[Steve Bildermann]

[cstaylor]

For those who don't know, this is Makiko "The Mouth" Tanaka's father.

[Marvin Feltcher]

Geoff Botting, who wrote this article, is a mentor who taught me much of what I know about news writing and reporting, a co-author, friend, drinking buddy and still occasion work colleague in radio and newspapers. I've heard this story from him a thousand times and agree in parts, but find it incredibly ironic to see the piece run in the Japan Times. I can't believe the paper has the audacity to run this story considering what goes on there. It's even harder to believe that Geoff would submit this article considering the restrictions that apply to him at the paper claiming to be all the news without fear or favor, but is in reality all the news without flair or flavor.

Generally I agree with the premise here but it's not particularly unique to Japan. The UK and US press are as open to the accusation of 'spiking' stories as any Japanese.

Thanks for pointing this out, Steve (and for the phone call on Saturday. It was nice to finally talk to you. I hope one day we can meet, even more so if there's a bored houswife or two in tow!).
I don't profess to be a journalist, let alone an investigative journalist. But I would hazard a guess that there isn't a reporter in the world who hasn't come across the same sort of "self-censorship," though I have to admit that in Japan it is pretty much the norm rather than the exception. Papers will withhold perpetrators names to protect their privacy, but splash photos of vicitms about at will until they receive a complaint, then suddenly stop naming the victims again -- for privacy reasons!

However unlikely as it may sound a Japanese Government *has* been brought down by one reporter and one story

As Steve pointed out, Japan DOES have some good investigative journalists. I can think of another case where a Japanese Prime Minister was brought down by investigative journalism -- the Sunday Mainichi's exposure of Sosuke Uno's affair with a geisha in 1989.

Complaints like this are an over-simplification and unfair assessment of Japan's media, which does have some really admirable aspects.

[gaijinzilla]

I remember several years ago having a conversation with a reporter for one of the local newspapers in the prefecture where I live (which I can't divulge for security reasons ). He was going on about how the paper was thinking of eliminating it's Saturday evening edition not because of circulation problems, or stiff competition from the rival paper, but because the Prefectural Press Office was closed on Saturday and there was no one to give them (the reporters) any news
However the Saturday evening edition is still published, while the Kencho's press office is still closed on the weekend, so I guess the reporters must be making up the news on Saturday afternoons!

[gaijinzilla]

I remember the Uno affair! Man, am I getting old or what?!?!

[Jack]

Journalists must get their information from official sources, or else it is just speculation. This is the same all over the world, whether it is the US or wherever. If there is a demonstration, the journalists asks police sources for the number of estimated people, the journalist cannot give his/her own views on the demonstration. It is the same for everything else.

Reporter and journaliste is the same, one is the English word and the other is the french word. The role of the journalist is to report what is happening from official sources, not from what people speculate the source to be. Unfortunately, most official information comes out of government.

CNN gets a breaking news about a certain information but they will always confirm it with government or police sources.

One more thing, The best journalism is when there are no adjectives in the story unless the adjective is essential in describing the object such as "the red car".

I know many of you want to bash everything Japanese just but it is the same in your own countries as well. Okay, let the punches fly.