Dear Peter, Dear All,


Thank you for raising a legitimate question, in fact one that I have been wondering about intensively since coming to Japan several years ago. First of all, I am very impressed by the variety of perspectives offered in this mailing list. I believe that there is some truth to all and we would probably get a very comprehensive and meaningful picture in combining all approaches.


Why does it seem that major global issues such as environmental protection do not really develop any significant political momentum in Japan?


As someone who is researching on Japanese media (NHK in particular) and following recent discourses very actively, I am especially interested in how public opinion and issue awareness is shaped and therefore wanted to share this perspective. What I can state from my findings is that the above mentioned issue is not limited to green topics. Many issues that gain considerable traction in worldwide discourse seem to, at least partially, get lost on their way to the Japanese public's mind. For instance, this goes for the MeToo-movement, refugee and migrant issues, nuclear energy (especially pre-Fukushima) but also practical trends such as cashless payment, organic food, plastic reduction (see convenient stores) or proper insulation in housing (to reduce wasting of energy). For instance, the immigration issue has just recently gained more attention since the government implemented that new law but I remember the shrinking population was discussed for many years with suggestions of introducing robots and more elder workers while the i-topic was completely ignored. Cashless payment has just been put on the agenda recently as well since lawmakers and bureaucrats all of a sudden realized that Japan is lagging behind in this regard.


I am comparing the discourse situation in particular with public debate in Germany where green topics have been salient on the agenda for more than twenty years. Once a marginal party, the green party has evolved into the largest (or second largest) political power in some federal states and with them have environmental issues. The German anti-nuclear movement has had a strong presence long before Fukushima happened due to the traumatic aftermath of Tschernobyl (which again seem to have remained unanswered in Japanese mass media). Comparing with European countries, the anti-nuclear movement in Japan has rather been marginalized (also, as pointed out, in its policy effectiveness) and has never really made it to a mainstream movement as in other countries - even after the tragic disaster in Tohoku.


As with many "globally hot" topics, the Japanese general public - I stress "general" here since there are, of course, always individuals who have the high awareness which one would expect from educated people (Hitotsubashi...) - appears not to be on the same wavelength and I believe this can be explained by a particular media environment which filters information in a very selective way and forms public opinion in accordance with cultural norms (i.e. gender and ethnic minority issues) and - in most cases - official policy (nuclear policy, immigration, green topics etc.). If the government does not plan to set an environmental topic on its agenda, the mainstream media will not actively do so.


It's a very recent topic but did anyone recognize that genetically modified food will now be sold in Japan? This was just reported a couple of days ago as a side note on NHK news (Okay, later they did have a Close Up Gendai edition on that). But again, in Germany there was a year-long public debate on this topic and up to this day GMO food is not allowed to be distributed. In Japan, basically, the public is informed AFTER the policy decision has been made. And that no-one becomes worried, the products don't even need to be declared...


This small case perfectly exemplifies how policy is often made here, completely detached from the people's will and discourses in other parts of the world. This also explains why those protest movements do not really unleash their power. From what I could see over the last six, seven years major demonstrations (against nuclear power, the anti-security bill or the SEALDs movement) were largely ignored by the mainstream media, especially NHK. It goes without saying that under these circumstances civil opposition cannot unfold. I remember at that time Japanese colleagues I was talking with were completely unaware of those Friday protests. As regards the nuclear energy topic it is no surprise that for Japanese media the German phaseout after Fukushima was more or less a taboo topic.


There are several reasons for the limited range of mainstream public discourse in Japan but a major one can be found in the structures of the media system, i.e. the kisha club system. I am aware that this is an old story as it has been criticized by foreign media and international organizations since the 1960s but as a matter of fact little has really changed here. However, needless to say, this system has grave consequences for the shaping of discourse and public opinion. Without going into detail here, it is a system which facilitates collusion between media and politics and - de facto - restrains the free and independent operation of the press. And, unsurprisingly, the media (and politics) successfully impede putting this topic on the agenda.


This is why the majority of the Japanese public is fed with highly homogeneous, innocuous information void of critical or comparative perspectives, often dealing with local news stories with little global relevance so that wide-spread issue awareness or a sense of urgency doesn't even burgeon. (Turn on the news and you'll see criminal cases, extreme weather news, political scandals, "news to use"-topics etc.). Of course, the outdated, restrictive education system adds to this.


I don't say that there is overt government censorship on the press but this particular media environment nourishes all forms of self-censorship for which there is a plethora of Japanese expressions, not without reason: sontaku, jishuku, jishu kisei etc.

For further readings I recommend:

Kingston, Jeff (Ed.) (2017): Press Freedom in Contemporary Japan. New York: Routledge.

Gamble, Adam; Watanabe, Takesato (2004): A Public Betrayed. An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing.


In Japanese:

On Japanese journalism and kisha clubs (also in Gamble/Watanabe):

Fackler, Martin (2012): "Hontô no koto" wo tsutaenai nihon no shimbun. (The Japanese newspapers which don't report on what is actually happening). English Subtitle: Credibility Lost: The Crisis in Japanese Newspaper Journalism After Fukushima. Tokyo: Futabasha.


Motchizuki, Isoko; Fackler, Martin (2018): Kenryoku to shimbun no daimondai (The big issue of political power and newspapers). Tokyo: Shûeisha.


On how the myth of „clean nuclear energy" became carved into the public's mind:

Honma, Ryû (2016): Genpatsu puropaganda (The Nuclear Industry Propaganda). Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten.


On the Japanese education system (not purely scientific but worth reading):

Ogi, Naoki (2017): Torinokosareru nihon no kyôiku (The Japanese education system which is left behind). Tokyo: Kodansha.


Nowadays alternative media (mostly online) provide more options to choose from, luckily. Having said that, there has been only limited research on how much this actually widens the citizens' perspective and is not just "more of the same". In the end, it is also about how actively people search for information and are in fact able to judge its "reliability". So media literacy would be a different kettle of fish but that would lead us too far from here...


To make a long story short, from a media studies or sociology of knowledge point of view, it is this self-contained, highly regulated information environment that (often) keeps the country from being in line with discourses (trends, movements etc.) in the rest of the world.


Have a good weekend everyone,

Yosuke Buchmeier