Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Everything you ever needed to know about the Japanese media

Via Joël J. Legendre comes a link to a truly encyclopedic report from the US government on the state of the Japanese media, up to and including a wide variety of digital media.

You can find the report here.

The whole report is worth reading, although perhaps not in one sitting, and keeping as a reference.

I found this quote particularly useful:
Compared to three decades ago, there are many more opinion magazines that express right-wing views about history and security. Although the authors of such articles are relatively limited in number, they now find numerous outlets for their views. This fact tends to amplify right-wing voices beyond their actual influence and crowd out countervailing opinions from the political center and left. [Emphasis original]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Not only are nationalists emboldened by the proliferation of media, one of the last remaining forces for tolorant, principled conservative resistance that might have challenged the agenda-setting of the extreme right died with the suspension of the monthly magazine Shokun!

Japan needs nationalism. But it needs a healthy nationalism -- not the militant, extremist brand that for whatever reason seems to find such fertile soil in state ideology, the education system and in cultural life in the country in general.