MEDIA Covering Japan's Royals The Imperial family is in crisis, but that's often hard to tell from Japanese media reports on royalty. Conservative editorial policies, self-censorship and the threat of right-wing intimidation prevent the media from opening a proper debate on the Chrysanthemum Throne's role in modern Japan. By Tony McNicol
MEDIA Privacy Lawsuits Send Chilling Effect to Smaller Publications Damage done by privacy lawsuits against major magazines, including one political family's high-profile case, has trickled down to less robust outlets. Publishers say new privacy laws stab at Japan's controversial weeklies. By Bruce Rutledge and Sumie Kawakami
MEDIA Foreign News Organizations Close Japan Bureaus Some personnel move to China and South Korea. Frustration with Japan's exclusive press club system, coupled with Asian stories being overshadowed by Iraq, may be causing news organizations to rethink how they deploy resources. By Jason Testar		MEDIA Publishers Push Return of E-Book E-books failed dismally in Japan and the United States. Japanese publishers now hope that advanced cell phone screens and reading tablets like the Sigmabook will make e-books appealing to readers of the nation's thriving, graphics-based novels. By Michael Thuresson
Japanese Reporters' Political Allegiances Create Bias Political analyst Minoru Morita says his criticisms of the prime minister's party are heavily censored by the Japanese press. He argues that the incumbent party bought the media's favor by treating the press better than other parties have in the past. By Takehiko Kambayashi.
Public Journalism in Japan Dwindling newspaper circulation has Japan's local papers looking for new ways to engage and attract readers. Many are experimenting with civic journalism -- a style of journalism in which the media both cover news and encourage civic engagement -- in the hopes that it will bolster readership.
Journalism's Gender Divide Kazue Sato is a rarity in Japan: She's a female journalist. Sato says some sources consider women reporters inferior to male reporters; one boss threatened to fire her unless she kissed him. Despite the hurdles, Sato says there are upsides to being one of the few female reporters in Japan's male-dominated news industry. By Rema Christy
Smaller Japanese Markets Warm Up to Convergence From the shores of Hiroshima to the foot of Mount Fuji, local newspapers and TV stations are hoping convergence can help them survive tough economic times and increased competition from the Internet, cable and other media industries. By Bruce Rutledge
Press-Government Relations in Japan: Facing Strains and an Opportunity?  Rapid changes in Japanese politics could make for big changes in how journalists operate in Japan. Reporters' cozy relations with politicians -- and their resulting reluctance to publish unflattering reports -- may soon give way to a more independent press. By Ellis S. Krauss.
Anti-Semitic Articles and Books Not Uncommon in Japan With only about 2,000 Jews living in Japan, the Japanese have little firsthand experience with Jewish culture, but they have a great interest in books and articles on the subject. Whole sections of bookstores are devoted to books on Jews -- many of them anti-Semitic.
OhmyNews: Written By the People, for the People The pioneering South Korean news site posts hundreds of stories every day -- most are written by housewives, school kids, professors and other "citizen journalists." Founder Oh Yeon-Ho says his site is changing the definition of journalism -- and who can be a journalist. By Yeon-Jung Yu. By Yeon-Jung Yu.
Citizen Reporters Sound Off Against Traditional Media Why are hundreds of people in Japan and South Korea volunteering to work as reporters at upstart "participatory news" sites? Three "citizen journalists" say they became reporters because they feel the mainstream press simply isn't doing a good job of reporting the news.
How the Japanese Press Became Lapdogs Instead of Watchdogs When political scandal breaks out in Japan, the major papers are often the last to report it. Because their jobs -- and their job security -- are so closely tied to the government, reporters are likely to be co-opted by politicians. By Takehiko Nomura.
New Privacy Laws Threaten Magazines The laws mean companies collecting 'personal information' must notify the people whose data is being collected, and must tell them why their data is being collected. Magazine publishers worry the laws will be used to prevent them from doing investigations. By Bruce Rutledge.
EU Pressures Japan to End Closed-Door Press Practices Reporters have fought for decades to end the kisha club system, which prevents foreign and non-mainstream reporters from attending many press briefings and getting official press releases. Now opponents of the system have a powerful new ally: The European Union. By Bryan Shih
King of Japanese TV not Sold on the Web Japan's most watched television network doesn't spend much time or energy posting news online. Managers there believe that viewers don't really go to the Web for news -- or for much else. By Jane Ellen Stevens
TV News in Japan: Reporting on Politics or Shaping it? Once the undisputed champion of TV news, Japan's staid public TV station now takes a backseat to commercial news shows, which are more likely to criticize government and politicians. This recent change in TV news helps explain the rising public cynicism and demands for reform in Japan.  By Ellis Krauss.
Going Paperless in Japan Mainichi stopped printing its English-language edition in 2001, deciding instead to publish it exclusively online. The move has paid off: The Mainichi Daily News' slick design and tabloid take on the news have made it Japan's most popular English-language daily. By Jane Ellen Stevens.
JanJan: A Little Online Daily With Big Dreams Frustrated with the complacent reporting offered up by Japan's daily papers, journalist and former mayor Ken Takeuchi recently launched Japan's first serious alternative online daily. He hopes to follow in the footsteps of OhmyNews, Korea's wildly successful online news publication. By Tim Clark.
Q&A With Bruce Rutledge From J@pan Inc Magazine Bruce Rutledge, editor of J@pan Inc magazine, explains the latest innovations in Japanese technology to a worldwide audience. Freelancer Tama Miyake recently asked Rutledge for his take on how the Internet, wireless and other emerging technologies will change journalism in Japan.
Asahi's Wireless Magic Act While most of the world's media companies have yet to figure out a way to coax readers to pay for online news, Japan's No. 2 newspaper is making $200,000 a year selling wireless news to more than 1 million subscribers. How do they do it? They're giving people what they want -- a news feed heavy on sports and entertainment news. By Jane Ellen Stevens.
Yomiuri Shimbun's Reluctant Race Against the Internet The Yomiuri's circulation of 14 million makes it the world's largest daily newspaper, but even this media giant worries about losing readers to the Internet. Subscriptions are down, ad revenues are down -- newspapers face "a big crisis in Japan," says one Yomiuri insider. Can online and wireless distribution help the paper survive the IT revolution?
Is the Japanese Press a Dinosaur in the 21st Century? Japan's young adults seem more interested in the wireless Internet, video games and entertainment than in the staid news product the major papers deliver. Can Japan's newspapers survive the IT revolution? An analysis by the head of Yomiuri's digital division.
Online News in Japan: Popular, but Not Profitable Japan's largest newspaper Web sites run 24-hour news operations and get hundreds of millions of page views per month. But many new media pioneers are still unsure where news sites fit into the media mix in Japan -- and whether they'll ever make money.
Japan Media: The Stone Unturned Though Japan is awash in media, few scholars have made it their business to study the media and their influence on Japanese society. This academic paper is one of the first to examine Japan's media and the state of Japanese media criticism and research. By Barbara Gatzen.
Q&A With Asahi.com One of Japan's largest dailies, Asahi Shimbun draws huge readership to Asahi.com, where an estimated 2 million readers view an average of 6 million pages per day. But like many online publications, Asahi.com has yet to figure out how to turn those page views into profits.
The Freeing of the Press Despite the Web's tentative debut in Japan, many predict the Internet will eventually become a major new alternate source of news, and could challenge the media monopoly now in the hands of a few major companies. By Daniel Scuka, Kyoko Fujimoto and Chiaki Kitada.
Public Broadcasting, Media Ownership and Democratic Debate in Japan A look at how politicians and corporations have pressured media to steer clear of hard-nosed reporting critical of business and government. By Barbara Gatzen.