Regnery Publishing, Washington DC - 2004, 444pp
 www.apublicbetrayed.com

A book review written by Pincas Jawetz
(PJ@SustainabiliTank.info),
following a presentation by the authors on March 15, 2005, held
in
the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) briefing
room
on the third floor of the UN Headquarters in New York.

The Japanese news media is one of the largest and technically
sophisticated
in the world. The circulation of Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun is more than
10
million daily readers of its morning edition alone, the evening edition
accounts for another 4 million papers delivered mainly to some of the
same
households and is the highest in the world. Asahi Shimbun, the second
largest, has a total of 12.4 million including an 8.3 million morning
edition with an additional 4 million evening edition. Japan with 128
million
residents, and an 1.1 daily papers delivery to Japan’s households, has
five
national dailies, all among the 20 largest in the world. This compares
with
the combined circulation for the top ten US newspapers that is 10.1
million.
The paper makes the point that despite of this commercial success,
these
papers are dull and augmented for reading the real news delivered by
the
weeklies. While the established press does not present the real news,
the
weeklies are sensationalistic in order to attract attention but also
include
some of the better articles leading to believability also for their
more
atrocious statements. The purpose of the book is an in depth analysis
of
the reason for all of this.

The argument starts with the proposition that the Japanese press is the
major source of information and misinformation about Japan - “In the
uniformity of its interpretation of events, the Japanese press has the
power
to manufacture expedient realities that would suggest a comparison with
the
controlled press of the communist world”, and then the authors proceed
to
try to explain the reasons for this situation.

They find that Japan is the quintessential example of a rich,
industrialized, democratic nation, with a news media that betrayed its
people by providing in trains, subways, buses, on the internet, at the
corner newsstand, even in advertisements in the most trusted dailies
and in
the weekly magazines, banner headlines with a deluge of lies,
misrepresentations, and distortions, that attack foreigners, attack
minorities, rewrite history, and misrepresent current events with
little
consequences.

They find that the average Japanese does not enjoy the standard of
living
that reflects the country’s status as the world’s second largest
economy,
and that only 17% of Japanese parents in Tokyo think that their
children’s
generation will be happier than they have been, contrasting greatly
with
more than 70% of respondents in Seoul who thought so.

The author’s believe that the main reason for this disconnect of the
press
with reality comes from the system of “Press Clubs - called Kisha
Clubs”.
These clubs are really not clubs in the western sense where a press
club,
like any other club, is a social club catering for leisurely
activities. In
Japan, journalists do not write at the paper’s offices but in these
membership kisha clubs where they get the information. “Japanese press
clubs are nothing more than transfer devices”; they function as
mouthpieces
for those interests that hold power in Japan, organize the club, and
provide
them with the information. The newspapers find in this arrangement a
very
low-cost option for filling their pages, and so from a market
perspective,
it is hard for editors and managers to resist. This also leads to the
dullness mentioned above, and to complete lack of information about
topics
the sponsors of the press club, be they the government, the automotive
industry, financial groups, etc., really have no interest for the
public to
know. This dullness of the dailies has then led to the market for the
weeklies as mentioned above.

There is no variation of opinion among newspapers in press club fed
journalism. “With few exceptions, only members of Japanese
establishment
newspapers, broadcasters, and news agencies are allowed to belong.
Writers
for all magazines, political and religious publications, and tabloid
newspapers are banned, as are freelance journalists of all stripes.
Until
1993 writers for all foreign news outlets were also excluded”. Also,
“The
spirit of the kisha has always been to ensure that all the member
reporters receive and release the same information at the same time, so
as
to avoid anyone scooping anyone else”.

At least 800 kisha clubs dominate the establishment press in Japan.
In many cases the membership is restricted to reporters from the
country’s
17 dominant news organizations (( 5 daily national newspapers, 6
national
broadcasters, 2 major news agencies (Kyodo and Jiji), 4 “block” or
major
regional papers, and the Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association
(NHK)
that is the nominal organization in charge of the Kisha )).

Most Kishas are physically attached to, or located within, the building
that
houses their source - the facility paid by the source. Journalists are
also
sometimes given complimentary train passes, entertainment passes, small
gifts, and many sources hold social events designed to provide a casual
atmosphere for source and journalists. A political stir is mentioned
when
it was noted that the voting public is footing the bill for a
government-attached kisha.

Further, a US journalist who wrote for four different English-language
papers in Japan is quoted: “IT IS SAID IN JAPAN THAT IF YOU BELONG TO
A
KISHA CLUB, YOU ARE CERTAIN NOT TO GET THE SCOOP - AND IF YOU DON’T
BELONG
TO THE KISHA CLUB, YOU DON’T GET THE STORY”.

The authors know to point out for our understanding of the malaise -
“Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were not members
of the
elite Washington political press at the time but relatively low on the
journalists ladder as mere metropolitan beat reporters for the
Washington
Post”.