1 Melanie Wilcox Journalism Abroad Media Censorship in Japan
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Melanie Wilcox Journalism Abroad Media Censorship in Japan Introduction Japan’s Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index (WPFI) ranking dropped 11 places from No. 61 in 2015 to No. 72 in 2016.1 While press freedom in Asia has declined, Japan’s descent demands attention because it has the criteria of a country that would typically have a high level of press freedom: it’s a developed country that has the world’s third- largest economy and a democracy that guarantees freedom of speech, press and assembly. Three main factors have caused Japan to fall in the rankings: the enactment of the 2014 Secrets Law, Shinzo Abe’s administration, and a culture of self-censorship within the kisha (press) clubs. These three “s’s” – the Secrets Law, Shinzo Abe, and self-censorship – coupled with the 2011 Fukushima nuclear meltdown lowered Japan’s ranking. This report also explains why Japan’s WPFI rose to No. 67 in 2018, but the initial steep drop from 2015 requires analysis.2 Secrets Law In 2013 under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s tenure, the Japanese Diet passed the “Designated Secrets Protection Bill,” which enables government officials to keep documents private for up to 60 years with minimal oversight.3 Enacted a year later, the State Special Secrets Law includes up to a 10-year prison sentence for any bureaucrat or journalist who leaks documents and sources the government considers “secret.”4 1 Kaiman, J. 2 2018 World Press Freedom Index 3 Gaens, B. 4 McCurry, J. 1 Proponents argue the Secrets Law will smoothen the exchanges and the sharing of information between Japan’s National Security Council (NSC) and the United States. The United States used to only share intelligence with certain Japanese government offices covered by strict legislation. The creation of the NSC as a centralized umbrella organization has given America confidence to expand intelligence sharing outside of Japan’s Ministry of Defense and Self- Defense Forces. The law expands the number or government offices that can hold state secrets and enforces penalties on journalists and whistleblowers who reveal any information deemed secret.5 Supporters cite concern over China’s military and North Korea’s weapons as a reason alone to enforce the law.6 Opponents argue the Secret Law does not adequately define a “state secret.” If the law prevents films from being made, or weakens freedom of the press, I’ll resign,” Abe famously said. Yet, the vague terminology has discouraged reporters from publishing stories that might instigate legal action, so they self-censor as a preventative strategy. 7 While doing their job, a journalist could ask for secret information without even realizing it, and then be subject to imprisonment.8 They also say that officials will abuse the law by concealing information that may embarrass the government. It interferes with people’s “right to know,” said Susumu Murakoshi, president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. Other critics say the law will take Japan backwards to prewar times, when the state used the Peace Preservation Act to imprison anyone who disagreed with the government’s agenda.9 Proponents view the law as a way for Japan to break away and move forward from the Yoshida Doctrine, created after World War II as a way for Japan to preserve itself and remain 5 Gaens, B. 6 McCurry, J. 7 Furukawa, H., & Denison, R. 8 Kingston, J. (2014, December 13). 9 McCurry, J. 2 insular. They say the Secrets Law will enable Japan’s need to participate in world affairs. Opponents believe it will take Japan to an archaic time of Japanese militarism. Reporters Without Borders called the new law “an unprecedented threat to freedom of information.”10 By the end of 2017, the government had 517 designated state secrets.11 Japan scholar Jeff Kingston writes that Americans know this story well from Nixon blocking the publication of the Pentagon Papers, which revealed details the government did not want the public to know about Vietnam. A similar case can be said about whistleblower Edward Snowden.12 Shinzo Abe Leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Shinzo Abe has served as Prime Minister since 2012. Before that, he served for about a year, between 2006 to 2007, until he resigned due to a series of scandals and poor health.13 Abe wanted to avoid the mistakes of his first term. In addition to passing the Secrets Law, Abe and his administration intervened in media affairs to enhance his favorability ratings. Let’s look at the facts. -- Unwarranted appointments. Abe appointed Katsuto Momii as chairman of NHK, Japan’s national public broadcaster. Momii, who had no media background, downplayed Japan’s comfort women and violence against women in Tokyo at the end of 2000. The Imperial Japanese Army forced comfort women into sexual slavery during World War II. Momii said, “We cannot say left when the government says right” (2013).14 -- Unfair coverage. The government told mainstream television stations how to select news topics, interview subjects, and avoid “one-sided” coverage (2014).15 Abe wrote to television 10 McCurry, J. 11 Jiji. 12 Kingston, J. (2014, December 13). 13 Sieg, L. 14 Beale, Charlotte. 15 Beale, Charlotte. 3 broadcasters ahead of his election, demanding balanced press. The press took that as a signal to tame criticism, or else they would lose access to officials (2014).16 -- Untruthful history. Abe supported neo-nationalist groups and right-wing organizations to discredit the The Asahi Shimbun newspaper for reporting on comfort women. Asahi’s apologized for interviewing a discredited World War II veteran, but rightwing news outlets like Yomoiuri and Sankei criticized Asahi even though they had relied on faulty statements. They did this to minimize any sort of comfort women problem. 17 -- Unjustifiable “public relations.” After the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, Asahi reported that workers disobeyed their manager, Masao Yoshida, and went to a different nuclear power plant about six miles away. Asahi reported this information from Yoshida’s testimony, withheld from the public, including a part about workers fearing for their lives. To the public, the Abe administration made it seem that they were “dedicated plant workers selflessly doing whatever was required to contain the nuclear disaster.”18 Even though Yoshida’s testimony was supposed to be private, Abe’s office leaked the entire transcript to Yomiuri and Sankei so they could respond to Asahi and accuse them of sensationalizing.19 What’s ironic about the situation with Asahi’s discredited reporting is that the liberal- minded paper put together an investigative team in order to regain the public’s trust after the media downplayed Chernobyl. They wanted to regain public trust in the media. Aligned with Abe, other media outlets tried to prevent this from happening. Shinzo Abe has also indirectly affected reporters’ careers. Weighed by the consequences of reporting investigative journalism, several news outlets have fired their most vocal critics. 16 Sieg, L. 17 Kingston, J. (2018). 18Kingston, J. (2018). 19 Kingston, J. (2018). 4 -- Asahi. TV Asahi’s fired a producer of “Hodo Station,” an investigative nightly news program, for not obeying the company’s warnings of lessening his criticism of Abe’s government (2014).20 -- NHK. NHK caved into government pressure and cancelled Hiroko Kuniya’s show Close-up Gendai. It was “one of the few efforts by NHK or any major media outlet to do anything remotely approaching investigative, public-interest journalism, and in a prominent time slow,” Martin Fackler, former Tokyo bureau chief of The New York Times. NHK’s “News Watch 9” anchor Kensuke Okoshi left because he disagreed with a bureaucrat (2015). -- Reuters. Former trade ministry official Shigeaki Koga told Reuters he would not be allowed to appear as a guest commentator anymore because of his criticism of Abe. Koga criticized Abe for not stopping the hostage crisis in which Islamic State militants killed two Japanese captives (2014).21 He said, “We’ve reached the stage where even without the government doing anything, mass media produce articles that cozy up to authorities or refrain from criticism.”22 Self-censorship and Fukushima What’s clear from the research is that the actions of Abe and his administration have intimidated and silenced journalists. While Abe has created a culture of self-censorship, most notably under his Secrets Law, before the law media outlets had been self-censoring to get sources and access to information, like how Yomoiuri and Sankei did with the plant manager’s testimony. It’s no coincidence that Fukushima preceded the Secrets Law by only two years. The public criticized the press for parroting talking points of the government and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) after the Fukushima meltdown. They had valid reasons to do so: TEPCO spends about $192 million per year on advertising. Some say this is why reporters 20 Sieg, L. 21 Sieg, L. 22 Sieg, L. 5 conservatively covered TEPCO. TEPCO has close ties with government officials, and many journalists have ties to TEPCO. Many have gone on to work for pro-nuclear organizations and publications.23 The Fukushima commission chairman Kiyoshi Kurokawa blamed the disaster on Japan’s culture of obedience and reluctance to question authority.24 In fact, Asahi was the only paper that revealed Fukushima’s “culture of complacency, regulatory capture, and cost-cutting measures that compromised public safety.” Proponents of nuclear power in various industries – politics, unions, media, and academia – targeted them, verifying Kurokawa’s hypothesis. Abe’s administration encouraged competing news outlets to discredit anything Asahi reported about what happened at Fukushima. It wasn’t easy for other dissenters to speak up. An NGO filed charges against journalist Mari Takenouchi for tweeting about how the organization was encouraging people to inhabit areas contaminated with radioactivity from Fukushima.