Kazue Sato is a rarity in Japan -- she's a female journalist in the male-dominated newspaper industry. Still, she has at least one thing in common with most of her male colleagues: she became a reporter without going to journalism school. In Japan, Sato says, journalism is often learned on the job instead of by the book. Some universities have journalism programs, but many newspaper editors don't seem convinced of a journalism degree's worth, she says. Somewhat skeptical of journalism education herself, Sato said she does think schools could help would-be journalists learn about ethics and other journalism basics. "I think journalists need to learn about human rights," Sato said. "For example, how we should treat people -- ethics -- that's the basic of journalism. But we usually don't have that opportunity to learn, so that is the major problem in Japanese journalism." Sato writes for the Hokkaido Shimbun. She graduated from Hokkaido University with a degree in political science, and received a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Maryland from August 2001 to March 2002. She was interviewed in person and in follow-up e-mails by reporter Rema Christy. Q: So tell me about Japanese journalism education. A: Well, I graduated from university 10 years ago, and at that time, departments of journalism were not popular, and, I guess, I'm not sure, but I think there were only like 10 or 20 universities that had journalism departments at that time. I think it's increasing.
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"Most of the new workers are young ... and those writers themselves don't even read newspapers before they come to work, so the executives are really facing a tough situation." |
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Most of my colleagues, journalists in other companies, don't have journalism degrees at all. Most of them majored in politics or law or [economics] and we all had to experience on-the-job training. I began to work 10 years ago and for the first month I belonged to the main office and I took some lectures from my colleagues. My company is from Hokkaido, and the head office is in Sapporo City, so I learned the basic systems of the Hokkaido government or Sapporo City government by their officers during the first month's training.Then in May, 10 years ago, I moved to a local office, which only had three journalists there, and I covered local news -- well, anything. We had only three reporters in the office and we covered five cities and towns. We had to report everything -- car accidents, murder, fires; or education, agriculture, city management; or any cultural events, festivals, whatever. I learned how to write articles from my colleagues. There is a kind of textbook for reporters, but I usually don't look at it. My boss, she usually told me to write about a topic, so I'd go to the place and ask some questions there, then I came back to my office and tried to write down my article, then my boss told me how I should organize it. Learning how to write down the articles is OK, but I think journalists need to learn about human rights, for example, how we should treat people -- ethics -- that's the basic of journalism. But we usually don't have that opportunity to learn, so that is the major problem in Japanese journalism. Most of the writers don't experience the real journalist ethics studies in their life, actually. They learn from their experiences after they happen. But the situation is changing, of course, and right now I think some of the writers have graduated from schools of journalism in Japan or the U.S. At the same time, especially newspaper companies are facing very severe reactions from the readers. I think it was maybe, how many years ago? Five or seven ... there was a murder by a 12-year-old guy, in Kobe, and in that case, we really needed to think about how we report that kind of murder.
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"In the recent 10 years or so, society has been noticing that there is something wrong in the journalism manner and people started accusing them." |
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After that incident, many of the newspaper companies started to have ombudsmen, like non-company people, usually like lawyers or Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) ... My company has one, so regularly that committee has a conference on the articles on the paper, and they give comments. But I think most of the newspaper companies now have that kind of committee.Q: And that started around the Kobe murder? A: Yeah, I think so, around 1995 or 1996? Q: And before that, how did it work? A: Well, some people would criticize the articles, but nobody paid much attention. There was a person who was responsible for criticism, but usually they didn't care much. But the situation is changing for the companies now. And also, most of the Japanese newspapers have "ability circulations." For example, my company has a 1.2 million circulation, even though it's a local paper, but the biggest one (Yomiuri) has 10 million, Asahi has 8 million; but since the population in Japan will be decreasing and the younger generation recently doesn't read newspapers, the companies now are trying to keep circulation, and they found out that newspapers in education (NIE) will be very important to our survival. So I think it's also from the mid-1990s that newspaper companies have the programs for NIE. My company now has the section only for NIE; they are two packs, and they usually visit the schools, especially elementary or junior high schools, and they tell children about how to make newspapers or how to report, or what you should think about when you report. So they tell the children about journalists. Some of the schools have classes on newspaper education, such as social science classes. Q: Recently in Japanese newspapers, I see a lot of papers having crossword puzzles or educational themes where it looks like it tries to get the parents to get their children to read -- is that accurate? A: Yes, actually, most newspapers have special pages just for children. My paper has shougakusei shimbun, pages for elementary school children, once a week. We have furigana for the Chinese characters (or kanji) for them. For the content, most of them are stories about famous people, or kaiketsu (framing news stories in simple words). It's a little bit different from the journalism education you wanted to know ... and also the newspaper companies are trying to find a better way to educate their own workers. I think compared to 10 years ago, most of the companies have much more opportunities to give the workers experience and ability to learn -- lectures by professors in universities, or lawyers, or even from the readers. I think that executives now are having a little fear ... the new workers are young, of course. In Japan, it's not so common to change the company you work for, so most of the journalists keep working in the same company, so most of the new workers are young, just graduated from university, like 22 or 23 years old, and those writers themselves don't even read newspapers before they come to work, so the executives are really facing a tough situation.
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"There is a tendency in the Japanese media to think that journalists should learn journalism in on-the-job training." |
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Q: So you see more of the changes happening within the companies instead of in the universities?A: Yeah. The real departments of journalism, I think there are only about 10 in Japan. Sophia has a newspaper department; Tokyo University used to have Institute of Newspapers, but they changed their name, and now they are Social Information. But I heard that that institute will be closed next year or something. Well, I graduated from Hokkaido University, and it didn't have any journalism department when I was in school, but three years ago they opened the graduate school called the Department of International Journalism. It has the real journalism education classes, but also they focus on public relations of the company or government. So professors were from newspaper companies or United Nations workers. Q: With the stigma of Japanese universities, like if you graduate from Tokyo University you will go to a good paper, do you think that there is a lack of diversity in opinions and ability in newspapers? If a paper has always traditionally taken Todai students, do they still usually take Todai graduates? A: Yes, there can be biases, but of course the papers never say that they take only certain graduates! I think every newspaper company has examinations for every new employee and recently they don't look at the university.
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