Certainly it's worse in China, South Korean security recently beat demonstrators and Spain faces a blanket gag rule, but are concerns about the anti-democratic forces of darkness in Japan unduly alarmist? How bad can it be if protestors in Hibiya Park can carry placards depicting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as Adolf Hitler?
Bad enough, alas. New York Times Tokyo bureau chief Martin Fackler, among others, recently implicated Team Abe in getting Shigeaki Koga, a prominent Abe critic, axed from Asahi TV's "Hodo Station" program.
"I am afraid that media organizations' self-restraint is spreading and, as a result, accurate information is not reaching the public," Koga said at a press conference, claiming he was the victim of a political vendetta and corporate media timidity.