Media and Politics in Japan

Media and Politics in Japan PDF Author: Susan Pharr
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824817619
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Japan is one of the most media-saturated societies in the world. The circulations of its "big five" national newspapers dwarf those of any major American newspaper. Its public service broadcasting agency, NHK, is second only to the BBC in size. And it has a full range of commercial television stations, high-brow and low-brow magazines, and a large anti-mainstream media and mini-media. Japanese elites rate the mass media as the most influential group in Japanese society. But what role do they play in political life? Whose interests do the media serve? Are the media mainly servants of the state, or are they watchdogs on behalf of the public? And what effects do the media have on the political beliefs and behavior of ordinary Japanese people? These questions are the focus of this collection of essays by leading political scientists, sociologists, social psychologists, and journalists. Japan's unique kisha (press) club system, its powerful media business organizations, the uses of the media by Japan's wily bureaucrats, and the role of the media in everything from political scandals to shaping public opinion, are among the many subjects of this insightful and provocative book.

Media and Politics in Japan

Media and Politics in Japan PDF Author: Susan Pharr
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824817619
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 416

Get Book

Book Description
Japan is one of the most media-saturated societies in the world. The circulations of its "big five" national newspapers dwarf those of any major American newspaper. Its public service broadcasting agency, NHK, is second only to the BBC in size. And it has a full range of commercial television stations, high-brow and low-brow magazines, and a large anti-mainstream media and mini-media. Japanese elites rate the mass media as the most influential group in Japanese society. But what role do they play in political life? Whose interests do the media serve? Are the media mainly servants of the state, or are they watchdogs on behalf of the public? And what effects do the media have on the political beliefs and behavior of ordinary Japanese people? These questions are the focus of this collection of essays by leading political scientists, sociologists, social psychologists, and journalists. Japan's unique kisha (press) club system, its powerful media business organizations, the uses of the media by Japan's wily bureaucrats, and the role of the media in everything from political scandals to shaping public opinion, are among the many subjects of this insightful and provocative book.

Politics and the News Media in Japan

Politics and the News Media in Japan PDF Author: Ofer Feldman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government and the press
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
An in-depth look at the way journalists and politicians work together in Japan.

Persistently Postwar

Persistently Postwar PDF Author: Blai Guarné
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1785339605
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
From melodramas to experimental documentaries to anime, mass media in Japan constitute a key site in which the nation’s social memory is articulated, disseminated, and contested. Through a series of stimulating case studies, this volume examines the political and cultural representations of Japan’s past, showing how they have reinforced personal and collective narratives while also formulating new cultural meanings, both on a local scale and in the context of transnational media production and consumption. Drawing upon diverse disciplinary insights and methodologies, these studies collectively offer a nuanced account in which mass media function as much more than a simple ideological tool.

Media, Propaganda and Politics in 20th-Century Japan

Media, Propaganda and Politics in 20th-Century Japan PDF Author: The Asahi Shimbun Company
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 147251226X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
This book investigates the role played by the Asahi Newspaper, one of Japan's largest daily newspapers, as a mediator of information and power during the 20th century. Members of the staff at the paper, including Funabashi Yoichi, former Editor-in-Chief and one of the most trusted public intellectuals in Japan, examine the paper's role in Japanese history, showing how news agencies assisted in the creation and maintenance of the nation's goals, dreams and delusions. The book draws on internal documents, committee meeting notes and interviews with the staff at the company as a means to narrate what newspaper editors chose to publish during Japan's journey through the 20th century. As well as offering an original insight into wartime media, Media, Propaganda and Politics in 20th-Century Japan explores the relationship between media and society during the postwar era and into the 21st century.

Media and Politics in Pacific Asia

Media and Politics in Pacific Asia PDF Author: Duncan McCargo
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 0415233747
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
Drawing on first hand research and written in a clear and accessible manner this is a highly original book providing a detailed account of the political influence exerted by both domestic and international media in the Asia Pacific region.

Changing Politics in Japan

Changing Politics in Japan PDF Author: Ikuo Kabashima
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801457637
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Changing Politics in Japan is a fresh and insightful account of the profound changes that have shaken up the Japanese political system and transformed it almost beyond recognition in the last couple of decades. Ikuo Kabashima—a former professor who is now Governor of Kumamoto Prefecture—and Gill Steel outline the basic features of politics in postwar Japan in an accessible and engaging manner. They focus on the dynamic relationship between voters and elected or nonelected officials and describe the shifts that have occurred in how voters respond to or control political elites and how officials both respond to, and attempt to influence, voters. The authors return time and again to the theme of changes in representation and accountability. Kabashima and Steel set out to demolish the still prevalent myth that Japanese politics are a stagnant set of entrenched systems and interests that are fundamentally undemocratic. In its place, they reveal a lively and dynamic democracy, in which politicians and parties are increasingly listening to and responding to citizens' needs and interests and the media and other actors play a substantial role in keeping democratic accountability alive and healthy. Kabashima and Steel describe how all the political parties in Japan have adapted the ways in which they attempt to organize and channel votes and argue that contrary to many journalistic stereotypes the government is increasingly acting in the "the interests of citizens"—the median voter's preferences.

Broadcasting Politics in Japan

Broadcasting Politics in Japan PDF Author: Ellis S. Krauss
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501731807
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 295

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Book Description
The aftermath of Japan's 1945 military defeat left its public institutions in a state of deep crisis; virtually every major source of state legitimacy was seriously damaged or wholly remade by the postwar occupation. Between 1960 and 1990, however, these institutions renewed their strength, taking on legitimacy that erased virtually all traces of their postwar instability.How did this transformation come about? This is the question Ellis S. Krauss ponders in Broadcasting Politics in Japan; his answer focuses on the role played by the Japanese mass media and in particular by Japan's national broadcaster, NHK. Since the 1960s, television has been a fixture of the Japanese household, and NHK's TV news has until very recently been the dominant, and most trusted, source of political information for the Japanese citizen. NHK's news style is distinctive among the broadcasting systems of industrialized countries; it emphasizes facts over interpretation and gives unusual priority to coverage of the national bureaucracy. Krauss argues that this approach is not simply a reflection of Japanese culture, but a result of the organization and processes of NHK and their relationship with the state. These factors had profound consequences for the state's postwar re-legitimization, while the commercial networks' recent challenge to NHK has helped engender the wave of cynicism currently faced by the state. Krauss guides the reader through the complex interactions among politics, media organizations, and Japanese journalism to demonstrate how NHK television news became a shaper of Japan's political world, rather than simply a lens through which to view it.

Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan

Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan PDF Author: Jeff Kingston
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317234367
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
In twenty-first century Japan there are numerous instances of media harassment, intimidation, censorship and self-censorship that undermine the freedom of the press and influence how the news is reported. Since Abe returned to power in 2012, the recrudescence of nationalism under his leadership has emboldened right-wing activists and organizations targeting liberal media outlets, journalists, peace museums and ethnic Korean residents in Japan. This ongoing culture war involves the media, school textbooks, constitutional revision, pacifism and security doctrine. This text is divided into five sections that cover: Politics of press freedom; The legal landscape; History and culture; Marginalization; PR, public diplomacy and manipulating opinion. Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan brings together contributions from an international and interdisciplinary line-up of academics and journalists intimately familiar with the current climate, in order to discuss and evaluate these issues and explore potential future outcomes. It is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand contemporary Japan and the politics of freedom of expression and transparency in the Abe era. It will appeal to students, academics, Japan specialists, journalists, legal scholars, historians, political scientists, sociologists, and those engaged in human rights, media studies and Asian Studies.

Closing the Shop

Closing the Shop PDF Author: Laurie Anne Freeman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691059543
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 275

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Book Description
How is the relationship between the Japanese state and Japanese society mediated by the press? Does the pervasive system of press clubs, and the regulations underlying them, alter or even censor the way news is reported in Japan? Who benefits from the press club system? And who loses? Here Laurie Anne Freeman examines the subtle, highly interconnected relationship between journalists and news sources in Japan. Beginning with a historical overview of the relationship between the press, politics, and the public, she describes how Japanese press clubs act as "information cartels," limiting competition among news organizations and rigidly structuring relations through strict rules and sanctions. She also shows how the web of interrelations extends into, and is reinforced by, media industry associations and business groups (keiretsu). Political news and information are conveyed to the public in Japan, but because of institutional constraints, they are conveyed in a highly delimited fashion that narrows the range of societal inquiry into the political process. Closing the Shop shows us how the press system in Japan serves as neither a watchdog nor a lapdog. Nor does the state directly control the press in ways Westerners might think of as censorship. The level of interconnectedness, through both official and unofficial channels, helps set the agenda and terms of political debate in Japan's mass media to an extent that is unimaginable to many in the United States and other advanced industrial democracies. This fascinating look at Japan's information cartels provides a critical but often overlooked explanation for the overall power and autonomy enjoyed by the Japanese state.

The State and the Mass Media in Japan, 1918-1945

The State and the Mass Media in Japan, 1918-1945 PDF Author: Gregory J. Kasza
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520913790
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Gregory Kasza examines state-society relations in interwar Japan through a case study of public policy toward radio, film, newspapers, and magazines.