Major Japanese newspapers are in league with bureaucrats to maintain the status quo and are the biggest obstacle to political reform, warns Dutch journalist Karel van Wolferen.
The nation's major dailies are helping lawmakers keep their seats in elections, said van Wolferen, and so should be seen "not just as an important political factor influencing things, but as a major component of the political system itself."
Their function in the political system is not what many people believe it to be, said van Wolferen, a close follower of Japanese politics for the past three decades. "The newspapers are not expected to reveal the true nature of the Japanese political system. So they obfuscate it," he said