The Fear Speech of Shimanaka Hoji

Shimanaka hoji addressed the assembled staff of chuo koron and gave what has been retroactively labelled the fear speech. The apology was, in a word, the abandonment of a long tradition of main stream magazines speaking truth to power in Japan. Later that year, the japanese press unanimously condemned the lese magiste law which would have made insulting the imperial family a crime. That condemnation also included language about the papers, in essence, promising to self censor.