Japan must look into the suspicious fall of journalist investigating links between Prime Minister and mafia
News

August 28, 2018

RSF calls on Japanese authorities to shed light on the suspicious fall of a journalist, who is known for his investigation in the supposed links between the prime minister and the mafia, that caused him to be hospitalized.

Shunsuke Yamaoka, 59, founder of the Japanese-language investigation website Access Journal, was left unconscious on August 7th after a 20-step fall that gave him a fractured shoulder and 20 stitches in the forehead in the stairs of Tokyo's Shinjuku subway station. The incident costed Yamaoka a day in the hospital and more than a month of recovery. The journalist is convinced that his fall was not accidental.

The independent journalist, who investigated possible links between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Japanese mafia, claims that he has received numerous threatening letters and faced an attempted fire at his house over the past years. According to Yamaoka, the police refused to launch an investigation as "there is no surveillance camera covering the area" of the incident.



"Considering the subject that the journalist was covering, such an unnatural fall merits a serious investigation, which is clearly not being done right now" said Cedric Alviani, director of the East Asia office of Reporters Without Borders ( RSF). Alviani calls on the Shinjuku Police Station "to peel all the surveillance videos in the surrounding area, to call for witnesses to clear up the fall and to look into all the threats that the journalist received."

Since Nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe came to power in 2012, Japanese journalists have complained of a general climate of mistrust and hostility towards them, especially when they are dealing with the government.

Japan ranks 67th out of 180 in the Press Freedom Index 2018 established by RSF.

http://www.mynewsjapan.com/reports/2413

8月7日夜9時ごろ、新宿駅東口のアルタスタジオ横の階段から、ジャーナリストの山岡俊介氏が転落し、重傷を負った。
14段下の踊り場まで一気に転がり落ち、通行人が見つけて救急車を呼び東京女子医大に搬送。右肩骨折、頭部7針を縫い、右膝は腫れ上がり、8月27日現在もまだ回復していない。