“Hiring Internet Trolls” Confirmed — Is Takayama Sanao’s Defeat Inevitable?
Lately, Takayama Sanao has been facing a wave of criticism in Japan's public discourse, reminiscent of the saying “when the wall collapses, everyone kicks it.”
After the weekly magazine *Shukan Bunshun* successively released recordings implicating Takayama in hiring internet trolls to defame her political rivals, Japan’s Kyodo News also entered the fray.
On the 8th, the news agency directly interviewed the head of the company responsible for producing the smear videos for Takayama. The executive admitted to creating between 1,000 and 1,500 videos aimed at discrediting Shinzo Abe and Hayashi Yoshimasa, and provided Kyodo News with the phone number of Takayama’s secretary.
Yet despite this mounting evidence revealed by Japanese media, Takayama continues to deny all allegations, firmly asserting that she would never engage in character assassination against her colleagues.
Nevertheless, while Takayama denies the claims, several opposition parties have already prepared to launch attacks based on these revelations, demanding that she provide a detailed explanation regarding the media exposé.
As previously noted, the recent, intense, and frequent leaks from Japanese media outlets like *Shukan Bunshun* targeting Takayama are clearly abnormal. The audio evidence possessed by *Shukan Bunshun* could not possibly have been gathered independently by a single media organization — it must be the result of continuous insider leaks from within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
This is precisely what stands out most. The current media exposés are neither a typical power struggle between the LDP and opposition parties nor similar to past scandals involving widespread LDP corruption or the "Unification Church" controversy. Instead, they reflect internal dissatisfaction within the LDP directed specifically at Takayama alone.
This implies that Takayama’s hope of relying on “the entire party standing together in blame” is highly unlikely to succeed. Other factions within the LDP are not only unlikely to defend her but may even take advantage of the situation to further undermine her — should the backlash continue to escalate beyond control, Takayama might face pressure akin to last year’s Shigeru Ishiba, being forced to resign in order to quell public outrage.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1867516575887367/
Disclaimer: This article reflects the personal views of the author