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# Shadows of Postwar Japan: The Secret Struggle Between Yomiuri Group and CIA --- ## Prologue: Power Vacuum in the Ruins In 1945, Tokyo lay in ashes. When the **GHQ** (General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) began occupying Japan, a fierce game to fill the power vacuum began quietly. --- ## Matsutaro Shoriki: The Man **Matsutaro Shoriki**—a former Interior Ministry police bureaucrat deeply involved in post-Great Kanto Earthquake atrocities, who later acquired and transformed Yomiuri Newspaper into a massive media empire. After the war's end, he was imprisoned in Sugamo Prison as an A-Class war crimes suspect. Yet something strange occurred. > The man who should have disappeared inexplicably returned to power. When CIA classified documents were later declassified, a shocking truth emerged. **Shoriki had been assigned a CIA codename**—**"PODAM"** and **"POJACPOT-1"**. In other words, Shoriki was registered as a **cooperating agent** with the U.S. intelligence service. --- ## GHQ and the Structure of Media Control GHQ positioned the management and manipulation of Japanese public opinion as the highest priority in its occupation policy. - Suppress the rise of leftism and communism - Embed pro-American and anti-Soviet consciousness in Japanese society - Guide rearmament and nuclear weapons discourse (in certain directions) For these purposes, **control of mass media** was essential. Shoriki was an ideal figure for GHQ. ✔ Anti-communist ideologue ✔ Master of massive media conglomerate ✔ Created a "debt" through war crimes acquittal ✔ Strong political ambitions, easily amenable to dealing Released from Sugamo, Shoriki regained control of **Yomiuri Newspaper**, founded Nippon Television, introduced professional baseball, and successively dominated Japan's popular culture and media landscape. --- ## Television and Nuclear Power—Another Codename Particularly noteworthy is **nuclear policy**. The **"Atoms for Peace"** policy promoted by CIA and the Eisenhower administration—a strategy to introduce nuclear power to Japan in the guise of "peaceful use" while anti-American sentiment rose amid nuclear terror. Shoriki became the **Japanese-side liaison** for this policy. - Massive newspaper campaigns for "peaceful" nuclear applications in Yomiuri Newspaper columns - Public opinion guidance through Nippon Television - Later appointed **first Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission** and **Director-General of the Science and Technology Agency** At this point, Matsutaro Shoriki had become more than a media mogul—he was the figure who **shaped Japan's nuclear policy itself**. --- ## Nabetsune—Inheriting the Structure **Tsuneo Watanabe (Nabetsune)**. Reigning as the absolute master of the Yomiuri Group, this figure inherited Shoriki's legacy and maintained the Yomiuri power structure into the 21st century. Why did Nabetsune, who belonged to Communist Party cells while at Tokyo University, become a core figure on the conservative-power establishment side?—the process of this transformation also relates to postwar Japan's power structures. Nabetsune has half-publicly declared in his writings and statements that Yomiuri is positioned within the **"triangular power structure"** of politics, finance, and media. > "I am no mere newspaperman." As this statement indicates, the **Yomiuri Group** functioned not merely as a media enterprise, but as a **power apparatus** deeply involved in postwar Japan's political decision-making. --- ## The Complete Structure ``` GHQ / CIA ↓ (occupation policy, Cold War strategy) Matsutaro Shoriki (codename: PODAM) ↓ Yomiuri Newspaper, Nippon Television, nuclear policy ↓ Public opinion formation, anti-communism, pro-Americanism, nuclear acceptance ↓ Structure inherited and strengthened by Nabetsune ↓ 21st-century Japanese media and political space ``` --- ## Epilogue: Questions to be Asked These facts are not conspiracy theories but are substantiated by **declassified CIA documents**, investigative journalism by journalists and Asahi Newspaper reporters, Chalmers Johnson, Japan scholar **Tim Weiner**, and academic research. The questions we must ask are: - What constitutes "independent media"? - How far does the structure formed during the occupation period continue into the present? - How much **designed intent** is embedded within the opinions and values we think formed naturally? Postwar Japan's "freedom" and "democracy" were, at least partially, **designed by men bearing codenames**. --- *References: Kanji Okada and Tetsuo Arima's "CIA and Postwar Japan"; Tim Weiner's "Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA"; etc.*

Postwar Japan's situation is characterized by various political, economic, and cultural transformations. These transformations were significantly influenced by the Yomiuri Group and its founder Matsutaro Shoriki, who possessed considerable influence in the media world. Shoriki transitioned from a prewar police bureaucrat to a postwar media mogul, and his activities are said to have been related to the CIA, the American intelligence agency. Matsutaro Shoriki expanded Yomiuri Newspaper in the postwar chaos and also ventured into new media including radio and television. His background is often noted to involve relationships with GHQ (General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers), and he played a major role in postwar Japan's media policy. Shoriki's "codename" is known in CIA documents as "PODAM," suggesting the possibility that he operated under American influence. Moreover, Tsuneo Watanabe (Nabetsune), who later became the top of the Yomiuri Newspaper Group, cannot be overlooked in the development of Yomiuri Newspaper. He wielded significant political influence while leading the Yomiuri News Group. Nabetsune is often portrayed as a Japanese "fixer," and his political acumen and power to shape public opinion through media are said to have been deeply involved in postwar Japan's political structure. These elements clearly demonstrate postwar Japan's democratization, American influence under the Cold War, and the connection between media and politics within Japan. Individuals such as Matsutaro Shoriki and Nabetsune, and the Yomiuri Group they led, played important roles in the exercise of American soft power in postwar Japan and the reorganization of domestic politics.

During postwar Japan's turbulent period, under GHQ (General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) occupation, as a new national vision was sought, Matsutaro Shoriki, founder of the Yomiuri Group, played an extremely crucial role in determining Japan's subsequent direction. Before the war, as an Interior Ministry bureaucrat and manager of Yomiuri Newspaper, Shoriki dominated the media world. After defeat, he was detained by GHQ as an A-Class war crimes suspect. However, as the Cold War intensified and GHQ policy underwent a "reverse course," with the need to establish an anti-communist stronghold becoming urgent, Shoriki was released early, and his public office purge was also lifted. Released Shoriki became a steadfast anti-communist and clearly pro-American, becoming a major cooperating partner with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which sought to keep postwar Japan within the Western camp during the Cold War. He was called by various **codenames** such as "POLESTAR" or "PODAL," receiving CIA funding while becoming deeply involved in Japanese public opinion formation and political operations. The **Yomiuri Group** led by Shoriki, leveraging its massive media power, became a tool to forcefully advance anti-communism, pro-American policy, and nuclear development (he was also called "Father of Nuclear Power")—all policies of his choosing. Beyond Yomiuri Newspaper alone, through diversified media operations including the establishment of Nippon Television, Shoriki's ideology permeated widely among the Japanese public. This course established by **Matsutaro Shoriki** was deeply inherited by **Nabetsune**, known as Tsuneo Watanabe, who later dominated as the top of the Yomiuri Group. Nabetsune inherited Shoriki's ideology, maintaining a pro-American conservative stance while wielding tremendous influence over Japan's opinion circles and political world. Even in his era, the Yomiuri Group was frequently described as "the media closest to power," and the source of this influence traced back to the special structure of postwar Japanese history rooted in the relationship between Shoriki and the CIA under GHQ occupation. Thus, emerging from the requirements of the Cold War era born from GHQ occupation policy, Matsutaro Shoriki became closely bound with the **CIA** and, based at the **Yomiuri Group**, formed Japan's media, politics, and public opinion. This influence was inherited by **Nabetsune**, casting a long and deep shadow over postwar Japan's conservative system and the nature of its media.