Takashi Uesugi’s Shoddy & Biased Fukushima Reporting?

Takashi Uesugi’s Shoddy & Biased Fukushima Reporting?

by James

If you follow the media scene in Japan, you’ve probably heard of Takashi Uesugi, a famous freelance reporter who is extremely critical of the country’s mainstream media.
Since last year, Uesugi has harshly attacked domestic mainstream media coverage of the Fukushima disaster. Foreign reporters seem to really like interviewing him, possibly because he tells them what they want to hear: that the international media is doing a better job than the Japanese media. The Japanese public are “brainwashed” sheep who believe everything the government and the corrupt domestic media tell them. The only big publications that dare report the truth are foreign publications…etc, etc.
Uesugi’s claims are often printed in the international media without any critical analysis or fact-checking. This is a shame, because Japanese netizens have exposed some of his statements to be totally false. Several examples can be found on a Wiki site devoted to scrutizing Uesugi’s statements about Fukushima.