Hiwatari-sensei:
You raise some excellent questions about the media and its current and
traditional role. Just a few brief reactions to some of your comments and
questions:

1)I have described the various roles of the media in any country as a)"guide
dog": providing informationa citizens need in a democracy b)"watch dog":
uncovering scandal and govt incompetence c)"guard dog": following up on scandals
once they are revealed d)"lap dog": uncritically covering and transmitting what
govt wants transmitted to the public.

In my opinion, as I hgave said in print too, the Japanese press is an excellent
"guide dog" and "guard dog" but is not a very good "watch dog" and too often is
a "lap dog" to those in authority. I think we are seeing this in the current
situation too.

The Japanese press , despite the stereotype, has never really uncovered scandal
very much; once others have uncovered it [e.g., Lockheed and US Senate
Committee; Tanaka and Bungei Shunju article] then and only then does it pursue
the issue. If it is not even doing that in this case with Takemura, there are
many possibile explanations. I think the two most likely are 1)the press is
participating in the government's attempt not to create panic about the banking
situation 2))Takemura is too key in the governing coalition because of need for
Harbinger support to keep it together to take responsibility for his mistakes
and perhaps the press is afraid to bring down the govt by being too harsh on
Takemura.

2)Susan Pharr and I have a coedited book coming out on MEDIA AND POLITICS IN
JAPAN from U. of Hawaii Press this fall. It deals explicitly witht he dual role
of the Japanese press and media as both supporter of, and critic of, authority.
I especially recommend Maggie Farley's article in that volume on the record of
the Japanese press regarding coverage of scandals.

There is also Ofer Feldman's recent book on press and politics in Japan from U.
of Michigan press on the close connections between politicians and journalists
in Japan. Older but still with something to say, is Jun Bok Lee's THE POLITICAL
CHARACTER OF THE JAPANESE PRESS.

All the above, including Pharr and my own work, however, is only a beginning to
the very intersting and neglected subject of media's relationship to authority
in Japan and how much it does, or doesn't , have similarities to the press in
other industrialized democracies. I believe Laura Frieman at UC Santa Barbara
has written a dissertation on kisha clubs too. So we can probably look forward,
I hope, to much more research that might help answer your interesting questions.
Best, Ellis