It is striking that while NHK and Nikkei are the two news brands with the highest trust levels in our survey, Asahi was the lowest of five major dailies including the very conservative Sankei Shimbun. In recent years, the liberal broadsheet has been criticised by politicians from both the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party and right-leaning media. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wrote on Facebook about Asahi’s reaction to an alleged error: ‘It’s pitiful. A miserable excuse just like Asahi. It’s all expected.’ On a different occasion, another conservative Diet member, Yasushi Adachi, tweeted: ‘Asahi, you shall die’, while right-leaning magazines publish headlines like ‘We have to shut down Asahi’. Further analysis shows that Asahi’s weaker trust is partly a result of high levels of distrust from these vocal and partisan critics on the right. After this year’s survey was conducted, Asahi published a series of exposes which rocked the government and slashed Prime Minister Abe’s approval rating. The impact is not reflected in this year’s survey.
