As Abenomics approaches the five-year mark, expect the government to toss out loads of sunny figures and declare victory. But the two most important numbers 0.7 and 72 tell a gloomier story.

Japans potential growth rate 1,631 days into Prime Minister Shinzo Abes tenure is an unmuscular 0.7 percent and inflation is essentially flat. The three arrows of his economic policy monetary easing, fiscal loosening and deregulation flew wide of the target even though Abe is armed with rare majorities in both houses of the Diet and reasonably buoyant approval numbers. Good luck spinning that as victory.

Abes second number, 72, is Tokyos press-freedom ranking by Reporters Without Borders. When Abe took office in December 2012, he inherited a ranking of 22, ahead of the United Kingdom and Australia. Today, Japan stands 50 spots lower, neighbored by Malawi and Croatia, and only barely besting Hong Kong, where China is forging shackles to hobble media autonomy. A coincidence? Try spinning this one, too.

Its important to recognize how connected these two numbers really are.

Japans press-freedom shortcomings have been very much in the news thanks to reports from United Nations staffers. David Kaye, the U.N.s special rapporteur on press matters, discerns significant worrying signals that require attention lest they undermine Japans democratic foundations. Another U.N. staffer, Joseph Cannataci, worries about undue restrictions on the right to privacy and freedom of expression.

Now, Tokyo could just roll its eyes at non-binding remarks from officials living 11,000 km away and move on. Instead, Abes team threw an epic hissy fit, the fury of which smacked of a guilty conscience. Such defensiveness doesnt alter the fact the U.N.s concerns jibe with those of Reporters Without Borders.

Abes administration has taken two very public steps to muzzle reporters. His state secrets act a draconian 2014 law that could put journalists and whistleblowers in jail for 10 years sent Japans press-freedom grade plunging. The next blow is a chillingly broad conspiracy law. I use quotation marks because very few understand this ambiguously-worded effort to penalize plots even if theyre not carried out aspirations U.S. President Donald Trump shares. Not surprisingly, copies of George Orwells book Nineteen Eighty-Four are flying off the shelves in Japan.

Rather than pushing back at critics, Abes Cabinet should indulge in a moment of self-awareness. Its not that overseas rapporteurs and reporters dont get Japan or are trafficking in fake news. Japan really does have a media problem, and its holding back the economy and undermining Abes goal of raising Tokyos status among global leaders.

Even before Abes state secrets act, Japans media cared more about access, institutional loyalty, social harmony and coddling advertisers than policing the government or companies. Its kisha clubs are more about keeping the press in line than holding the powerful accountable, morphing all too many reporters into repeaters of the party line. A prime example: the 2011 Fukushima nuclear crisis, when local journalists deferred to government talking points and foreign reporters didnt.

This policy direction risk making a media system already predisposed to self-censorship downright subservient. In late 2013, Reports Without Borders admitted what Japanese scribes generally wont: Abes Liberal Democratic Party is making investigative journalism illegal, and is trampling on the fundamental principles of the confidentiality of journalists sources and public interest. New legal risks make major news organizations less inclined to report on true radiation risks in Fukushima. It discourages exposes on 2020 Olympic spending and graft. It encourages reporters to pull punches while writing about alleged scandals involving school operators Moritomo Gakuen and Kake Gakuen. It tamed scrutiny of efforts to revise the pacifist postwar Constitution that most Japanese revere.

The chill in the media air undermines Abenomics. For starters, policy priorities since 2012 have media outlets turning their tendency for self-censorship up to 11. One of the key planks of Abes upgrades, at least in theory, is strengthening corporate governance to boost competitiveness and wages. Yet most of the most aggressive reporting on Takatas deadly air bags, Toshibas accounting shenanigans, Mitsubishi Motors fuel-economy scandal, Sharps opacity, the Bank of Japan cornering the stock market and the dark sides of devaluating the yen came from foreign media outfits.

If were serious about taking on the bureaucracy, identifying wasteful spending, attacking public corruption or shaming wayward executives, a free and aggressive media is an ally. How can antiquated and clubby corporate and political systems change if theyre immune to scrutiny?

Japan doesnt have a monopoly on press-freedom concerns, but its a glaring outlier among Group of Seven nations. Reporters Without Borders ranks all six of Japans G-7 peers well within the top 50 countries. Observing the amazingly dogged journalism afoot in the U.S., where New York Times and Washington Post reporters take Trump to task daily with scoop after scoop, its hard not to lament the state of media affairs here and how it holds Japan back.

If Abes team had put one-tenth as much energy into modernizing taxes, encouraging entrepreneurship and empowering women as muzzling the press, the economy might be making global headlines. Sadly, Japans global edge is eroding on both scores. Bad news, indeed.

William Pesek is a Tokyo-based journalist.

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Why Japan's poor media grade matters - The Japan Times