Japan's Mainstream Press: Freedom to Conform?

Abstract

T HE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS, along with other natural rights like of religion, assembly, and speech, is enshrined in Japan's political system by the 1947 constitution. Over the past forty years, unleashed by this right, a vast has emerged to satisfy the reading, viewing, and listening needs of one of the world's most literate populations. Japan has over 180 newspapers with a daily circulation of over 40 million, about 100 important weekly magazines with a combined yearly circulation of 1 billion, and about two thousand monthly magazines with a yearly circulation of 2 billion. In addition, there are 1,502 VHF and 9,453 UHF television stations, and 1,018 radio stations.' Althought the mass media is sometimes called the fourth branch of government, can one make meaningful generalizations about the political influence and orientation of the in Japan or any other liberal democratic country which guarantees freedom of the press? If the press is really free, would not the subsequent diversity of political views make any generalizations about the meaningless? Apparently most Japanese political groups not only believe there is a monolithic block called the media, but also ascribe to it vast political influence. A 1980 survey of eleven groups, which included business organizations, bureaucrats, Liberal Democratic Party members, farm organizations, media, intellectuals, labor unions, opposition parties, citizen movements, feminist groups, and the Buraku Liberation League, found that almost every group considered the to be the most influential group in Japanese society.2 The only exception was the which ranked itself second in importance while asserting that the bureaucrats were the most influential group. While united in their view that the was the most influential force in society, these groups strongly differed over the media's political orientation. The conservative groups consider the too far to the left, while leftist groups label the too far to the right.3