Takashi Uesugi

Takashi Uesugi (上杉 隆 Uesugi Takashi, born May 3, 1968), is a Japanese freelance journalist and former research assistant for the New York Times, born in Fukuoka Prefecture and raised in Tokyo. He is also former aide to Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Kunio Hatoyama, and author of numerous books, most recently The Collapse of Journalism (ジャーナリズム崩壊). He also wrote a book about the first Abe administration, Kantei Hokai (官邸崩壊), published in August 2007.[1]

Career

Uesugi graduated from the Department of English Literature at Tsuru University. He claims he got an offer letter from Japan's national broadcasting company NHK.[2] He, however, failed to graduate college. NHK withdrew the employment offer.[3] He also said NHK had hired him,[4] and worked as a reviewer for NHK[5] in the other opportunity. Uesugi wrote NHK protested that he had never worked for NHK in his blog.[6] From age 26, he claims to have worked for 5 years as a secretary for Kunio Hatoyama before quitting this job to become an intern[7][8] for the Tokyo branch office of the New York Times for three months.

Controversy

He is one of the loudest critics in Japan of Tokyo Electric Power Company's handling of the Fukushima I nuclear accidents.[9] In March 2012, he fabricated a story in the daily paper Yukan Fuji that two cities in Fukushima had been deemed unlivable, based on fake Wall Street Journal journalists' comments. Yukan Fuji retracted the article later that day and printed a correction in its following edition.[10] He refused to apologize for this.[11]

On Twitter, he is responsible for spreading a false rumor the Shintaro Ishihara was a stockholder in TEPCO[12] and for starting the false rumor that Asahi Shinbun journalists were prohibited from using Twitter,[13] which was ironically refuted by an Asahi journalist using Twitter.[14] Twitter users frequently criticize him for spreading false information.[15]

Uesugi was a vociferous critic of Japan's Kisha club system and the Japanese mass media.[16] In October 2012, it was discovered that one of his books plagiarized mass media news articles.[17] On October 15, 2012, he released the official statement to replace his past words: "Japanese mainstream media had never reported it in March and April after Japan earthquake 2011." into "A part of Japanese mainstream media reported it. However, they didn't keep readers and audiences well-updated." retroactively.[18] He is also extremely critical of Wikipedia.[19]

References

  1. ↑ Etoh, Tase & Uesugi, "Fukuda Administration Prospects", Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, October 3, 2007.
  2. ↑ Takashi Uesugi Interview by Yasumi Iwakami (1:01:15~1:09:12), July 14, 2010.
  3. ↑ 『官邸崩壊』著者・上杉隆氏の”経歴崩壊”, Shukan Gendai, October 13, 2007.
  4. ↑ Tokyo MX TV "5ji ni muchu!", January 23, 2010.
  5. ↑ Business Media Makoto, July 15, 2009.
  6. ↑ 東京脱力新聞2.0(webarchive), June 27, 2006.
  7. ↑ Conversation: Michael Anti x Takashi Uesugi, g2, December 4, 2010.
  8. ↑ Takashi Uesugi interview by Tomohiro Machiyama, March 14, 2012.
  9. ↑ Takashi Uesugi: The Interview, April 1, 2011.
  10. ↑ http://togetter.com/li/387220
  11. ↑ http://togetter.com/li/390386
  12. ↑ His sarcastic apology for this incident
  13. ↑ Uesugi, Takashi. Mogi, Kenichiro. "「ミドルメディア」で日本の言論界が変わる（１）", Voice, April 18, 2012.
  14. ↑ https://twitter.com/itami_k/status/192875318472744960
  15. ↑ http://matome.naver.jp/odai/2130824393966861801
  16. ↑ "Japan's Most Exclusive Clubs", December 12, 2008.
  17. ↑ Agora Public Forum
  18. ↑ 【上杉隆事務所よりおしらせ】, October 15, 2012.
  19. ↑ https://twitter.com/uesugitakashi/status/7495582429

External links

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