Will journalists in Japan who report on three sensitive topics - such as what is known as "Johnny's entertainment scandal," the Ministry of Finance's issues, and the 1985 JAL 123 plane crash - be assassinated? No, that's not true: Media outlets confidently continue to report on these issues without fear of assassination, as no journalist has been targeted or killed for covering any of these topics in the news.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here) which was published by user @hdyn_k on February 8, 2024. The video features Takuro Morinaga, a Japanese television personality (or tarento), who is a professor of economics at Dokkyo University in Saitama Prefecture. He states, as translated from Japanese into English by Lead Stories staff, that mentioning these three "taboos" in Japanese media will immediately result in the journalist's assassination:
There are three 'taboos' [in Japanese media], and mentioning these three 'taboos' will immediately get you killed. This involves the Johnny scandal, the Ministry of Finance problems, and the August 1985 JAL 123 crash. If you talk about any of this, you will immediately get killed, and there have been incidents of this happening.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Feb 16 21:35:07 2024 UTC)
Despite the TikTok claim, media outlets in Japan continue to address the three alleged "taboos" mentioned by Morinaga without facing any threats of assassination. The ongoing coverage of "Johnny's scandal," a case of sexual harassment involving the founder of Japan's premier entertainment company (archived here and here) Johnny Kitagawa (archived here), is evidence of this. Additionally, the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan's widely circulated right-wing newspaper, maintains a dedicated section providing updates on the timeline of events related to Johnny's scandal (archived here). Regarding reports on the alleged issues within the Ministry of Finance, while there are no scandals or controversies surrounding the department, criticism has frequently been voiced (archived here and here), with no reports of any journalist or columnist facing harm as a result.
During the Moritomo School Ministry of Finance document falsification scandal in 2017 (archived here), numerous major media outlets (archived here, and here) extensively covered funds being misappropriated from the Treasury to finance the construction of Moritomo School. Additionally, the 1985 JAL 123 crash has been extensively covered (archived here and here), and to date, none of the individuals reporting on the incident have been reported deceased. A Google search conducted by Lead Stories staff on February 19, 2024, (archived here) using the following keywords: "japan journalist killed AND 'JAL 123 crash' OR 'Moritomo School OR 'Johnny's scandal'" did not return any result that could corroborate the claim.
