The Japanese Press (9)

The Japanese press uses a press club structure known as the Kisha. According to Nihon Shinbun Kyokai Editorial Affairs Committee, the Kisha is described as a, "voluntary institution for news-gathering and news-reporting activities".

The question to ask is how voluntary is this club?

Japan has always been shrouded by political scandals such as the 1970 oil crises. Such scandals have always been uncovered and reported on by western media groups as opposed to their own media institutes.

The reasons behind this come down to how these press groups work internally. On the surface, the information cartel in Japan works in a similar way to that of the Western world, with a small but powerful group of conglomerates vetting and deciding what makes news.

In Japan, the Kisha is over seen by the L.D.P, the ruling government body. The freedom of the press in Japan is guaranteed by constitutional law and therefore they are not allowed to interfere with what is produced.

This is all theoretical because in practise you actually have the press clubs being run by the government through what can only be described as blackmail and bribery.

As well as the press offices being rented out by the government to the Kisha at extremely competitive prices, the Kisha are given prime access to all political press conferences and information unavailable to those outside this realm.

In return the government’s request is simple, no bad press can be written about the political affairs of the Japanese government. To secure this request, the government will black-list any members found writing anything that doesn’t shed them in a positive light.

To be blacklisted would equate to definite closure of an individual press group not meeting these standards.

Unlike our journalists and reporters looking for the big scoop to win them presidency among their peers, the journalists in Japan will do anything to keep favour with the government that effectively tie their hands.

The only time the government is written about in a bad light is after the other individual papers had already written about it and then the Kisha reports only on already in circulation old news.

So yes, it’s fair to say the Kisha is a voluntary form of news gathering in as much as no one forces them to be part of the kisha. But without being part of it you won’t get cheap office space nor will you gain access to the information that your competitors don’t have. Whether in the western world or Japan it is safe to say due to the competitive nature of the press, a paper would not survive without these factors.