Why does Japan need USAID?
A middle finger “from the American people”
The scale of money laundering and corruption aided and abetted through USAID which DOGE has unveiled makes the Iran-Contra affair look like a boutique operation: The Reagan administration spent $35.8 million financing Iran-Contra ($101.5 million in 2025 dollars). USAID spent $476 million funding just one of its censorship operations. USAID’s motto is “From the American people.” But what exactly were the Japanese getting from the American people?
The below information is presented in context of Matt Taibbi’s statement to the House Judiciary Committee:
In his remarks, Taibbi said USAID funded an organization called Internews, whose chief claimed to have trained hundreds of thousands of people in journalism and said we have a need for “inclusion lists or exclusion lists” for favored news outlets.
Similarly, Michael Shellenberger claimed in his statement the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a network of journalists that purportedly specializes in exposing organized crime and corruption around the world, was funded and controlled by USAID to spread disinformation.
tl;dr: USAID funds were allegedly funneled to foreign and domestic news agencies to spread American propaganda and to corporations and NGOs to censor free speech, as the American government couldn’t legally do the latter directly. This operation apparently involved Japanese institutions, which one X-formerly-Twitter user has exposed.
The source of the following information comes from the X-formerly-Twitter account of Mamoru Kasai (@factcheckaomori). Going in, I’ll disclose the following:
I’m skeptical of all self-appointed “fact checkers”
This account displays a strong pro-Trump bias
I haven’t independently verified anything in his post
Having noted that, it’s incumbent on you, my dear and faithful readers, to take this information with a grain of salt, if not the entire salt shaker. I’ve decided to present it, however, because Kasai seems to be careful with facts, despite his obvious bias, and the information is plausible given what has recently come to light about USAID.
Among the entities Kasai lists as having ties to USAID are several government ministries, public and private institutions, dozens of media organizations, universities, NGOs, nonprofits and consulting firms.
The list of media organizations allegedly receiving USAID funds ranges from the left-leaning Asahi Shimbun to the right-leaning Yomiuri Shimbun and includes Kyodo News, the supposedly neutral news agency that is akin to the Japanese version of the Associated Press. Perhaps the most egregious media entity on the list is NHK, which is like Japan’s PBS, except instead of volunteering pledges, all TV owners are required to pay its “Receiving Fee” lest one of their collectors comes to your door and tries to shake it out of you, which has happened to me twice. (I was able to scare the first guy off, but the second guy was more aggressive. I gave him ~$20 to get rid of him, but received monthly bills after that, all of which ended up in the trash.) The Japanese rightfully resent being forced to pay for a shitty TV station that’s receiving funding from the U.S. to presumably push American propaganda. Hence, one of the hashtags Kasai includes in his post is #NHK受信料払いません (I won’t pay the NHK Receiving Fee).
USAID influence may explain this September 2020 broadcast, apparently from TV Asahi, in which the on-air personalities explore the purported circumstances in which unarmed African-Americans were killed, as highlighted by Naomi Osaka’s COVID-era face masks:
What are the chances USAID-funded1 TV Asahi’s interest in Black Lives Matter agitprop occurred organically?
One of the organizations linked to USAID is the Nippon Foundation, which in the 1990s helped to finance Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori’s forced sterilization of indigenous women.
I don’t intend to cast aspersions on the missions of every organization on this list. I know people who work at several of them, I’ve donated to one of them, and I’ve even received money from one of them (the Sasagawa Peace Foundation).2 But it is reasonable to ask, “Should the American taxpayer be subsidizing any Japanese organization?”
I’m old enough (barely) to remember a time when Americans feared Japanese economic dominance, a period tinged with a distinct brand of Yellow Peril tropes known as “Japan-bashing.” While the Japanese bubble burst 35 years ago, Japan is still a first-world country. How does it qualify for U.S. aid?
Why does BuzzFeed Japan or United Nations University need USAID funds? If USAID’s mission is to lead “the U.S. Government's international development and disaster assistance,” how does sending money to corporate news outlets or think tanks in a rich country achieve that end? Do the Japanese people want or need American aid? What can Japanese NGOs accomplish that the American government can’t?
You, intrepid reader, are probably aware by now these are rhetorical questions. As Taibbi’s and Shellenberger’s statements suggest, the “aid” in USAID was just a cover for deep-state shenanigans.
The exposure of the extent to which the U.S. was blasting the Japanese public with propaganda is generating ill-will toward American institutions. The Trump administration’s freeze on this imperialistic slush fund is a step in the right direction toward restoring American credibility in the world.
Allegedly, lawyers!
If all of you reading this would just subscribe and send me $10,000, I wouldn’t need to accept money from compromised sources, j/s.