The Formation of a Modern Mass Press in Japan Given the Politically
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CHAPTER ONE THE FORMATION OF A MODERN MASS PRESS IN JAPAN There are only a few countries in which the press had become such an important factor of cultural develop- ment as in the ‘Empire of the Rising Sun.’ [. .] Today, Japan’s press marches in the vanguard of the world press, in terms of the circulation figures of individual newspapers as well as technical facilities. (Karl d’Ester) Given the politically turbulent times before and after the Meiji Restoration (1868) (Meiji ishin),1 most of the newspapers founded in Japan in the 19th century had a political background as well. They belonged to an early type of newspapers that German press historian Heinz-Dietrich Fischer has defined as ‘tendency press’ (Tendenzpresse) for the European case. According to Fischer, the tendency press of the 19th century can be described as “a specific form of periodical which supports, either by direct dependence, indirect connection, or mere sympathy [. .] the objective of a political group” (Fischer 1981: ix). With the exception of the first English- language financial newspapers, founded in Japan by foreign journalists already during the Bakumatsu period (1853–1868),2 the earliest political newspapers were published under the supervision of the tarnished bakufu3 in order to gain influence on public opinion and the political situation. In particular, there are two publications from the so-called ‘Keiō press’ (named after the Keiō period, 1865–1868) of this period were important: the Chūgai shinbun (founded 1868), published by Yanagawa Shunsan,4 and 1 The term Meiji Restoration refers to the re-establishment of the Imperial Reign in 1868. 2 The Nagasaki List and Advertizer (1861) by the Englishman H.W. Hansard, The Japan Herald (1861) by Scotsman John R. Black, The Japan Commercial News (1863) by the Portu- guese F. da Roza, or the Kaigai shinbun (1864/65) published by Joseph Heco, an American of Japanese origin. 3 This was the name of the feudal regime in Japan up to the end of the Edo period (ca. 1600–1868). 4 Yanagawa Shunsan (1832–1870) was one of the first modern Japanese journalists (Huff- man 1997: 32) and one of the first assistants at the successor organization of the Research Institute for Western Books, kaiseijo, founded in 1863. the formation of a modern mass press in japan 9 the Kōko shinbun (founded 1868) by Fukuchi Gen’ichirō.5 The publish- ers of both newspapers had close personal ties to the bakufu shogunate. Accordingly, the news coverage of both periodicals—of which the for- mer once reached a circulation of more than 1,500 copies—was oriented against a restoration of the Emperor and towards the preservation of the shogunate. In addition to these ‘official’ papers, which were supported by the bakufu, dozens of other newspapers taking a position against the gov- ernment were also launched. Indeed this period was a time of relatively free expression of opinion and open discussion among the intellectual and political strata in Japan. Despite the fact that the fifth article of the Charter Oath (Gokajō no goseimon) pronounced by Emperor Meiji in 1868, outlining the main aims and the course of action for Japan’s moderniza- tion, stated that “all matters [were to be] decided by open discussion (kōron),”6 the year of the Meiji Restoration saw yet again a suppression of the freedom of expression by means of an absolute ban on publica- tion (hakkō kinshi) in order to stabilize the political situation. From that time onward, every publication was subject to the approval of the then newly established Meiji government. However, the officials soon had to recognize that a press law that was too restrictive was far from appropri- ate to their own modernization campaigns. Therefore, only a year later, the government enacted a rather liberal eight-article edict for the pub- lication of newspapers (shinbunshi inkō jōrei). This edict abolished pre- censorship, though it maintained the system of authorization by the state, and it transferred the full responsibility for the newspaper’s contents to its respective publishers. The ensuing situation in the first years of the Meiji period (1868–1912), which was politically a relatively liberal period, witnessed a multitude of newspaper start-ups by private entrepreneurs. Most of these papers had a particular political character and can be classified according to their polit- ical faction. The first of these was the group of conservative newspapers (kanken-ha), which advanced official and government-friendly opinions. 5 Fukuchi Gen’ichirō (1841–1906) was one of the most famous journalists of the Tōkyō nichinichi shinbun. In 1888, he started to work for the Yamato newspaper. In 1904 he was elected a member of the Japanese parliament. 6 This was, for the first time in Japan’s modern history, that the idea of the term ‘public’ (kō/oyake) was not related to the idea of ‘official,’ ‘formal,’ or ‘governing authority,’ but to that of a public sphere or ‘society’ in general. Jürgen Habermas has described a similar conceptual shift for the case of Europe in his landmark study The Structural Transforma- tion of the Public Sphere (1962)..