Photo/Illutration The Asahi Shimbun’s Tokyo head office (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

The Asahi Shimbun received the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association award for a series of exclusives and related reports on the fund-raising scandal involving factions of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

“The reporting made a strong impact on society by delving into the structural relationships of politics and money from multi-faceted perspectives and consistently leading the way in unraveling the scandal,” the association said on Sept. 4 about the award for fiscal 2024.

The Asahi Shimbun broke the scandal with the top story on its front page of the morning edition on Dec. 1, 2023.

The article reported on suspicions that the LDP’s Abe faction kept proceeds from its fund-raising parties off the books for years and distributed them to member lawmakers.

It said more than 100 million yen ($690,000) apparently went unreported over the past five years and the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s Special Investigation Department was believed to be looking into the case.

Subsequent reports said then Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno and other senior officials of the Abe faction had received those unreported political funds.

The Asahi Shimbun described how the Abe faction, the largest in the LDP, created the system of doling out political funds to faction members beyond the reach of public scrutiny.

It also pointed out structural flaws of the Political Fund Control Law.

“The reporting played the role of a watchdog on those in power by having a significant influence on developments, such as the dismantling of LDP factions and the revisions to the Political Fund Control Law,” the association said in explaining the reasons for the award.

The Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association also presented the newspaper technology award to the integrated editing system that The Asahi Shimbun and The Hokkaido Shimbun Press developed with Fujitsu Ltd.

The system, nicknamed “marche,” allows reporters, editors and others to produce and distribute materials both for the print and digital editions of a newspaper.

It has been designed so that it can be adopted by other newspaper companies.

The association said it highly evaluates the system as a “technology to promote the digital transformation of the newspaper industry.”

The association’s reporting award for fiscal 2024 went to five other newspapers: The Chunichi Shimbun, The Hokkoku Shimbun, The Kobe Shimbun, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) and The Kyoto Shimbun.

In addition, The Nishinippon Shimbun received the newspaper management award for its project aimed at preventing dementia.

An awards ceremony will be held at the association’s annual National Newspaper Convention scheduled in Akita on Oct. 16.

Related News