Asahi Shimbun Publishing announced on November 1 that it will recall copies of a new book co-written by Tokyo Shimbun reporter Isoko Mochizuki and thinker Tatsuru Uchida, according to 産経ニュース. The publisher said it will ask bookstores and other retailers to cooperate in collecting the title starting November 2, with the work proceeding in stages.
The book, a dialogue between the two authors, was published in September under the title "常識なき世界を生き延びるために" (roughly, "To Survive in a World Without Common Sense"). It discusses Daiji Kawanaka, the high school student who founded the Nihon Chugakusei Shimbun, or Japan Junior High School Newspaper.
According to 産経ニュース, four errors appear in sections recording remarks by Mochizuki about Kawanaka. One passage states that Kawanaka was called "roi" — a term for older people seen as obstructive — by children around him. Another describes an episode in which a wall newspaper Kawanaka put up as an elementary school pupil was torn down by a teacher. The publisher has acknowledged these and other inaccuracies in the text.
The decision follows the publisher's confirmation that the book contains multiple factual mistakes, and an apology has been issued alongside the recall. 産経ニュース reports that the collection effort will begin the day after the announcement.
What to watch next: whether Asahi Shimbun Publishing issues a fuller account of how the errors entered the text, and whether corrected editions or further statements follow.
