Kyodo News will replace the heads of its editorial bureau and news center on Jan. 16 over its erroneous report that Akiko Ikuina, a House of Councilors lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visited Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine on Aug. 15, 2022, the 77th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.
The news agency said Thursday that it took disciplinary action against Naoto Takahashi, the editorial bureau head, and five other staff members Wednesday.
On the war-end anniversary two years ago, Kyodo reported that Ikuina visited Yasukuni Shrine that day based on unconfirmed information. The shrine honors Class-A war criminals along with the war dead and is regarded as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism by its neighboring countries.
The report is believed to have prompted the South Korean government delegation to skip a memorial service for all gold miners including Koreans on Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture in November, which Ikuina, currently parliamentary vice foreign minister, attended as a representative of the Japanese government. The report was discovered to be false after the event.
According to Kyodo, Takahashi, who was the head of the news center in 2022, also received a pay cut, and current news center head Shiro Yamane, then-head of the political news department, was suspended from work for three days.
The remaining four workers, including the then-deputy head of the political news department who checked the article in question and a reporter who wrote it, were reprimanded.
President Toru Mizutani and senior director Toshiro Obuchi will return 10% of their executive salaries for three months.