But paper examinations, I think it's unfair. But once you have the paper exam, you need to have an interview with a newspaper executive, and I think there must be biases when you have interviews. Q: What are you tested on in the exam? A: Usually, it's Japanese, English, and essays. You have to write two-page-long essays on a certain topic. The topics are not so important, I don't think. Well, it was 10 years ago, but the topic I got was, "Please write down the reasons why the Japanese economy bubble has broken." Some are really easy, like, "What was the 20th century for you?" And my company gave me the title, "The weak person." I think maybe they imagined the disabled or discriminated ... it's a very abstract title. Then when you have interview, they ask you what your hobbies are, where you studied for university, and what kind of journalist you would like to be. And I don't think they care which department; even if you have journalism degree, it doesn't mean anything necessarily. Q: I wanted to ask about the press club system. Do you think it's changing at all, do you think it's disappearing at all? Or is it still around? A: It's still so strong. It's very difficult to explain. It's not only for the journalists, it's for the government, too. The politicians are happy to have the press club system, because whenever they want to release the news, they use the press club, and also there are many newspaper companies and weekly or monthly magazines that are negative towards the government, so the government doesn't want them in the press club, so they can limit who is in the press club system. So it's not helpful only for the press, but for the government. I guess it's not easy to change the system. Right now I belong to the Prime Minister's office press club. There are two types of companies -- one are the regular companies, the other are non-regular, but they can attend the press conference. The non-regular companies can attend the press conferences, but they cannot attend the closed, off-the-record press conferences. I think the New York Times correspondent, Washington correspondent, or Time correspondent belong to the press club, but they cannot get off-the-record conferences. Q: Why do you think Japan has been so slow to incorporate journalism graduate schools or undergraduate programs? A: There is a tendency in the Japanese media to think that journalists should learn journalism in on-the-job training. Still, "lifetime employment" is common among media companies so that most of the executives think it is much more efficient to make their new reporters learn by body (not by heart!) through daily work, rather than having a degree in journalism. There is a kind of traditional thinking that journalists should work by body, not brain, in Japan. Q: What do you think the biggest problems in Japanese journalism stem from? (Cultural, educational, societal issues such as lack of individualism, avoidance of uncertainty, vertical vs. horizontal organizations, male-female relations, etc.) Can you see Japanese journalism education changing without Japanese society changing? Is one change necessary to affect the other, or must they change simultaneously? How might this happen? A: I think the problems stem from lack of consideration for human rights, and maybe the lack of individualism. The media have been considered one of the powers of our society, and until recently, journalists also seemed to be the privileged class so that they could do anything under the name of journalism. But 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. There used to be so many discriminative words on papers, but they are decreasing. Journalism was, and still is, a male-dominated industry, but since more and more female journalists come into the area, anti-feminism expression has been diminished, I feel. So I believe that journalism education and society must change simultaneously because journalism is a barometer of our society. Q: What about schools making graduate journalism programs for mid-career reporters and editors? Would that work in the Japanese society? Do you think it's a good idea? A: It is still very difficult to make journalism education for mid-careerists in Japan because of the lifetime employment system and "learn by body" culture. I did have a very hard time asking my company for a six-month leave on a Fulbright program. However, I really think a lot of reporters or editors should have journalism education mid-career. There is no time for most of the reporters to get profound knowledge in their topics, so they need to have chances to stop thinking for more excellent articles. I respect that there are many journalism programs for mid-careers in the U.S. Through my experience of attending one of the programs (it was a four-day program at the University of Maryland's School of Journalism), it was very helpful for learning skills and rethinking my original intentions for being a journalist. Q: A 1997 article said that there were no student newspapers, no student journalism groups on campuses. Is that still true? A: Well, there are many many school newspapers in junior high or high school, but not so many at universities and colleges. In junior high or high school, making school newspaper is usually one of the school courses. But in colleges, journalists are volunteers. As there is a saying in Japan that "it is very difficult to enter university, but it's so easy to graduate," most of the students avoid being members of campus papers that are accompanied by such a tough duty. Q: How would you like to see Japanese journalism change? Do you think it will or can change? A: I think it is changing towards the better way in terms of human rights, diversity, and so on. One thing that makes it happen is that there is heavier competition in the media industry by the Internet. Newspapers are now facing severe challenge by various kinds of Internet media in speed and uniqueness. TV stations are also having a hard time, too. Also, our society is slowly changing -- people are getting much more sensitive to human rights, female career workers are increasing, and so on -- which must affect journalism. Most of the major newspapers now have so-called "readers' voice pages," which gather readers' opinions on how properly the paper prints articles, and this is a very new movement. I believe we can change gradually. Q: What is it like being a female journalist? A: It is still a big challenge for women to be journalists in Japan. Most of the executives in government and industries here are men, and they tend to consider female journalists less intelligent than male journalists. Therefore, you sometimes face difficulties getting news from them. However, female journalists can give readers new visions or ideas which male journalists do not notice ... in general, women are more interested in trends and they have a lot of knowledge about what is going on in society. While men tend to get into mannerisms or stick to stereotypes, women can be more flexible and write in a fresh manner, I think. In my company, I am kind of enjoying being in a male-dominant society because I can find many interesting characteristics of men -- they are as weak as we are. Observation of human beings is interesting. So you could say being a female journalist is exciting and fun. Q: What kind of struggles (if any) did you face as a result of being a woman? Can you give me an incident or two that happened to you? A: Many sexual harassments from bosses! For example, my boss once forced me to give him a kiss by saying a threatening word like, "If you are not obedient, you would be fired." Q: In journalism, is there ever any advantage to being a woman? A: Among so many male journalists, female journalists are easily remembered by people. In some cases, people are more kind in giving information to female journalists than to men, but the reverse also happens. Q: Why are there so few women in journalism in Japan? Are there any female editors? A: One reason is the job itself is very hard. You do not have much private time; it is common to work even on weekends; and usually you can sleep five or six hours on weekdays. It is very hard to have children while working as a journalist. And it is difficult to use a standby when a female journalist takes maternity leave. There are some female editors, though. In my company, there are four female editors. Q: What would you tell young women who want to be journalists in Japan? A: Find your own topic that you want to pursue as a journalist. Do not work too hard to beat male journalists, just behave as you would like to. Find a mentor who can understand your situation. It is a tough job, but you can feel achievement when you write and make people moved. Journalism can change the world, but you should be conscious of its limitations, too.
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