Talking of the media and politics, what puzzles me is the extent the Japanese
media seems to be muted about several (at least potential) political scandals
and the government's role in handling the economy, especially during the
Murayama cabinet.

(1) I wonder if people feel the same way? I can understand that the Murayama
cabinet would prefer to defuse embarrassing incidents for the sake of
maintaining its fragile coalition. But am I the only one who thinks that the
media (especially the established media of national newspapers and TV network)
is an accomplice in turning a turn a blind eye to scandals (of various nature)?
If such is the case, do we have a situation now in which scandals are more
easily justified because of a fragile government, regardless of who are the
"real reformers" and whether or not they are in or out of the government?

(2) Similarly, despite being ranked the worst Finance Minister by Euromoney (I
think), I am surprised there is little criticism of MOF Minister Takemura. Does
this mean that people think that he does not have the real power and thus not
accountable (reminds me of the Iran-Contra Hearings and the role of President
Reagan)? A MITI official once told me (at a reception--thus not serious) how he
had to do nemawashi to the media (as well as all other pertinent parties) before
announcing policies to liquidate the coal industry. Then, is MOF protecting the
role of MOF Minister to protect its own reputation? Or, is it a case in which no
one --- at least none in the government, bureaucracy, and financial and business
circles --- wants to reveal how bad the economy is and MOF and the banks aren't
talking?

(3) On the other hand, it may not be that the media being lenient toward the
current government, but that it was overshadowed by other cases. They were more
busy reporting the Kobe (the Hanshin) Quake and Aum Shinrikyo. Indeed, the same
concern is heard in the US; that the OJ Simpson case has distracted the people
from all the political events that had occurred during the Republican Congress
and in international politics.

(4) It might be the case that with the reorganization of political parties and
the blurring of government-opposition lines, that the media is facing an
identity crisis as an established anti-establishment. The closeness of
individual media (especially printed media) reporters with powerful (LDP)
figures and the anti-establishment position of the reporting, resembles the kind
of often-mentioned "hypocrisy" of the Socialists at the peak of the 1955 system
(the closeness and deals between individual politicans and the posture of the
party in public). Now both the media and Socialists might be facing an identity
crisis. Interestingly, it might be that one of the reasons the late Watanabe
Michio was popular was because he could pose as an anti-establishment and
anti-"anti-establishment"-establishment by his careless and offensive remarks
(not unlike presidential hopefuls in the US who all wish to claim they are
"Washington outsiders.")

(4) Maybe we don't have an adequate institutionalist account of the media in
Japan as an independent actor pursuing its own interests. Or, maybe I'm just not
aware of such accounts.

Nobuhiro Hiwatari