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EDITORIALS
Jan 15, 2013

Chinese media test their limits

Recent protest, including strikes by some reporters, against Chinese authorities' heavy censorship of new year articles by the Southern Weekly, a Guangdong newspaper known for its hard-hitting investigations, points to Chinese people's strong desire for freedom of speech and expression.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 11, 2012

Local media are too vague on Fukushima radiation risk

Earlier this year, NHK rebroadcast a documentary it made in the late 1980s about the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident. It showed how the Soviet Union and European countries tested people for effects of radiation throughout the region. Appended to the doc was a discussion with experts who compared...
EDITORIALS
Jun 16, 2012

A champion of independent media

Cancer took the life of lawyer and journalist Mr. Kazuo Hizumi on June 12 at the age of 49. Although he died young, he has left behind a persuasive analysis of contemporary Japanese society from the viewpoint of protecting and promoting freedom of expression and citizens' right to know. The public in...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 8, 2012

Mainstream media toes the line on sales tax

A bill to increase the consumption tax has finally been submitted to the Diet. Approval is by no means assured, owing partly to the fact that the substance of the issue has changed since the idea of a consumption tax was originally formulated. The Liberal Democratic Party saw it as a source of funding...
JAPAN
Nov 26, 2011

Watanabe instrumental in forging cozy political-news media relationship

Tsuneo Watanabe, chairman and chief editor of the Yomiuri Shimbun who doubles as chairman of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team, is one of the most influential figures in Japan as he reigns not only over the nation's biggest media empire but also acts as a political fixer.
JAPAN
Sep 29, 2011

Noda eyes reduced media contact

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda hinted Wednesday that he may hold regular news conferences instead of standup interviews with the press, apparently reflecting caution in dealing with the media.
COMMENTARY
Jul 16, 2011

A media empire crumbles

Scandals have often dominated the British media, but few have been as remarkable as the revelations which have been appearing almost every day about the misdeeds of journalists on the British populist mass circulation Sunday paper The News of the World. This was owned by News International which is run...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 3, 2011

Antinuke stance within establishment slowly gathers steam

In May, Wakamono Manifest Sakutei Iinkai, a policy research group dedicated to issues relevant to people under 40, posted results of a survey in which members were asked who they wanted to lead Japan. There was no consensus, but the individual who received the most votes was Liberal Democratic Party...
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2010

Media bent on derailing ruling DPJ: van Wolferen

The domestic media's penchant for focusing on political power games instead of policies is hampering the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's attempts to govern, veteran correspondent and Japan expert Karel van Wolferen said Tuesday.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 14, 2010

Media sheepish over island disputes

Last Tuesday, when Tokyo prosecutors raided the offices of YouTube in order to find the person who leaked those videos of a Chinese fishing boat ramming a Japan Coast Guard vessel near the Senkaku Islands, the Asahi Shimbun published a letter from a man who said he had worked in media for 30 years. He...
JAPAN
Sep 19, 2010

Lay judges handle pressure of Oshio trial

The recent court case of actor Manabu Oshio shows that ordinary people can do a good job judging a high-profile trial despite wall-to-wall media coverage and intense pressure to understand technical evidence, according to legal experts and the lay judges themselves.
JAPAN
Sep 4, 2010

Actor's trial to test lay judges' neutrality

A test case for the nascent lay judge system got under way Friday at the Tokyo District Court as a celebrity defendant already crucified in the public realm now faces citizen judges, raising questions of whether they can render a judgment free of media influence.
BASEBALL / HIT AND RUN
Aug 3, 2010

Media attention nothing new for celebrated hurler Saito

The fluttering of dozens of camera shutters following Japan's 4-0 win over South Korea on Friday served as a reminder that Yuki Saito is never far from the spotlight.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 29, 2009

Cute kittens out to kill you

Cats are easy targets, which is why Shukan Asahi took such a cheap shot at them in the banner headline of its print ads for the Dec. 4 issue: "New-type influenza being spread by cats!?" In the subhead, cat cafes were cited as "hotbeds of infection."
COMMENTARY
Oct 20, 2009

Western media stoking conflict

A little more than a year ago, Russia and Georgia were at war over Georgia's small autonomous republic of South Ossetia. We now have two authoritative reports — one from late 2008 by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ) and the other just released by the European Union —...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 25, 2006

Who needs a trial when the media has hanged, drawn and quartered the accused?

Cynicism comes naturally to members of the tabloid press, who report sensational news in a sensational way and rarely think about what exactly it is they're doing. All they care about is the gory details. However, their coverage of the murder of a 7-year-old boy last month in Akita Prefecture and the...
JAPAN
Feb 10, 2006

Media is issue in referendum bill

The ruling coalition is considering a nonbinding provision in a constitutional referendum bill calling on the media to be politically neutral when forecasting vote results, lawmakers said Thursday.
JAPAN
Feb 8, 2006

Media restraint urged on Muhammad cartoons

The Foreign Ministry has recommended that Japan's media organizations not reprint contentious caricatures of the prophet Muhammad, after angry demonstrators torched the Danish embassies in Lebanon and Syria over the weekend and other violence has erupted.
JAPAN
Jan 9, 2006

Media blackout set after kidnapping

Media organizations agreed Saturday not to report on the kidnapping of a newborn baby from a Sendai hospital, a day after the incident was widely covered.
JAPAN
Dec 28, 2005

News media seeks disclosure of crime victims' names

The nation's two major media groups came out Tuesday against a government plan that allows police to decide whether to disclose the names of crime victims, saying anonymity would make news-gathering difficult and could help the police cover up matters unfavorable to them.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 1, 2005

Rise in defamation suits threaten media: journalists

The increasing number of lawsuits being filed in response to allegedly defamatory news articles is posing a threat to media organizations and freedom of expression by discouraging aggressive reporting, several journalists said at a recent symposium in Saitama.
JAPAN
Jul 6, 2004

Koizumi puts on brave face ahead of poll

Despite dismal poll showings for his Liberal Democratic Party, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday he will do his utmost to ensure that the LDP retains the 51 seats it has up for grabs in Sunday's House of Councilors election.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 18, 2004

Media favors Al-Jazeera over government

In his new book, "The Unconquerable World," Jonathan Schell explains how "people's war" came to be the dominant form of international conflict in the nuclear age. People's war subordinates all aspects of warfare to politics, because only through politics can the strength of the people be harnessed to...
JAPAN
Mar 26, 2003

Correspondents' NPO chief concerned over media freedom

As war correspondents make the most of their opportunity to cover the fighting in Iraq, the president of the nonprofit organization Reporters Without Borders voiced concern Tuesday over their safety and the extent to which freedom of the press is respected.
Japan Times
JAPAN / WEEKEND WISDOM
Nov 10, 2002

Magazine muckrakes where major media won't make waves

The Asahi Shimbun's April 9, 1999, morning edition featured a front-page story by the monthly magazine Uwasa-no-shinso (The Truth Behind the Rumors) that sparked a scandal leading to the downfall of the then head of the Tokyo High Public Prosecutor's Office.
COMMENTARY
Jul 24, 2002

Chinese media's coverage of U.S. proves balanced

HONG KONG -- A study of the Chinese media, commissioned by a bipartisan American congressional panel -- the U.S. China Security Review Commission -- has found that the controlled Chinese press, in its reporting on the United States, appears to be relatively balanced overall.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 13, 2001

Public participation aids media more than police

Prior to Thursday's arrest of a suspect in the April 30 murder of a 19-year-old woman in Asakusa, hundreds of people had called the police with information. The majority of these calls were not made until several days after the murder, when police found some items that they believe the killer discarded...
COMMENTARY
Apr 13, 2001

Media guilty of hounding Mori from office

Since political parties by definition seek to attain control of government, it is only natural that the Democratic Party and other opposition groups should have demanded Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori's resignation in unison. On the other hand, it is incumbent upon journalists to comment on government policies...

Longform

A sinkhole in Yashio, which emerged in January, was triggered by a ruptured, aging sewer pipe. Authorities worry that similar sections of infrastructure across the country are also at risk of corrosion.
That sinking feeling: Japan’s aging sewers are an infrastructure time bomb