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- Convenor:
-
Jeffrey Kingston
(Temple University Japan)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Tina Burrett
(Sophia University)
- Stream:
- Media Studies
- Location:
- I&D, Piso 4, Multiusos 3
- Sessions:
- Thursday 31 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
Press freedom in contemporary Japan faces many threats. The most dangerous of these threats is the recrudescence of reactionary nationalism led by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. This panel examines state encroachment on the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression. We argue that curtailment of press freedom undermines Japan’s identity as a democracy based on accountability and transparency. Self-censorship, state intimidation, an inhospitable legal context and a deferential press beholden to the government weaken democracy.
Long Abstract:
In 2016 Japan was in the limelight because of sharp drop in its global ranking in the annual survey issued by Reporters without Borders, slipping fifty places to 72nd from 2012 when PM Abe Shinzo came to power. Subsequently, David Kaye, the UN Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression issued a damning assessment in April 2016 highlighting the problems of censorship, weak legal protections, press clubs and media intimidation. Press freedom in contemporary Japan faces many threats. The most dangerous of these threats is the recrudescence of reactionary nationalism led by Prime Minister Abe Shinzo. This panel examines state encroachment on the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression. We argue that curtailment of press freedom undermines Japan’s identity as a democracy based on accountability and transparency. Self-censorship, state intimidation, an inhospitable legal context and a deferential press beholden to the government weaken democracy. PM Abe’s government assertively manages the news through press clubs, spin-doctors, limiting access and brazen threats, and in 2014-2015 a number of Abe’s prominent critics including television news anchors and pundits have been ousted from their posts. Journalists have had their lives threatened for articles they wrote two decades ago by revisionists who seek to downplay the comfort women issue. The courts have increased financial settlements in defamation lawsuits that deter journalists from investigative reporting on political figures. The Abe administration is committed to “overturning the postwar era”, fundamentally a project that seeks to recalibrate national identity that includes revising the Constitution, pushing a pacifist nation to support a more robust military alliance with the US, while promoting revisionist history and patriotic education. Clipping the wings of the press deprives the nation of the vigorous debate and scrutiny essential to democracy and is facilitating the imposition of a rightwing agenda at odds with the entrenched post-WWII norms and values that define Japan’s identity. This panel will critically examine this trend from various angles.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 31 August, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses a campaign by the right-wing and the government targeting the liberal Asahi Shimbun and especially its reporter, Uemura Takashi, on the "comfort woman" coverage. Uemura case is deeply connected to the suppression of press freedom, self-censorship, and promotion of revisionism.
Paper long abstract:
Revisionists have been intensifying their campaign to downplay Japan's responsibility for the system of sexual slavery involving the "comfort women." The right-wing media and intellectuals started to call their movement as "history wars." The collateral damage has been extensive, with an orchestrated campaign by the right-wing and the government targeting the liberal Asahi Shimbun for its role in detailing this sordid saga. The right-wing also vilified one reporter, Uemura Takashi, who wrote two articles on Kim Hak-sun, the first "comfort woman" to come forward to tell her story in 1991. Uemura was singled out for conservative denunciations, vilified as "the reporter who fabricated the 'comfort woman' issue." His university was pressured to sack him and his family received death threats, leading him to file lawsuits against his critics and their publishers for defamation. Based on my anthropological field research on both sides—the right-wing revisionists, and Uemura and his supporters—this paper discusses how the Uemura case is much more than a personal attack, and a part of the larger "history wars" that still continues even after the diplomatic"agreement" on the "comfort woman" issue between South Korea and Japan in December 2015. I also argue that the attack against Uemura is deeply connected to the suppression of press freedom, self-censorship on the part of the media, and promotion of nationalism and historical revisionism by the right-wing and the country's leaders.
Paper short abstract:
This paper tries to make sense of the rise of illiberal politics with a particular focus on the role played by the media. A particular emphasis shall be placed on the two of the most striking features of press-state relations in modern Japan with deep historical roots.
Paper long abstract:
This paper tries to make sense of the rise of illiberal politics with a particular focus on the role played by the media. A particular emphasis shall be placed on the two of the most striking features of press-state relations in modern Japan with deep historical roots. First, there is the extraordinarily close tie between the press and the state, in terms of both personnel and money. Second, as the state divided and conquered the press by making the most of these intricate ties, key concepts that the state agents mobilized in their attempt to silence the media critics have been "impartiality" (fuhen futō), "neutrality" (chūritsu), and "fairness" (kōsei).
The newly pluralistic and vibrant political debate in the press towards the end of the Cold War deteriorated quickly into an intolerant, illiberal mood came in the late 1990s, when some of the right-wing press, including the Sankei group, started to escalate the rhetoric employed in attacking what they saw as biased, left-leaning media. The attack launched represented nothing other than a closely coordinated campaign that brought certain right-wing media groups, most notably Sankei and Bungei Shunjū groups, together with intellectuals and celebrities, religious organizations, and last, but by no means least, a new generation of conservative politicians.
Furthermore, the electoral rout suffered by the DPJ in December 2012 created an unprecedented situation in postwar Japan, as for the first time, the country was not only left without a significant opposition party to speak of, but also equipped with a couple of right-wing "satellite" parties of the LDP further to its right on some issues. We are now dangerously close to the type of state-press relations that prevailed in the wartime era. The government gets to decide and impose what it considers to be "fair," "impartial," and "neutral" to the detriment of press freedom.