This article, "The Press in Japan: Job Security versus Journalistic Mission," originally appeared in the book "The Mission: Journalism, Ethics and the World," edited by Joseph B. Atkins, copyright 2002 Iowa State University Press. It is reprinted with permission. News obfuscates social reality instead of revealing it. It confirms the legitimacy of the state by hiding the state's intimate involvement with, and support of, corporate capitalism. (1)
--Gaye Tuchman Whereas more and more countries are wired for receiving a flood of information, major Japanese newspapers still boast their unparalleled circulation, thanks to news-hungry readers. Yomiuri Shimbun has the world's largest circulation (10.3 million) followed by Asahi Shimbun (8.3 million), and 15 other dailies, including sports newspapers, were also among the world's top 100 newspapers by circulation. Thus, every morning, about 53.7 million papers are printed in a country whose number of households is 47.4 million households. The five national dailies -- Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun (3.9 million circulation), Nihon-Keizai Shimbun (3 million circulation) and Sankei Shimbun (1.9 million circulation) -- especially exert enormous influence in society. Even the circulation of Sankei is still larger than that of The Wall Street Journal (1.75 million), which is the largest in the United States, followed by USA Today (1.67 million) and The New York Times (1.08 million). (2)
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"The mainstream media fail to fulfill their responsibility to keep politicians accountable. Instead, they prefer to play the roles of mouthpieces for factions and influential figures in the ruling party." |
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Moreover, the five national commercial networks are owned by each of the five newspapers, and they manifest the respective editorial outlook of the dailies. With that pervasiveness, what role have such large newspapers played in a country in which one party has ruled for most of the last five decades?First, Japan's mainstream media enjoy a near monopoly on access to sources and information under the infamous kisha (reporters) club systems. The clubs are attached to government ministries, political parties, major institutions, business federations, police and so forth. This system puts magazines, freelance journalists and the foreign media out of the loop, making it difficult for them to get daily access to vital information. Despite such difficulties, as journalist Maggie Farley has pointed out, some of the most significant scandals have been uncovered by journalists working outside the kisha club system. (3) "(In) Japan, ironically, the journalists who are best positioned to ferret out truth -- the reporters in the cozy press clubs that cover major institutions -- have seldom been responsible for exposing the major scandals of the last two decades." (4) In late October 2000, after a few Japanese magazines revealed a series of embarrassing scandals, the country's chief cabinet secretary, Hidenao Nakagawa, a top aide of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, was forced to resign. Nakagawa reportedly had an extramarital affair, connections with right-wing extremists, and was even alleged to have leaked police information concerning a drug bust. The resignation, which came after his repeated and adamant denials, struck a severe blow to the beleaguered Mori administration. The scandals were covered and reported very differently by the major newspapers and by the outside press. This sharp contrast affords us an opportunity to look at what the Japanese press sees as its journalistic mission in this country.
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