Media Bias in Japan
Michael Cucek at his Shisaku blog had a great post a few days ago about how “Media Shifts Make Japan a Harder Read”. He cites some anecdotes from his own consumption of the media in recent times, and discusses some of the biases that exist in the various media organizations in Japan, and how these have either shifted or strengthened with the emergence of the new government.
I don’t necessarily agree with all of his characterizations or labels, but I do strongly agree with what I feel was the central point of the article – that it is vital to understand where a media organization is coming from ideologically in order to understand the way in which their products (in the form of news stories, editorials and opinions) should be taken.
Cucek flags Sankei and Yomiuri as leaning (heavily at times) towards conservative ideologies, with Mainichi also tending towards taking a similar path with their content. There is little question that Sankei in particular, and Yomiuri as well have been vocal supporters of LDP policy and even more vocal ‘voices of opposition’ under the new government. As Cucek notes, the Sankei newspaper belongs to the same group as the Fuji television network, and Yomiuri owns TV network NTV. These are the two most watched commercial networks in Japan (as noted in my story yesterday). NHK, the public network which also enjoys high ratings, especially during prime time and for its news programs (NHK routinely holds the highest rating news broadcast each night), has tended to provide relatively sympathetic coverage to the government.
I consider myself more conservative than liberal or progressive, and my experience with the major news organizations in Japan is that what some may call conservative is actually more like something akin to ‘nationalism’. And these are by no means the same thing. I have never been able to watch the Fuji news, because their views of world news are always tinted through the glass of the more liberal leaning US networks. And the vast majority of the media in Japan tends to present far too much of a sense of inevitability and necessity for a large and expanding welfare state. Sankei and Yomiuri fight against these trends to a large extent, but not so the TV arms of these groups, I have found.
As Cucek notes in passing, during the Koizumi years, where the economic policies of the government were attempting (but still failing miserably) to align themselves with more conservative views, Yomiuri was not nearly as complimentary or as much in lock-step with the LDP positions. As I said, for me, the Yomiuri and Sankei positions seem much more like nationalism, where the ‘old boys network’ and an attitude of ‘for the country’ prevail, much more than they are embracing of true conservative values. For me, conservatism is an ideology which protects and promotes universal values, above all else, whereas the more nationalistic approach to ‘conservatism’ places the highest value on the ‘object’ of the country itself.
This is part of the dichotomy of Japan. It is at times a very conservative country. And yet in the same breath, it is quite liberal. It is both a country of high values and a country of confused morality. It is both a country that values its welfare state and embraces even socialist principles when convenient, while at the same time being a country that values and encourages hard work and responsibility. These are just some of the contrasts of this society that make Japan so interesting to study and to live in.
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Tags: Conservative, Liberal, Mainichi, NHK, NTV, Sankei, Shisaku, Yomiuri
I think one problem with this discussion might be the use of liberal and conservative in terms of both moral views and fiscal policy. Meaning becomes blurred when these words are given such broad definitions. I tend to characterize Japan (as well as its major media organizations) as a country that is socially conservative in terms of its “old boy nationalism” but financially liberal with its significant corporate and social welfare mechanisms.