Satsuki Katayama, a newly elected, high-profile member of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), sat with grinning TV celebrities on a Sunday morning talk show. She held a conversation without much expression, but appeared to be relaxed during the one-hour program.
“Itsumitemo Haran Banjo,” a national program of the Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV), focuses on celebrity profiles, looking back on a star’s past. The title translates to: “Whenever you see it, it’s a roller-coaster life.” The program has featured a number of politicians as guests, according to the network.
Prime Minister Koizumi’s LDP had a landslide victory in the general election for the House of Representatives last September. Katayama was one of the party’s first-time female candidates who was extensively covered by the media. After the race, former Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa attributed the victory to media coverage – what critics called a “feeding frenzy” – during his appearance on a national political talk show. Such major media as NTV still follow Katayama, a former bureaucrat at the Finance Ministry, who apparently distances herself from other fresh-faced politicians.
The NTV talk show emphasized Katayama’s intelligence and lauded her victory as “outstanding.” It was a de facto victory even before election day. The LDP placed her at the top of the list of proportional representation candidates.
In a society in which many people try to maintain smooth relations and avoid confrontations, a talk show host of a program seldom throws hard questions to a guest, nodding in agreement with the TV personality.
Moreover, in a voice-over narration, the program dwelled on Katayama’s “beauty,” explaining Katayama was once Miss University of Tokyo and Miss Finance Ministry. She was described as a “beautiful fighter who possesses unparalleled brain power,” and as a “Madonna of Reform.” (“Madonna” in Japanese means “an admirable, beautiful lady.”) She did not appear embarrassed by such comments and remained impassive. While Americans
would find these remarks frivolous or even sexist, many Japanese viewers regard them as compliments.
In addition, Norio Fukutome, the program’s soft-spoken host, compared Katayama with a certain former British prime minister and asked her, “It is a matter of time until you will become the Japanese [Margaret] Thatcher, isn’t it?”
While opposition party members believed the program was unfair in Katayama’s case, more politicians from both ruling and opposition parties seem to believe that getting their faces on a TV program – whether it is a serious political talk show, tabloid program or even quiz show – is very important. They can cash in through appearing on a TV show since the exposure makes them better known to many Japanese, probably the world’s most avid TV watchers.
Yukio Hatoyama, who is now a secretary general of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), appeared on a tabloid TV program with a couple of comedians last year, in which Mr. Hatoyama invited them to his palatial residence in a well-heeled community in Tokyo. Mr. Hatoyama was not only playing with them, including throwing a football, but also trying to sell his wife’s cookbooks on the air.
Meanwhile, more TV celebrities, including some comedians, are becoming commentators or even anchors on television, voicing their opinions on a broad range of issues from entertainment and gruesome crimes to education and politics. What’s more troubling, experts said, many of them appear in commercials as well.
Lassalle Ishi, whose real name is Akio Ishii, was an anchorman for Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) until March, while he also appeared in ALICO Japan commercials. ALICO Japan is a branch office of American Life Insurance Company of Wilmington, Del. During the TBS news program, Ishii predicted a possible face-off between first lady Laura Bush and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. He added, “They are very beautiful, aren’t they?”
Japan Internet News CEO Ken Takeuchi, who was an Asahi Newspaper editorial board member and also served as mayor of Kamakura near Tokyo, said television networks already relinquished journalism.
“News programs were turned into entertainment programs with TV celebrities (as commentators) for news,” said Takeuchi, whose company launched Japan’s first serious alternative online newspaper, Jan Jan (Japan Alternative News for Justice and New Cultures) three years ago.
TV celebrities “make comments on various topics. But how can they be so sure? They have no hands-on experience or studies on a specific issue like social ones,” said Nobuhiko Suto, a former member of the House of Representative from DPJ, who was a political science professor at Tokai University. “Then they change their opinions in order to have mass appeal. So considering how we can form sound public opinion, they have a destructive impact.”
Apparently responding to mounting criticism of media coverage, “News 23,” the major nightly news program of TBS, hosted a public debate during the show. A couple of comedians were even invited to such a supposedly serious discussion, along with two newly elected LDP lawmakers, including Katayama. Critics and opposition members were not invited.
Takaaki Hattori, a media law professor at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, agreed that politics is treated as material for entertainment programs these days and such programs have had political implications. But that lighter brand of coverage, including recent reports on several proposed laws such as an amendment to the Fundamental Law of Education, could help make more people aware and ignite debates, he said.
The ruling bloc of the LDP and New Komeito attempted to pass the proposed laws without much debate, opposition members said. But they are likely to be postponed.
“Since the media have an impact on the public, what issues they cover and how they cover them makes a big difference,” said Hattori.
The emergence of celebrity commentators aggravates a long-standing problem in the nation’s journalism, critics said. The mainstream media have long been criticized for their symbiotic relationship with authority figures through the press club system. By hiring celebrities, the media “more often fail to raise issues and become unable to search for the truth and to have balanced coverage, which means they are easily manipulated by those in power,” said Kenichi Asano, a professor of journalism at Doshisha University in Kyoto.
Journalists, as well as many in the public, however, are not aware of such criticism in a country where a deeply rooted journalistic tradition like that of the United States does not exist. The media also lack self-criticism, experts pointed out.
Takeuchi of Japan Internet News added that the mainstream media “got into a situation where they place ratings above anything else, which means they make advertisements the highest priority.”
Other critics echo Takeuchi’s concerns. Minoru Morita, a long-time political analyst in Tokyo, said since Koizumi took office five years ago, advertising giants have exerted more influence over media coverage than ever.
Those who work for the major media “are telling me that an advertising giant, namely Dentsu Inc., has become more powerful than ever and that they are scared of the company rather than the prime minister’s office. They said the company will immediately cancel advertisements [if something happens],” said Morita. “The advertising giant has flexed its political muscle.”
Yasuhiro Nakasone is a former Japanese prime minister who served from 1982 to 1987 and had amicable relations with late U.S. President Ronald Reagan. He was considered to be relatively skilled in media management.
The 88-year-old former premier, looking back on politics and journalism when he was a prime minister, said, “Nowadays, both politicians and journalists lack substance. They are apt to focus on shallow events that have little significance.”
In an era when television has enormous influence over politics, Nakasone said a politician’s image on TV is important, to some extent, but not one of the most important qualifications.
“We can compare a politician to a tree. A tree has flowers and branches, but its most essential part is its trunk. ‘Perfomance’ may be represented by the leaves and flowers, but it is the trunk that produces them,” he said emphatically.
“So, as long as one is preoccupied by leaves and flowers, I would say that further growth as a politician is necessary. Appearing on tabloid TV shows rarely leads to greatness.”
Nakasone added the public would also shy away from such politicians.
“When it comes to the prime minister, people focus on the trunk and roots, not just the leaves and the flowers. The public already has the ability to distinguish between the substance and ‘performance’ of politicians, at least to a certain degree. It is the media – its commercialism—that caricatures politics. Politicians must be wary of this and not allow themselves to succumb to this commercialism.”
While both Nakasone and Koizumi have similarities in their effective use of the media, the key difference between the periods of the two leaders in terms of media coverage is whether or not there are some people in the media who are critical of a prime minister, said Morita.
“While more journalists supported Mr. Nakasone [when he was a prime minister], there were still those who criticized what he did. So there was always a lot of tension between reporters and politicians and also among reporters,” recalled Morita. However, those who cover Koizumi “are competing to flatter him. It is ugly journalism. There is no one in the media who is critical of what Mr. Koizumi has done. Critics in the media were purged.”
Morita, the author of “All-Round Criticism of Koizumi Politics,” is no exception. He was a regular TV commentator for national news programs. His
appearances on TV have dwindled since Koizumi took office. TV staff members confided to him the pressure from the Prime Minister’s office.
“One TV staff member said to me apologetically, ‘Mr. Morita, I like you. But if I continued to work with you, my job would be on the line. I have a family to feed,'” Morita said.
About webtech
