OhmyNews to Put Down Roots in Japan

OhmyNews, a successful South Korean grassroots media outlet that helped trigger political upheaval in the country, announced in late February that the 6-year-old online news site would launch a Japanese edition.

Softbank Corp. will help OhmyNews establish its Japanese branch, as Masayoshi Son, CEO and president of the Japanese Internet services company, and Oh Yeon Ho, founder and CEO of the Korean Internet newspaper, agreed to form a strategic partnership with the former promising to invest $11 million for a 12 percent stake.

The two companies jointly embarked on OhmyNews International Co. Ltd. to spread participatory journalism worldwide, and the Japanese edition is its first venture, according to OhmyNews. With the investment from Softbank, OhmyNews will also expand its Internet television channel OhmyTV, according to a company statement.

OhmyNews draws more than 700,000 repeat visitors daily, and once exceeded 25 million page views per day in a country of about 48 million, the company said. The site has been especially popular among young people, who elected progressive lawyer Roh Moo Hyun president in 2002.

The online news site started with 727 citizen reporters but could not afford to publicize its embryonic venture then, said Jean K. Min, communications director at OhmyNews International. The number of citizen reporters has grown to more than 41,000, including more than 700 overseas who report in English for its international page.

“It just grew. That’s the nature of the Web,” Min said. “Once we make superb news contents, that will be enough to draw many people’s attention.”

With its “guerrilla strategy” and concept that “every citizen is a reporter,” OhmyNews dealt a severe blow to the conservative mainstream media in South Korea. Its Japanese edition, however, will not compete with mainstream media such as Yomiuri Shimbun or the Asahi Shimbun, Min said. “We are creating a totally different news model. We do not necessarily follow the formula developed by media professionals.”

The announcement of the launch of OhmyNews Japan touched off blogosphere discussion about whether the Japanese edition of the Korean online newspaper could take hold in Japan, provoking some harsh responses from naysayers.

Tsuruaki Yukawa, a member of the editorial board at Jiji Press and author of “Will the Internet Kill Newspapers?” said in his blog that OhmyNews “flourished under certain conditions unique to South Korea. It is extremely difficult to replicate that success in another country.” But, “depending on how, it is not impossible to do,” he added. “OhmyNews Japan needs a lot of money to recruit good writers and draw many people.”

Yukawa, however, said he could not understand why Softbank would invest that much capital into citizen journalism.

Yoshio Kisa, a former Yomiuri Shimbun reporter who until recently was the editor of Tsukasa Internet News Site, pointed out that the number of those who visit the Web site of the OhmyNews has dwindled compared with its peak three years ago. He said he believes the company might have financial problems.

“First and foremost, they need financial support from Softbank and the launch of its Japanese edition seems to just come along,” Kisa told the audience at a symposium held on March 11, organized by Japan Alternative News for Justice and New Culture (JANJAN).

Takeaki Nukii, a Softbank spokesman flatly denied Kisa’s assertion. He said the company is providing indirect support for OhmyNews to launch its Japanese edition, but will not be involved in editorial management.

Unlike in South Korea, citizen journalism has not gathered steam in Japan. Some attribute it to a lack of involvement of professional journalists while others point out that many Japanese tend not to express themselves.

Ken Takeuchi, president of JANJAN, agreed Japanese national character plays a large role.

“This is a society in which it is hard to demonstrate one’s individuality,” said Takeuchi. “When one says something different from what many say, one feels isolated. One is also reluctant to do what others don’t do.”

Channel 2 provides a telling example of this. It is one of Japan’s most popular online destinations, its largest Internet bulletin board, and is almost completely anonymous. Every day about 2 million messages are posted to the virtually taboo-free discussion board, including anonymous grievances about company problems, leaked information and slanderous comments.

With the number of bloggers increasing exponentially, however, Takeuchi has seen a big change in the national character.

“We used to think that we never let anyone see our own diary, but bring it to the graveyard. However, more and more people want to show theirs to the public. The time has changed,” Takeuchi explained. “Simply put, the Internet has been changing the national character.”

Koichiro Nakamura, a citizen reporter who formerly wrote for the Livedoor portal also says he believes participatory journalism will take root in Japan. However, he said, one of the problems is that those currently involved in citizen journalism dwell on what the mainstream media should or should not do.

“They have yet to define what participatory journalism means,” Nakamura said. “They should strain their ears to catch citizens’ opinions. It is not until you pull together citizens’ voice[s] that participatory journalism comes into power.”

OhmyNews Japan seeks cooperation from citizen reporters, freelance writers, as well as major media. In addition, the company will also pay attention to the growth of civic groups and non-profit organizations.

Since the 1995 Kobe earthquake, which killed more than 6,400 people, grassroots activism has established itself in a society accustomed to government initiatives in solving social problems.

Spurred by delays in government relief operations following the 7.3 magnitude temblor a decade ago, Japanese citizens flocked to help out. Soon after the tragedy, volunteer groups and non-profit organizations began to spring up across the country. Since then, such groups have gradually played an important role in society although the mainstream media as well as political leaders appear to keep them on the margins.

“People are waiting for a chance to speak out,” said Min of OhmyNews International. “I don’t think there has been any practical platform [in Japan] which enables them to speak out. Once we give them the chance, you’ll see what happens.”

Kenichi Asano, a journalist and journalism professor at Doshisha University in Kyoto, said those who have negative views of the launch of OhmyNews Japan don’t want citizen journalism to flourish and civic society to grow.

Asano described the Japanese media industry as “the last bastion protected by the so-called convoy system.”

Many critics have long criticized the mainstream media for avoiding controversial topics and maintaining their symbiotic relationship with authority figures through the entrenched press club system.

However, the mainstream media rarely respond to such criticism, and there is virtually no self-examination.

In the past, some have attempted to crack the monolithic walls, but have not been successful, Asano said. What OhmyNews Japan “could do is to cover their taboo topics and criticize those in power.”

However, “it is not easy for OhmyNews to really take hold in Japan,” he said. Although they have been successful in South Korea, “they have to start from scratch in Japan. But they must flourish because this is probably the last chance to get Japanese journalism out of its moribund state.”