Closing the Shop : : Information Cartels and Japan's Mass Media / / Laurie Anne Freeman.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Asian Studies Backlist (2000-2014) eBook Package
• VerfasserIn: Freeman, Laurie Anne,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2012]; ©2000
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (280 p.) :; 11 line illus., 10 tables

How is the relationship between the Japanese state and Japanese society mediated by the press? Does the pervasive system of press clubs, and the regulations underlying them, alter or even censor the way news is reported in Japan? Who benefits from the press club system? And who loses? Here Laurie Anne Freeman examines the subtle, highly interconnected relationship between journalists and news sources in Japan. Beginning with a historical overview of the relationship between the press, politics, and the public, she describes how Japanese press clubs act as "information cartels," limiting competition among news organizations and rigidly structuring relations through strict rules and sanctions. She also shows how the web of interrelations extends into, and is reinforced by, media industry associations and business groups (keiretsu). Political news and information are conveyed to the public in Japan, but because of institutional constraints, they are conveyed in a highly delimited fashion that narrows the range of societal inquiry into the political process. Closing the Shop shows us how the press system in Japan serves as neither a watchdog nor a lapdog. Nor does the state directly control the press in ways Westerners might think of as censorship. The level of interconnectedness, through both official and unofficial channels, helps set the agenda and terms of political debate in Japan's mass media to an extent that is unimaginable to many in the United States and other advanced industrial democracies. This fascinating look at Japan's information cartels provides a critical but often overlooked explanation for the overall power and autonomy enjoyed by the Japanese state.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Tables and Figures -- Preface -- One. Bringing in the Media -- Two. Press, Politics, and the Public in Historical Perspective -- Three. Japan's Information Cartels: Part I. Competition and the Closed Shop -- Four. Japan's Information Cartels: Part II. Structuring Relations Through Rules and Sanctions -- Five. Expanding the Web: The Role of Kyo¯kai and Keiretsu -- Six. Why Information Cartels Matter -- Appendix A. Regulations for the Diet Press Club -- Appendix B. Kitami Administration of Justice Press Club Agreement -- Appendix C. Chronology of Agreements between the Imperial Household Agency and the Magazine Kisha Club -- Appendix D. A Comparison with the British Lobby -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index