<figure id="attachment_381358" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-381358"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8b52ce72"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/5d758bb61ea629bc4fa7530343ae7bbb.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-381358" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Suzuki, who participated in the interview, had featured Shinzo Abe&#8217;s political strategy for his comeback as the Liberal Democratic Party&#8217;s leader in Monthly Bungei Shunju just before the 2012 change of government.</span></figcaption></figure>
<p><b>&#8220;When I was a fledgling editor, I was taught that &#8216;99% of scoops are leaks.&#8217; I did cover scandals involving money and women, but I found that &#8216;acquiring scoops&#8217; merely involved bringing someone down from their position, which felt somewhat unsatisfying. I wondered if there might be a different approach and eventually arrived at &#8216;creating scoops&#8217; by reporting on the voices behind political movements, such as the establishment of new parties or changes in government, ahead of the curve.”</b><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hirotsugu Suzuki (64), who served as the editor-in-chief of Weekly Bunshun from 2004 for four years, was a distinctive editor focused on pursuing &#8220;policy proposal scoops&#8221; from key politicians in the government.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the book Bungei Shunju and Political Strategy (Kodansha), published on July 3, the detailed account of how Suzuki navigated relationships with prominent politicians is thoroughly documented.</span></p>
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<p><b>&#8220;Unlike newspaper reporters, magazine journalists and editors do not have a beat system, which means we cannot stick with a subject for an extended period. However, this also has its advantages; for instance, without the compartmentalized thinking typical of news organizations, we could leverage information from economic coverage and present it to politicians.” </b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the Hashimoto Ryutaro administration of 1996, the office of the late Seiroku Kajiyama, who served as Chief Cabinet Secretary, was frequented by ace reporters who later became prominent news anchors and political commentators, such as Ken Saito (62) from NHK and Shiro Tasaki (74) from Jiji Press.</span></p>
<p><b>&#8220;I pondered how to gather information from Kajiyama-san that could rival what these top reporters were obtaining. Kajiyama was a politician with strong views on financial policy. At that time, I had discovered through my reporting that hidden bad debts, estimated at 100 trillion yen, were undermining financial institutions. I thought of proposing economic policy suggestions to Kajiyama-san. Consequently, I decided to deliver a report to his secretary every Friday.”</b></p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="A Scoop Running Alone Comes to Fruition"></div>
<h2><b>Exclusive Scoop Comes to Fruition</b></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In 1997, the collapse of Yamaichi Securities and Hokkaido Takushoku Bank revealed massive hidden bad debts, which had been concealed by the Ministry of Finance (then) and banks, plunging Japan into an unprecedented financial crisis.</span></p>
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<p><b>&#8220;In such a situation, I was commissioned to write an article titled &#8216;Seiroku Kajiyama&#8217;s Emergency Proposal: A Scenario for Revitalizing the Japanese Economy,&#8217; which appeared in the December 4, 1997 issue of Weekly Bunshun, spanning ten pages at the beginning of the magazine. This issue sold 710,000 copies and was sold out, and, unusually, newspapers and television followed up with additional coverage.” </b></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The moment when the &#8220;created scoop&#8221; that gained Kajiyama’s trust came to fruition was a significant achievement.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Having retired from Bungei Shunju in June this year, Suzuki has established a small think tank. Key figures from the political and business worlds visit it day and night.</span></p>
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<p><b>&#8220;Being able to create articles while figures like Kajiyama, Morihiro Hosokawa, Naoto Kan, Shinzo Abe, and Yoshihide Suga were at the heart of political movements has been a great honor for me as an editor.&#8221;</b></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">A quarter-century ago, Kajiyama warned Suzuki that Japan was on the brink of becoming a declining nation. To prevent this prophecy from coming true, Suzuki continues to make policy recommendations.</span></p>
<div class="expapp-no-provided-scope expapp-no-provided-scope-start"></div>
<figure id="attachment_381361" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 1765px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-381361"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="1e64cb79"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/9c2af0fb37b7bcb9e1075f05a05f6c6f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-381361" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The book Bungei Shunju and Political Strategy (Kodansha), published on July 3, provides a detailed account of how Suzuki navigated relationships with renowned politicians.</span></figcaption></figure>
<p style="text-align: left;">Click here to purchase &#8220;Bungei Shunju to Seikyosei Keikaku&#8221; (Literary Shunju and the Idea of Government) ( <a href="https://amzn.to/3XPMTpQ">Kodansha)</a>.</p>
<div class="expapp-no-provided-scope expapp-no-provided-scope-end"></div>
<figure id="attachment_381359" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-381359"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f6862202"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/4ad435b0117f206eb4108477f55c49aa.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-381359" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Exclusive Unpublished Material: Former Weekly Bunshun Editor-in-Chief Hirotsugu Suzuki Reveals the Behind the Scenes of Nagata-cho Reporting,“Scoops Are Not Something You Obtain, But Something You Create.”</span></figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_381360" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 2500px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-381360"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5938f9ab"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/07/7f13383506eff68eac143ef3e7199fea.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-381360" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Exclusive Unpublished Material: Former Weekly Bunshun Editor-in-Chief Hirotsugu Suzuki Reveals the Behind the Scenes of Nagata-cho Reporting “Scoops Are Not Something You Obtain, But Something You Create.”</span></figcaption></figure>
<p>From the July 19, 2024 issue of FRIDAY</p>
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 Shinji Hamasaki

 Mr. Hirotsugu Suzuki, who served as editor-in-chief of "Shukan Bunshun" for four years, is a unique editor who has continued to seek "scoops on policy proposals. How did Mr. Suzuki deal with famous politicians? He reveals the "behind-the-scenes" of his coverage of Nagatacho.

Former Weekly Bunshun Editor-in-Chief Hirotsugu Suzuki Unveils Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Nagata-cho Scoops

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