Four years ago, Japan's tabloids and weeklies reported on the contest between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election with unrestrained gusto.
By this writer's count, the volume of U.S. election coverage in Japan's weeklies and tabloids over the past few months has been perhaps one-fifth that of 2016. That's a startling contrast, especially considering the passions being generated at this point among American voters.
The heaviest coverage in the print media was 48 pages in the weekly business magazine Toyo Keizai (Sept. 19), whose cover story was headlined “The new wisdom about America: What will change with a Biden victory?” The issue began with an article titled “Monster Trump on the brink: If he disputes his loss, chaos might ensue.”