As a child, Ms. Mochizuki aspired to become an actress. But after graduating from college with a degree in politics, she applied for jobs at a number of national broadsheet newspapers.
None offered her a job, but she secured a rookie slot at The Tokyo Shimbun and was sent to a rural bureau to cover the police. She rose quickly, landing a prestigious post covering the Tokyo district prosecutors’ office.
To get stories, she sometimes slept in a black town car parked outside the home of the lead prosecutor, the meter running as she waited for him to emerge for a morning walk. When her editors saw the car service bills, they moved her off the beat.
Eventually, she worked her way back to the metro desk. After she gave birth to her two children, she moved to the business desk, where she wrote several exposés about Japanese companies exporting military equipment.
She first came to national prominence two years ago, when she started showing up at Mr. Suga’s news conferences to ask detailed questions about a trove of documents related to an influence-peddling scandal involving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Because another newspaper ultimately got hold of the leaked documents, some of Ms. Mochizuki’s critics in the press corps — none of whom would speak on the record — suggested that she had failed to get results and that her questioning amounted to theatrics.
Other journalists, speaking more generally, criticized Ms. Mochizuki’s style of questioning.
“Our feeling is just that we hope that she should regulate or restrict herself a bit more,” said Shiro Tazaki, a retired reporter from Jiji Press, a wire service. “In order to maintain this great system, we have to keep in mind the importance of not repeating the same questions.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/05/world/asia/japan-media.html?emc=rss&partner=rss
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.