Tokyo-based political analyst Minoru Morita's views have been quoted by everyone from The New York Times to the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Christian Science Monitor, The Economist and The Financial Times. A staunch critic of Japan's politicians -- and the media who cover them -- Morita is one of few analysts who has repeatedly questioned Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's reforms and qualifications as a leader -- even at a time when his approval ratings were sky-high, nearly 90 percent. Though he is frequently quoted by Japanese and foreign media, Morita -- Chairman of Morita Research Institute -- said his criticism is often censored by the mainstream media. Morita -- who was director of a major publishing company, Nippon-Hyoron Sha, and editor of its major economic magazine before becoming an independent political analyst -- says the mainstream media should be watchdogs who keep a close eye on politicians, government and businesses. Instead, he said, they act as servants of those in power. Morita spoke recently with reporter Takehiko Kambayashi about Japan's politicians, and the media who cover them: Japan Media Review: You have said on your Web site that your criticism of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is often ignored by the major media. Minoru Morita: It seems if I criticize the LDP [the ruling Liberal Democratic Party] or the New Komeito [a coalition partner] on TV, a network is pressured by the parties' officials. I hear they protest against a network regarding contents of my speech. So when a network needs my comments, they more often interview me on camera in advance, not live. In some instances, TV staff members carefully check what I said, and pick up some comments which are not likely to be complained about by the LDP. Because I've been doing this job for more than 20 years, I'm fully aware of the limit of expression. I fully understand what gets you sued for injury to someone's reputation. I have never been sued. Never have I been involved in any trouble. One time, the LDP and the New Komeito put so much pressure on major networks because of my comments. The networks could have solved such troubles if they had terminated my contract. But if indeed they had done this, people would have come to know that was due to the pressure. It seems they overcame the problem by taping my interview and screening my comments in advance. However, there are some courageous directors, so I have some chance for appearing on a live program. Still, their companies' leaders are very much concerned about whether they might get a complaint from the ruling parties. Omission in print and on broadcast is not something new in my experience. There are also cases in which some comments in my opinion column were cut without telling me anything. One terrible case I can recall is with a magazine published by the Yomiuri Shimbun. My column was reduced to a third of the original in the magazine. When I protested against the paper, its editor told me that his superior said, "Let us read Morita's article," and that they abruptly cut it down. The editor said he had no choice. I responded, yelling at him, "As an editor, shame on you!" Major networks are under strict scrutiny of the government. Some of them have almost become a public relations department of the Koizumi Cabinet. Prime Minister Koizumi is taking full advantage of the broadcast media. Before the emergence of Mr. Koizumi, TV stations were pressured and blasted by LDP leaders, especially Hiromu Nonaka, a former LDP secretary general; Yoshiro Mori, a former prime minister; and Muneo Suzuki, another former secretary general. Mr. Nonaka is said to have even called up a department manager and complained about their coverage. He attacked the manager's responsibility relentlessly. So when Mr. Koizumi ran for LDP president in the spring of 2001, networks' frustration toward Mr. Nonaka and his cohorts exploded. They supported Mr. Koizumi and Ms. Makiko Tanaka, and made Mr. Koizumi and Ms. Tanaka big TV stars. They were supposed to be non-partisan according to the Broadcast Law, but they dumped it. Moreover, Mr. Koizumi, running for the LDP presidency in 2001, repeatedly shouted the same sound bites: "I will change the LDP. I will change Japan. No economic recovery without structural reform." And he won the race. It is said that the slogan was produced by a public relations firm. You can say it in 15 seconds, so all the words can be included in news. Meanwhile, when the media quoted the other three candidates -- Taro Aso, Shizuka Kamei and Ryutaro Hashimoto -- their quotes were only small part of their long talks. So, in many cases, the public did not understand what they were trying to say. In this way, the effective advertisement made Mr. Koizumi become very popular. JMR: Do major network staff still support Mr. Koizumi? MM: Many of TV staff members like him very much. And they also think they created the Koizumi Cabinet. The same staff members who believe so keep their position and support him. The major national networks were closely linked to the LDP from the very beginning. The LDP administrations helped establish them, and they are basically LDP supporters. Although there are some staff members who argue, "We should not be biased politically," they cannot usually play a leading role in office. Major newspapers, which own national networks, don't have as many anti-LDP staff as many of them were until the 1970s. Basically, almost every one of them supports the LDP now. Journalism supported Mr. Koizumi by attacking other LDP members who opposed Mr. Koizumi's policies as "resistance forces." Those who got labeled struggled in the election in November. Some of them actually lost. Even major players who usually don't have any problems in election had a tough time, too. Thus, many of so-called resistance forces were crushed to pieces this time. JMR: You have criticized the way the major media covered the LDP presidential race in September. Could you elaborate on that? MM: I saw a problem during the LDP presidential race this year. The intraparty race officially started on September 8 and was held on September 20. From September 4 to 6, however, major newspapers declared loudly that "Prime Minister Koizumi is expected to be re-elected." Major networks followed suit on September 8, the day the race officially started. This report struck a severe blow to the anti-Koizumi camp. I also tell you about my experience. It was at TV Tokyo. On the day the race started, the network's political reporter declared, "Practically speaking, Mr. Koizumi's re-election is considered a sure thing." So, I criticized his comment, saying that "the election just started today. It will be decided on September 20. So you should not say that." I encountered a similar case at Fuji Network. One of its news commentators relentlessly criticized the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). Then again I cautioned him against the remarks on air. Such networks totally forgot the basic rule of "non-partisan" and became a cheerleader of the Koizumi Cabinet. That is the degradation of networks. JMR: Do you think the media provided enough coverage of issues that people are concerned about before the race? MM: No, they didn't. It is the media's role to provide a public discourse on issues people are concerned about and try to link people's voice to how an LDP leader should be. On the contrary, from the very beginning they declared "Mr. Koizumi looks set for re-election." The media was interested in only the result of the race, and tried to direct the race to Mr. Koizumi's victory. JMR: Speaking of those who support Koizumi at major networks, who are they? MM: At major networks ... to get a TV job, you have to go through really fierce competition, in which only one out of several hundred applicants is usually admitted. Virtually every one of them is an "elite" of academic snobbism and many of them support Mr. Koizumi's structural reforms. Network staff members seem to have had a conservative and American-style education at a brand-name university. Universities are by nature very conservative and many of their professors received education in the U.S. Many of such elites are from affluent families and were pressured to study hard since their infancy. These elites who have never experienced suffering and setbacks in life are doing journalism. I would say if you don't go through any setbacks, that is tantamount to knowing nothing. People learn things in society and become smart through some setbacks. Children from an affluent class, which emerged during a high economic growth period after World War II, received an education that puts an excessive emphasis on rote learning, and they made it to brand-name universities. Then they passed a company's test and got a job at major newspapers and networks. A major network in Japan consists of a small number of elite regular employees and many subcontractors. I would say this is a well-established ranked society. Elite members act like a lord while such subcontractors are treated as if they were slaves. These elite employees -- who don't know harsh realities of life, who don't try to know them -- are not qualified for a journalism job. I believe it's wrong. On the night of the Lower House election (November 9), I was asked to sit on Fuji Network's special election program. The network created the program mainly covering Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara and his family. His oldest son, Nobuteru, is a minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The second oldest son, Yoshizumi -- who is normally a weatherman for the Fuji network -- was sitting on an anchorperson's chair, hosting the show. The third one, Hirotaka, was running in the Tokyo third district race. And the program was planned based on the assumption that Hirotaka would be elected. I have to say that was a flattering program about the Ishihara family. However, his son Hirotaka ended up losing the race. I think it is shameful to carry out such a program if you are a journalist with good sense. But Fuji Network actually did it. Major networks are also obsessed with ratings. You see terrible examples especially in NTV (Nippon Television), whose bosses such as president often holler, "We need higher ratings!" So we witness a recent fiasco of the network: One TV producer managed to locate targeted audiences for a rating research company, Video Research Ltd. (See Japan Media Review News Digest, 10.25.03) He bribed them, asking them to watch programs produced by him in exchange for the gift. That created a huge controversy. I believe journalism is based on morals, public trust and common knowledge accumulated by human beings for a long period of time. However, the public's confidence in the media has been eroded. JMR: Some argue most of the news comes from Tokyo, not from provinces. Do you agree? Do you see provinces in the coverage of the major media? MM: I travel to a province to lecture almost every day. I have to say local economy has been in a desperate situation. The other day, I visited one old industrial city in Chugoku region [in the western part of Japan]. The city used to be the industrial hub of the region, thriving until the mid-1950s. But today, the city no longer has big businesses and even mid-sized businesses. The only businesses left are small ones. Big and mid-sized companies that are making good progress moved their offices to Tokyo, shipped their factories to China and said good-bye to the hometown. Local residents have no choice but tolerate lower living standards. It is one of a journalist's roles to impart local concerns and issues in provinces to the general public. Unfortunately, however, journalists in Tokyo are ignorant about the provinces. Major newspapers have a mechanism to distribute information to provinces from Tokyo, especially from the central government and big businesses. But they don't have a mechanism to collect information from provinces and mid-sized and small businesses, and transmit such information to its readers. The population of Tokyo makes up only 10 percent of Japan as a whole, even that of the Tokyo metropolitan areas about 30 percent. That means 70 percent of the population live outside the areas. And you can't avoid seeing shattered streets in most local cities. So, those who live with information fed by the major media seem to regard what you see in Tokyo as the situation in Japan. The other day, I met a British journalist who works with a major publication. Though he is a highly respected person, he considers Tokyo to be a representation of Japan as a whole. I said to him, "The population of Tokyo is only 10 percent of that of the whole country, and 90 percent live outside." When I asked him if he knows the provinces, he was speechless. The major media don't tell the public about mid-sized and small businesses, and situations in provinces. JMR: The major networks wield enormous power in Japan, don't they? MM: There are a large number of people who watch TV from morning to night. Thus, I think if networks don't do a good job, Japan will go in a wrong direction. JMR: What do you believe a journalist should be? MM: I believe one of the basic purposes of journalists is to give hope to the underprivileged. They should also pursue their job with human love, I would say, humanism. Moreover, I believe another basic purpose is to seek truth seriously. Journalists should not believe things just because politicians in a mainstream faction said so. We saw some examples just before the LDP's presidential race in September. Just because some members in a powerful faction started saying, "We are sure Mr. Koizumi will be re-elected," all the major media chorused the phrase repeatedly even before the official start of the race. What I'm saying is that journalists should not do their job in such a haphazard approach. The worst of it is to become a servant of those in power. Unfortunately, however, Japanese journalism today is not really independent of those in power. That is what I've been criticizing. Only major networks and newspapers are privileged to obtain government information [through reporters' clubs called kisha clubs]. They just write stories with such information provided by institutions such as government and police. Because we cannot get it, we have to improve knowledge and skills and hone them to do that. JMR: Critics say journalists working for the major Japanese media don't care about truth -- they produce news to win bosses' favor. MM: Unfortunately, that is the state of journalism today. It's shameful, indeed. They do their job, looking up [at] their boss with one eye just like Japanese flounder that has eyes on one side of the body. If they don't do their job, looking at the public and the world with both eyes, I don't think it's worth choosing this job. In the world of the Western media, reporters are competing with one another, but in Japan that's not the case. Japanese reporters are not trained hard by senior staff. Nor do they receive outright criticism from colleagues. Occasionally I have opportunities to talk with reporters from overseas in places like the foreign press center in Tokyo. One thing I like about Western reporters is that they don't repeat the same question. Japanese reporters, on the other hand, ask the same question dozens of times. I'm tired of this. When they ask a question, it seems to me they haven't discarded preconceived notions. They already have a story line, so they keep asking the same question until they can gain what they want in order to get the story done. If they don't, they repeat the same question dozens of times until they do. They have not been trained to become a genuine journalist.
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