Media Diary for Friday, April 4
On the 4th, South Korea's Constitutional Court unanimously ruled to remove President Yoon Suk-yeol (64) from office following his impeachment over the 'emergency martial law' declaration last December. The eight judges, consisting of four women and four men, pointed out that the illegality was grave, stating that the martial law declaration 'denied democracy and ignored the Constitution.' Yoon Suk-yeol has lost his position immediately, and a presidential election will be held within 60 days. June 3 is considered the most likely date for the vote. Public opinion and the divide between the ruling and opposition parties have deepened over the martial law issue, and it remains unclear whether the social unrest will subside.
Regarding the issues surrounding Masahiro Nakai's troubles, Ryo Ota, president of Kansai Television (Kantele) and former senior managing director at Fuji TV, announced his resignation on the 4th. Despite having received reports about the 'Nakai incident,' Ryo Ota was one of the three individuals responsible for allowing Masahiro Nakai's variety show to continue.
It has become clear that Kansai Television is suffering a major blow to its management due to the impact of the series of issues. According to Kantele, there are currently 63 companies known to have suspended their commercial advertisements. For the January-March quarter of this year, the company ultimately saw a revenue decline of approximately 300 million yen compared to the previous year. Furthermore, a grim outlook was presented for the month of April alone, with sales at about 70 percent of the previous year's level, representing a revenue loss of approximately 900 million yen.
The disclosure of documents related to the sale of state-owned land to Moritomo Gakuen began on the afternoon of the 4th. According to the Ministry of Finance, there are over 170,000 pages of related documents in both paper and electronic format, and about 2,000 pages were disclosed on this day. Attention is focused on whether the remaining mysteries will be clarified. On this day, at around 1:00 PM at the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo, the documents were handed over to Masako Akagi and her attorney. She reportedly placed a portion of the disclosed documents into a bag that was a keepsake of her late husband, Toshio Akagi. Due to the large volume, the section concerning Toshio Akagi's falsification of official documents is expected to be released in June.
Following the third-party committee's conclusion that the handling of the whistleblower in the case of the allegations against Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito was 'illegal,' Eiichi Ueno, secretary-general of the 'Hyogo Prefectural Citizens' Union'—composed of prefectural assembly members from the Constitutional Democratic Party—indicated on the 4th that they are considering the submission of a no-confidence motion against Saito. He told reporters, 'Ignoring the law is unacceptable, and we demand his resignation.' There is a strong view that Liberal Democratic Party prefectural assembly members are reluctant to submit a no-confidence motion against the governor.