to pressures to censor and self-censor the news. Those who specialize in political culture suggest that, historically, certain societies have put heavy pressures on citizens to conform. Japan is one such country; indeed, it has been described as a consensus polity. On the other hand, today the Japanese media report highly controversial stories that can disrupt that consensus. Studies on the Japanese news media indicate that the public's right to know is generally respected. But numerous reports also suggest that media behavior falls short of the ideal. These considerations suggest that among people who work in the Japanese media, some are more censorious than others, which in turn raises the question why. In this article I formulate a set of hypotheses about the determinants of censorship among Japanese media people, then test the hypotheses with data from a 1995 survey. I conclude with implications for the future of media freedom in Japan.