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JOURNALISTS ON JAPAN PART TWO
RESPONSES TO MY "JOURNALISTS ON JAPAN" ARTICLE
(original article available here)

were varied in tone. Many were incredulous, moreover, derisive about my consipiratorial tone. Others were more, "if what you say is true, it just won't do". Practically no respondents in this first salvo of answers identified themselves as journalists. Which was a pity, because it was them in particular whose opinions I wanted. Here is a sampling:

From: FU
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998

A very minor point, but:

Dave writes:
>Dave Barry ... comes to Japan to write a book. He gets assigned an interpreter (I read "gaijin handler") Ishikawa Hiroshi, from the Foreign Press Center in Tokyo, and winds up doing some pre-arranged interviews.

Dave Barry is not an impoverished journalism student. Why doesn't he have the initiative to find and hire his own interpreter and line up his own sight-seeing and interviews? How come Barry relies on the FPC? How come he lets himself "get assigned" an interpreter?

It's _easier_ that way. There is no requirement (asserts this non-journalist) that journalists have to use FPC staff. But it's sooo much easier. They'll even do your homework for you.

Yrs, FU

Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998
From: DS

FU wrote:
>Dave Barry is not an impoverished journalism student. Why doesn't he have the initiative to find and hire his own interpreter and line up his own sight-seeing and interviews? How come Barry relies on the FPC? How come he lets himself "get assigned" an interpreter? It's _easier_ that way. There is no requirement (asserts this non-journalist) that journalists have to use FPC staff. But it's sooo much easier. They'll even do your homework for you.

I was watching the Dave Barry debacle from a distance, with that sense of hopelessness you get when you can see a disaster happening but can do nothing about it.

The FPC's great problem is that it can do nothing without a direct request from the journalist. Every so often there is someone who sends along the message: "Please let me know the schedule of what you have arranged for me, and then I can start to fix my interviews." The patient reply goes back, "Since you have not yet told us what you wish to cover, we have not been able to start on your schedule." But a lot of the requests, made with such panache, are the same tired old cliches, either from the journalist or from the editor who is sending him/her: the wonderful school system, the caring police in the koban, those quaintly-dressed kids who dance at Harajuku on Sundays, the status of the Japanese woman, the regimented workforce, and - oh! brilliant and innovative idea! - a day in the life of a sumo wrestler (this is the way of avoiding all homework - you just want to follow the guy around and write down what you think you are seeing).

I repeat: the Foreign Press Center is there to try to fix people up with what they ask for. Handling only comes into it when they ask for *really* stupid things. (It's a long time back now, but there was one eager beaver who wrote, "To prepare myself for my visit, I have read 'Shogun'.")

DS

Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998
From: DS again

Just a few extra comments on the great Aldwinckle journalistic conspiracy theory:

There are currently 862 accredited journalists in Japan working for a total of 280 media companies of 43 countries. Of these 862, 462 are foreigners whose experience of Japan ranges from 'just-arrived' to 'but who's counting?'; the remainder are Japanese employed by foreign companies.

The Foreign Press Center has a total staff of 27, of whom five arrange interviews for journalists - six if you count the kacho, who does in fact do quite a bit of hands-on work himself. Another four deal with clippings and research requests.

Most of the resident journalists do their own fact-finding and set up their own interviews (or get their Japanese staff to do the groundwork). Just what do you think would happen if they all sat back and waited for the FPC to do it for them? These residents are, in theory, entitled to ask FPC, but the system is predicated upon the assumption that most of them do NOT do this. The resources won't stretch that far.

It is true that FPC spends a lot of time, relatively speaking, on journalists who visit for a couple of weeks. Why? I'd like to suggest that it's because they're the ones who need the most help. (How many of us residents accomplished much in our first two weeks here?)

(Do you recall the judge who asked a habitual criminal why he was always robbing banks; the robber replied, patiently, "Because that's where the money is, judge." Before we go into conspiracy theories, let's try the commonsense view.)

DS

Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998
From: TF

To DS:

Aren't you being a bit harsh by denouncing Dave Aldwinckle's thoughtful essay as a "conspiracy theory"? It seems that the epithet conspiracy theory is a silver bullet to stifle dissent. Anyone attempting a novel interpretation to a complex problem is branded a conspiracy theorist, and the debate immediately shifts to the sanity of the theorist, rather than the content of his ideas.

There are many fine journalists in Japan. There are also many foreign journalists who could not even find Osaka on a map before they got their assignment. A sports journalist who did not know the infield fly rule would be unmasked in short order. A financial journalist who did not know what the S & P is would not last too long. Only in Japan do we find such ignorance between the by-lines. I think it is reasonable to ask how this outrage started, and how it can continue. With so many foreigners who speak Japanese and have studied Japanese society, why is it that so many neophytes get tabbed to do the reporting? Can't we do better than this? Is it by accident or design?

TF
Attorney

Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998
From: JEP

TF wrote: > > There are many fine journalists in Japan. There are also many foreign journalists who could not even find Osaka on a map before they got their assignment. A sports journalist who did not know the infield fly rule would be unmasked in short order. A financial journalist who did not know what the S & P is would not last too long. Only in Japan do we find such ignorance between the by-lines.

This is hardly unique to Japan, but is characteristic of foreign affairs coverage in general in the U.S. If you want to find really bad coverage look at what too many reporters write about Africa. There are exceptions, but I don't know whether to laugh or cry at some of the stuff I read. On balance I have to say that coverage of Japan is much better.

TF also wrote:>> I think it is reasonable to ask how this outrage started, and how it can continue.

Isn't it obviously market forces? A free press means whatever sells enough to make a profit, or at least what someone will pay enough to see in print. As long as Americans care very little about foreign news they will continue to get bad reporting (not that Japanese, or anyone else, necessarily get much better). I am very grateful for the variety of on-line sources now available (including dfs of course) so that I can access a wider variety of information.

JEP

From: LC
To: FU
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998

On Tue, 14 Apr 1998, FU wrote:
>[Hey, everyone ],
The _last_ thing I would want to suggest is that all journalists who use the FPC are lazy. My apologies (to journalists, the FPC, and list readers) if it even remotely sounded like I was saying that.

My intention was to say that Barry was lazy if he let himself be guided entirely by the FPC -- if he did not do his own homework but just said, in effect, "Hey, I'm a big syndicated columnist. Set some stuff up for me." I was reacting to the other Dave's implication that Barry "had to rely on the FPC and 'got assigned' an FPC handler."

He should take advantage of the wealth of information the FPC makes available, but this is different from putting himself entirely in the FPC's hands.

<snip>

LC replies:
Dave Barry is a *comedian* for crying out loud. He's not a journalist, and he doesn't play one on TV, either. He does refer to himself as one sometimes, but anyone who can't feel the sarcasm in this is numb.

Barry writes . . . comedy. Anyone who looks to him for the deep, inner secrets of Japanese society -- or anything else save perhaps how to make people laugh -- deserves our deepest pity.

LC

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998
From: DMC

Among the problems with Aldwinckle's media critique is one of simple logic. If information is secreted away by Japanese bureaucrats and co-conspiring media, then how can Aldwinckle believe that he has adequate data with which to evaluate the reporting of others? Delete the moral swaggering and you get Aldwinckle saying, "Look, I know what's really going on, and you probably do too. So let's set everything straight for all the 'little people' who know nothing and believe everything they read." It reminds me of the mass transit paradox in Los Angeles. Chronic smog and traffic jams have made Angelenos accept rising taxes for bond issues to build new train lines. But who is going to use the rail system? No one who doesn't currently ride the bus. Everyone expects that, once the trains are built, everyone ELSE will use them. Then they will be able to drive alone to work unimpeded by traffic or dirty air.

I don't like overly biased, under-researched journalism any more than the next guy. I agree that it is good and important for readers to take writers to task on specific factual points and I share a measure of concern about concentration of ownership of U.S. media. But I see no reason to insist that the NYT, Washington Post or any particular publication meet any individual's standards, when a multiplicity of sources--from books, to magazines, scholarly work and even mailing lists--seem certain to exceed them.

DMC

Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998
From: FS

Thank you David for faxing " Where children rule " . Too bad that I don't take The New York Times : I have no subscription that I can cancel ! Of course, the man is honest and honestly writes about what he .... doesn't know. If you are interested, maybe you could find through your school recent statistics about the number of students ( from elementary to high schools, in the public system ) who simply have no idea of what is going on except at gymnastics and school lunch time. It is true that Japanese students' performances are high by international standards.The writer doesn't elaborate on the way those skills are acquired. Strange that he wasn't curious enough to attend a few classes at some neighbourhood "juku " [cram schools].....

FS

Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998
From: RR

Dave,

The press is part and parcel of the US statist/elite, representing their interests and outlook. Basically, they are propagandists. Just look at how Pol Pot is always mentioned with Hitler and Stalin as a mass murderer, but there is little written about Suharto, who has killed (and continues to kill in East Timor) to an extent equal to that of Pol Pot, but with US and pommie weapons and support. The big joke is how so many people think the US (international fascist press) media is somehow 'liberal' or 'leftist' when basically they are all party hacks. What would they know or care about Japan anyway?

Dave wrote: 1) 'Information is far more tightly "controlled" (meaning decisions on what is made public is more often skewed in favor of the powers that be) within the Japanese media than in the West. And for foreign correspondents, access to that information is even more controlled. '

Dave, who are you kidding? The media in the West is tightly controlled as well, in favor of the powers that be, the newspaper owners and advertisers. There is no such thing as a free press in the West, except of course the Internet, which is why governments (the elite, the same as the newspaper owners and advertisers) seem to hate it. Information is always tightly controlled, which is why a guy like you has litle or no chance of getting published.

Your analysis of Japan is always insightful, but you seem very naive when looking at the US and state capitalist society in general.

RR

Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998
From: JD

Let me say that I'm by and large a supporter of Mr Aldwinckle and his one-man crusades, but in this particular instance I fear he has picked the wrong target and I would like to encourage him to channel his considerable energies into more productive areas.

Journalism is by its very nature ephemeral and one can hardly expect it to live up to standards of scholarly research. Moreover, these days we live in a pluralistic society where contrasting views of the world are constantly competing with each other. One hopes in our modern democratic and postmodernist society that people are intelligent enough to question the nature of the information they are being given (not that most people give the matter that much thought) and that anyway 'truth will out' in the end. It smacks too much of paranoid conspiracy theory to suggest that the image of Japan is being manipulated. Most people get things slightly wrong, none have a monopoly on truth, and to ask that foreign journalists comply with the perception of Japan as seen from Hokkaido seems to be not only undesirable but arrogant and possibly dangerous. Is Japan changing? In some ways the answer is clearly yes, but in other ways it is possible to argue that it isn't. The perception is in the eye of the beholder, and there's no right or wrong here as Mr. Aldwinckle suggests.

Furthermore, Mr. Aldwinckle seems to be demanding that all journalistic assertions be backed up by facts and hard evidence - politicians, presidents of the United States, Princess Di and most of the most powerful people in the world have had cause to complain about bad reporting, but even they cannot achieve the ideal world Mr. Aldwinckle apparently seeks. A free press means the freedom to speculate and to write nonsense, one reason why journalists have the lowest public approval rating of any profession in Britain at least.

Personally I am just as interested to read about one of Japan's 'model schools' that some foreign correspondent has been 'guided to' as to read about David Aldwinckle's local school, because both in a sense provide an opportunity for insights into the culture. It all depends on the quality of the writing. And while suggesting that most journalists don't know enough about Japan, Mr. Aldwinckle goes on to quote Dave Barry with enthusiasm - a writer whose whole book was predicated on his prior ignorance of the culture. Like others on this list, I enjoyed Dave Barry's book and found hardly anything to disagree with. Why should lack of prior knowledge or language skills disenfranchise someone?

And even as I write, the new correspondent of the BBC world service is reporting from Japan on a festival in Nagoya with 'the world's biggest penis'. Whether this constitutes the kind of reporting that upsets Mr. Aldwincle I'm not sure, but it's certainly got me hooked. In fact I'm signing off to listen to the interviews with the excited women who are explaining why they want to touch it........

JD

That last one got me. I just had to write a response. See it here.