and his dismissal from his position as a reporter.

Kyodo News is running out of options as the trial progresses. Even if it is in a predicament, would it have its former direct superior criticize his subordinate? This is bullying on a company-wide scale.

In 2017, Hayato Fukuura, a high school student, committed suicide due to bullying. The trial should begin by asking what the media should do to prevent such tragedies from happening again.

Kyodo News is ignoring this fact and instead bullying others in order to protect its own company. Is there any justification for the company to exist as a news organization?

It all started with a high school student’s suicide due to bullying

The details of how Kyodo News came to apply for Akira Matsumoto to be a witness is as following.

On April 20, 2017, Hayato Fukuura, a second-year student at Kaisei Gakuen High School in Nagasaki, committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree in a park. In his suicide note, he wrote, “I want to go to a place where no one sees me.” A notebook was also found that detailed the bullying he had suffered.

However, the school suggested to the bereaved family that they conceal Hayato’s suicide and announce it as a “sudden death.” The Nagasaki Prefectural, which has jurisdiction over private high schools, accepted the proposal. The local newspaper, the Nagasaki Shimbun, defended the prefecture’s stance. The family talks about their feelings at the time.

“I feared that the dignity of my child who suffered from bullying would be erased by the school, the prefecture, and the Nagasaki Shimbun.”

That’s when then Kyodo News reporter Yoichi Ishikawa came on the scene. He investigated and wrote after work and on holidays, and published a book in November 2022, “The Sanctuary of Bullying: A Complete Record of Parents Who Challenged the Darkness of Catholic School,” published by Bungeishunju. He criticized not only the school and the prefecture, but also the Nagasaki Shimbun, for cozying up to the prefecture and not fulfilling its role as a news organization.

The Nagasaki Shimbun has protested to Kyodo News regarding Ishikawa’s book. According to a document from the Nagasaki Shimbun obtained by Tansa, the following is the content of the complaint:

“This book will continue to injure our reputation indefinitely, causing further damage.”

The Nagasaki Shimbun is a member company of Kyodo News. In order to create its daily papers, the newspaper receives Kyodo News articles and pays them a fee. For Kyodo News, the Nagasaki Shimbun is a “valued customer.”

In January 2023, Kyodo News revoked Ishikawa’s external activity permission which is a permission to write outside the company and prohibited him from reprinting the book. It also notified him that he could face disciplinary action if he published the series of events in other media.

In April of the same year, Kyodo News removed Ishikawa from his reporter position, stating, “Your expressions regarding this book go against the Guidelines for Journalistic Activities and do not meet the standards of a Kyodo News reporter.”

Ishikawa was forced to resign from the company, but in July 2023, just before he left, he filed a lawsuit against Kyodo News for violating freedom of the press.

Kyodo News abandons its claim that “book is the cause”

Ishikawa has moved to Toyo Keizai Inc. but continues to take part in the lawsuit as a private citizen.

Ever since Ishikawa’s book was released, Kyodo News has argued that the book “damaged the reputation of the Nagasaki Shimbun and harmed the interests of Kyodo News.”

Nonetheless, even as the trial continues, no evidence has emerged to support Kyodo News’ claim.

On July 26, 2024, one year after the lawsuit was filed, at the sixth oral argument, Yoichi Kitamura, the lawyer representing shikawa, lost patience.

“As I have said before… Are you going to claim that the book written by the plaintiff has defamed the Nagasaki Shimbun, that Kyodo News has lost credibility, or other such facts? I would like to ask whether you are going to provide evidence. Since this is a ‘summary,’ may I assume that you will not be alleging any further facts going forward?”

Attorney Takenori Fujita, representing Kyodo News, responds.

“We have no intention of alleging any new facts regarding defamation.”

Although the measures taken against Ishikawa were initiated by a complaint from the Nagasaki Shimbun about the book, the contents of the book are not being made the point of contention.

Kyodo News, in a predicament, became desperate to prove that Ishikawa “does not meet the standards of a Kyodo News reporter” in order to justify its dismissal from his position as a reporter.

On the contrary, Ishikawa was shortlisted for the 54th Oya Soichi Non-Fiction Award for his book “The Sanctuary of Bullying,” and has received three awards, including the Grand Prize at the 12th Japan Journalist Association Awards. The Kyodo News labor union also praised him for the awards, and featured him in their magazine many times.

Moreover, Kyodo News has rated Ishikawa as follows since he entered the company in April 2017. On a seven-point scale, from top to bottom: SS, S, AA, A, AB, B, C.

First half of 2017 (Fukuoka branch editorial department): A

Second half of 2017 (Fukuoka branch editorial department): A

First half of 2018 (Nagasaki branch): A

Second half of 2018 (Nagasaki branch): A

First half of 2019 (Nagasaki branch): A

Second half of 2019 (Nagasaki branch): A

First half of 2020 (Nagasaki branch): AA

Second half of 2020 (Nagasaki branch): A

First half of 2021 (Chiba branch): A

Second half of 2021 (Chiba branch): A

First half of 2022 (Chiba branch): A

The written evaluation is as follows:

Achievements/Work Performance: Reports on general news in the field he is in charge of, as well as some important and major news stories, and he carries out his work accurately and at the standard speed expected of him.

 

Duties and Processes/Internal Coordination and Collaboration: Makes necessary contact with superiors and colleagues within the area of ​​responsibility, ensuring smooth division of roles and information sharing.

Given that Kyodo News itself rates its employee as average or above average, it is unreasonable to claim that Ishikawa “does not meet the standards of a Kyodo News journalist.”

Kyodo News also published an article praising Ishikawa. It was published on January 18, 2022. The article reported on the winning entries of a journalism award sponsored by the Japan Federation of Newspaper Workers’ Unions.

The 16th Keiichiro Hikita Award, which recognizes articles that protect human rights and contribute to promoting trust in journalism, was awarded to a series of reports on the bullying and suicide problem at the private Kaisei High School in Nagasaki City by Yoichi Ishikawa, a reporter at Kyodo News Chiba branch. The review was conducted by a four-member committee of journalists. There were 24 submissions.

Accusations gleaned from superiors and colleagues

Kyodo News, cornered by its contradictions being exposed, has even begun to collect accusations against Ishikawa from his superiors and colleagues.

Below are some excerpts from the documents submitted by Kyodo News at the eighth trial.

・He doesn’t answer his cell phone and is slow to respond to messages. We didn’t know where he was or what he was doing, and it was difficult to give him instructions. So a few months later, we assigned him to the Judicial Press Club, which required little outside reporting.

 

・The number of articles published was less than half that of other reporters. An average is 10-13 articles per month, whereas Ishikawa only published an average of 5 articles per month.

 

・When a senior reporter asked Ishikawa, “What do you want to do in Chiba?”, he answered, “I don’t want to cover the administration or the prefectural police. I want to cover the atomic bombing and its victims. Chiba is not interesting. I want to go back to Nagasaki.” He lacked the awareness to fulfill his role at the Chiba branch office.

 

・Even if a call came in at the branch office, if there was someone else there, he did not answer the call. Sometimes the branch manager would answer instead.

 

・When a part-time employee handed a fax that had arrived at the branch office to Ishikawa, it was ignored.

 

・There was a lack of cooperativeness.

To support these claims, Kyodo News has filed a petition with the court to have Akira Matsumoto, Ishikawa’s superior when he worked at the Chiba branch, appear as a witness.

The plaintiff requested the then Fukuoka branch manager Makoto Taniguchi, who apologized to the Nagasaki Shimbun.

Kyodo News has also requested that its executive director, Takehiko Egashira, appear as a witness. In 2023, he was head of the General Affairs Bureau and issued the “notice” that revoked the approval for outside activities and prohibited reprinting. He was also the one who told Ishikawa that he would be stripped of his reporter position.

Since the executive director ranks higher than the head of the General Affairs Bureau, Egashira has been promoted. Kyodo News does not care about this series of problems.

Plaintiff Ishikawa also applied for two witnesses, one of whom was Ishikawa himself.

The other is Makoto Taniguchi.

Taniguchi, who was the head of the Fukuoka branch of Kyodo News at the time, visited the Nagasaki Shimbun headquarters the day after the book was released. Without even asking Ishikawa about the situation, he apologized, explaining that “The problematic description is Mr. Ishikawa’s personal assertion, and it does not align with Kyodo’s belief,” and “The Head Office’s General Affairs Bureau and Legal Affairs Bureau are considering responses.”

The witnesses will be selected at the next hearing, which will be held on Wednesday, April 23rd at 11:30 a.m. in Courtroom 611 of the Tokyo District Court.

[Reporter’s Postscript] If Kyodo News does not consider the bereaved family, it should go out of business as a news organization / Reporter Nanami Nakagawa

Kyodo News’s unreasonable claims are shocking. But there are some things that can’t be resolved by just being shocked.

They violate the dignity of the dead and cause even more suffering to the bereaved family.

The family of Hayato said in an interview with Tansa that “The Sanctuary of Bullying” is “entirely true, based on our experience.”

The reason the family is agreeing to be interviewed not just about their son but also about Ishikawa is because they have a strong wish to prevent anyone from becoming victims of bullying.

When the family learned that Ishikawa was being investigated by the company, they sent a letter to Ichiro Masamura, the branch chief of the Chiba branch where Ishikawa worked, in December 2022. As the bereaved family, they conveyed to him that the investigation was unreasonable. They also enclosed a clipping of an article from the Nagasaki Shimbun that protected the prefecture.

However, the investigation did not stop, so the following month, they submitted an opinion letter. It was a nine-page document written by the mother, Saori. She spread the documents on the table and floor of the living room and wrote it without sleeping on New Year’s Eve of 2022. Nonetheless, Kyodo News did not respond at all and instead punished Ishikawa.

Saori told Tansa in an interview:

“It all started with a child being bullied, but it turned into adults bullying other adults. It seems like the problem has shifted to adults bullying people who write the truth. I wonder why it has come to this.” 

In order to protect the organization, they made its own reporter in his 20s a “target of bullying.” The behavior of Kyodo News must have reminded the bereaved family of Kaisei High School.

On the seventh anniversary of Hayato’s death, Saori said to me:

“Ishikawa is a trustworthy reporter, so I usually rely on him, but he’s still young. Ishikawa was in his 20s when he was investigating Hayato’s case in Nagasaki, and Hayato would be in his 20s if he were alive today. The two of them are surprisingly close in age.”

In the eyes of the bereaved family, there may be a parallel between Hayato, who was bullied at school, and Ishikawa, who is bullied at work.

Nevertheless, Kyodo News is not relenting.

It has been more than two years since the family sent their letter to Kyodo News. Now they are ready to testify about Ishikawa’s “problems as a reporter” in a public trial.

If Kyodo News is so intent on protecting its own organization and not considering the bereaved family, it should go out of business as a news organization.

(Originally published in Japanese on April 15, 2025. Translation by Mana Shibata.)

Adults in the Student Suicide Case: All articles