#106 政治部記者って何してるの？朝ポキでおなじみ “ふなさま”冨名腰隆さんに素朴な政治のギモンを聞いてみた

Guest Profile: Takanori Funakoshi

Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1977, Funakoshi joined Asahi Shimbun in 2000. After stints at the Shizuoka and Niigata bureaus, he moved to the political desk in 2005, where he covered the Prime Minister's Office, the LDP, Komeito, the Democratic Party of Japan, the Finance Ministry, and the Foreign Ministry. From 2012 to 2013 he studied at Tsinghua University in China, then served as Shanghai bureau chief in 2016. He spent 2018 to 2023 at the Beijing China bureau and, since returning to Japan, has worked successively as economics desk editor, political desk editor, and now international desk editor focused on China coverage. He co-hosts Asa-Poki and is known to its listeners as "Funa-sama."

A telling anecdote from his economics desk years: at a press conference held just before then-METI Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura resigned over the political slush-fund scandal, Funakoshi kept pressing questions alone while other reporters held back out of professional courtesy or long-running relationships. Host Kaori Toyama (富山香織) observed that political reporters are wired differently—they ask the hard question regardless of history with the subject, and they carry that as a point of professional pride.

A Political Reporter's Day: The Morning Round

The day begins with the asa-mawari (朝回り)—showing up outside a politician's home before dawn and intercepting them on the way to work. The decisive window is roughly three metres, the distance from the front door to the waiting car. With reporters from multiple outlets converging on the same doorstep, who speaks first matters. Funakoshi's preferred opener is: "Is there anything you'd like to say today?" He has used it consistently with both senior and junior politicians throughout his career.

Not every reporter who arrives has a substantive question. Many come purely on defense: to watch what rivals are asking and to avoid being caught flat-footed if something breaks on the spot. Information can surface at the morning round before the Chief Cabinet Secretary announces it at the official press conference, so absence carries real professional risk.

When the Diet is in session, mornings become even more compressed. LDP party-division and study meetings begin at 8 a.m. and Diet committees open at 9 a.m. Lawmakers who represent constituencies outside Tokyo typically arrive Monday and return home Friday evening, meaning their Tokyo schedules are densely packed from first light.

The "Wall-Ear" Technique and Its Disappearance

For years a fixture of LDP coverage was the kabe-mimi (壁耳), literally "wall-ear"—pressing an ear against the door of a closed committee room to catch what members were saying inside. Doors leaked sound at different heights, so reporters would crouch or stoop to find the best spot, ready to straighten up the moment they sensed movement on the other side.

Funakoshi is careful to distinguish this from simple eavesdropping. There was often a tacit collaboration at work: a member who wanted constituents to know a dissenting view—but was unwilling to say so on camera—would deliberately raise his voice toward the door. Both sides gained something, making it a genuine win-win.

Around 2014–15 LDP staff began placing barriers to keep reporters at a distance, and COVID applied the final pressure. The practice is now virtually extinct. What remains is a negotiated rule: human ears against a door are permitted, but IC recorders and smartphones are not. Funakoshi says he continues to tell LDP staff directly that restricting these informal channels has cost the party something worth preserving.

Moving Into the Office: Funakoshi's Embedded Approach

The method Funakoshi has developed over the years is straightforward in concept: borrow desk space in a Diet member's office and work from there. He describes it as the natural result of always looking for the most efficient way to operate—by being physically present, information arrives without effort and the people he wants to speak with come to him. When a meeting takes the room back, he moves to another office; he kept arrangements with several at once.

The foundation is the relationship with the secretaries. Funakoshi treats the office as the secretary's domain, and he invests equal attention in every staff member—from the senior chief secretary to the person who picks up the phone. Host Toyama described him, from a rival-newsroom perspective, as "the most dangerous type of reporter."

The Political Route Into Economic Ministries

Toyama covered the Finance Ministry as an economics reporter at the same period Funakoshi was on the political beat; they shared the same press club. She recalls realizing only after leaving the assignment that the broad direction of budgets and tax policy is set by politicians, not officials—and that the political route often delivered that news faster. She recounted the insight with a self-deprecating laugh.

Funakoshi confirmed the advantage from his own experience. During his time covering the Finance Ministry, he maintained one-on-one morning access to the serving Finance Minister and was sometimes able to work from a rest area inside the ministerial suite. Officials who came in were not always aware a reporter was present, which occasionally produced informal intelligence. Long-standing personal trust with politicians, Toyama concluded, is what gives the best political reporters both depth and speed that other desks cannot match.