I saw somewhere that The Journalist was coming out on Netflix. Decided to give it a go since my Netflix was going to run out soon. In the beginning it seemed like just another corruption cover up story with Yonekura Ryoko as the journalist.
Then details of the cover up started to sound very familiar. Prime minister's wife and a school land buyout? I could not believe my ears. This was based on the Moritomo Gakuen scandal involving former Prime Minister Abe Shinzo!
It got me bloody excited because this does not make The Journalist just a dorama, its a half documentary based on real life events. It also got me really sad because I know what happened to the scandal in real life. I was hoping that they would change a certain event but I knew it was not possible.
The Journalist has 3 other main characters besides Yonekura Ryoko. Yoshioka Hidetaka is the finance bureaucrat who is pressured to forge documents, Ayano Go is the secretary to the PM's wife who gets involved and Yokohama Ryusei is a newspaper delivery university student who never reads newspapers.
While part of my enjoyment was that The Journalist was based on reality, the other half was all the interesting things the series had to say about the attitude of many people not just the young about politics in Japan and how people have turned to the internet for news instead of newspapers and how it has created a situation of apathy and no desire to hold the government accountable.
I remember reading many articles about the Moritomo Gakuen scandal and wondering how anyone could get away with such obvious corruption and watching this series just made me so sad and angry.
The best compliment I can give The Journalist is that I kept looking at the top right of my screen looking for a WOWOW logo. I can't believe we already have a contender for best jdorama of 2022 and I have not even started on my best jdoramas of 2021 list yet!
Must watch. Get Netflix and support jdoramas. After years of pirating I am glad there is a way I can support jdoramas that does not include buying their every expensive dvds.