Takuro Morinaga’s Cry of the Soul: “I’m not dead yet! Japanese stocks will crash soon!”

At the end of last year, when I announced my cancer, I was prepared to say, ‘I’ll probably die in the next week or so,’ but now I have a good appetite, and I have five regular radio programs that I appear on and 19 serialized articles.

Takuro Morinaga, 66, an economic analyst, announced at the end of December last year that he had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. As one would expect, he looked a bit gaunt, but once he began to speak, Morinaga’s “Morinaga-busu” was still alive and well.

When I underwent a physical examination last November, a shadow was found. After that, I went through several tests and was told that it was probably pancreatic cancer. My doctor also told me that I probably wouldn’t be able to see the cherry blossoms next year. But I was skeptical, so I even asked for a third opinion. After all, three professionals said the same thing, so I had to believe them. So, on the 27th of December, I was injected with an anticancer drug.

However, the drug did not suit him.

Until the day before, I was walking and talking normally, but two days after the anticancer drug, I couldn’t stand up, couldn’t eat, and couldn’t think. At that time, it was as if I could clearly see the Sanzu River.

During this period, Morinaga was working on his book, “Writing is Not Allowed: The True Story of Japan’s Economic Downfall” (Sangokan Shinsha), and had written nearly 90% of the book.

I was going to finish it,” he said, “but I couldn’t think straight and my hands wouldn’t move. I thought I was in trouble. But days later, I took another dose of medicine, and I felt dramatically better. So I could move my head and mouth. I recorded the rest of my speech in bed, and my second son, who is an IT technician, converted it into text, which was completed as a book.

I can’t die until I finish it.”

The book is a sequel to “Zaimu Shinrikyō,” published last year, in which he criticizes the media’s failure to report the truth because they are too discerning toward politicians, bureaucrats, and even entertainment professionals, and he reveals the reasons for this in a candid manner.

The first issue of the magazine was released on March 7. The president of the publisher said, ‘As expected, I was shaken’ because the first printing had a circulation of 40,000 copies (laughs), but the book has already been reprinted four times and now has 75,000 copies. (Laughs.) Doctors say that no one has ever died from eating the book (laughs). (Laughs.) On the other hand, if you lose hope for life, or a sense of mission, you will die. In other words, the moment you think, “Enough is enough,” that is the end. I couldn’t die because I had a strong desire to publish this book no matter what. When you have nothing in your heart, you tend to think, ‘I don’t care if I die already. So it’s better to have that kind of support.”

It’s costing me about a million yen a month.

Morinaga talks without showing any sign of fatigue immediately after finishing a live radio program. Incidentally, Morinaga’s cancer, which was considered pancreatic cancer when he first announced his diagnosis, has now been diagnosed as a cancer of unknown primary source.

Morinaga says, “I asked a lot of doctors, but they said they don’t know where the cancer is. However, if you have cancer of unknown primary, you can be given a cancer drug called Opdivo by insurance. There are different anti-cancer drugs for different types of cancer, such as stomach and pancreas, but in my case, I can’t take that because I don’t know where it is. I will be given Opdivo, which is effective for the whole body, and also immunotherapy, which is a treatment in which my blood is drained and my immune cells are cultured and put back in. I am going to have that treatment after this, but this treatment is not covered by insurance. So it is costing me about 1 million yen a month.”

It is typical of economists to talk about money so much. Still, he remains concerned about the Japanese economy.

If left unchecked, Japan will drop out of the top ten in the world GDP ranking within 10 years, and in about 30 years, it will be a completely developing country. For example, you invited a Taiwanese company TSMC to build a factory in Kumamoto. TSMC is also building a state-of-the-art plant in the US. TSMC is building a state-of-the-art plant in the U.S., and the one in Japan is a plant for general-purpose products. Without understanding the situation, the media and politicians are saying, “We are happy to have a semiconductor plant in Kumamoto. I think they are idiots!　I think.

According to Morinaga, now is definitely not the time to buy stocks.

Japanese stocks will crash again soon. That’s why I sold my stocks this month. Well, it will all disappear with the cost of my treatment (laughs). The new NISA?　You should never do that. The U.S. stock market is in the biggest bubble right now, and it will burst soon. Gambling is one thing, but putting money into retirement or living expenses is dangerous.

But there is still hope, he says.

I am sure there is a way to revive the economy. For that reason, I hope the media will have the courage to know the truth. These are the words of a man who has seen the “Sanzu River.

From the April 5 and 12, 2024 issue of FRIDAY