Cross-border investigative journalism from Japan

Dear all,

This is Makoto Watanabe, Editor-in-Chief of Tansa.

My investigative reporting series, "The Missing Nuclear Scientists," has been published by Iwanami Shoten, an influential publisher in Japan with a 110-year history. It has been selling well, and a series of media outlets have written reviews.

In 1972, a Japanese plutonium nuclear scientist named Tatsuya Takemura disappeared. He was a cutting-edge nuclear scientist in Japan. He had worked at the National Argonne Laboratory in the United States. My investigation reveals that North Korea is suspected of abducting him. I postulate that North Korea abducted him to develop nuclear weapons. The Japanese government has covered up his disappearance for many years.

Moreover, it has come to light that a nuclear power plant engineer and an engineer for missile equipment were also likely to be abducted from Japan to North Korea.

My coverage includes not only the Japanese government, police, and nuclear scientists but also North and South Korea and the United States. I have spent 12 years on my interviews.

The political circumstance for North Korea has been always shifting. The upcoming US presidential election may change North Korea's diplomatic strategy, which will hopefully allow me to obtain information about Japanese abductions and North Korea's nuclear weapons development.

I would like to continue my investigative reporting and conduct more international investigation. I would very much appreciate your donation to cover the cost of my coverage.

Thank you for your continued support.

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Tansa has achieved new results with "Uploaded and Re-Uploaded" which began a series in November 2022.

In this series, Tansa has been reporting on the "Album Collection," an app that illegally sells images of child sexual abuse and voyeuristic images of women, to stop the damage.

On December 15, 2023, Tansa sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking him to withdraw the app from the App Store, and Apple removed Album Collection from its App Store three days later on December 18.

Also, Album Collection announced that it will end its service on January 31, 2024.

To reach this point, we have conducted cross-border coverage, including a trip to South Korea to report on a similar case and a trip to Singapore to track down the app's operator. 

We hold the app operators and Tech Giants accountable for the growing number of sex crimes on the Internet.

Our purpose in reporting is to prevent others from suffering the same damage.