At KAMC/MediAsia2025, scholars highlighted how Japanese newspaper coverage is shaped by systemic biases, resulting in an inward-looking press that disproportionately focuses on a few countries and neglects other nations. The discussion revealed how structural issues like the Japanese kisha club system and reliance on Western agendas contribute to shallow international reporting and declining public engagement.

In photo (from left to right): Professor Virgil Hawkins (IAFOR Research Centre and The University of Osaka, Japan), Dr Joseph Haldane (IAFOR, Japan), and Professor Nobuyuki Okumura (Musashi University, Japan) at KAMC/MediAsia2025

Cultural, economic, and social bias also manifests itself within news coverage. A panel discussion titled ‘Japanese Newspaper Coverage of the World,’ featuring Professor Virgil Hawkins of the IAFOR Research Centre and The University of Osaka, Japan; Professor Nobuyuki Okumura of Musashi University, Japan, and moderated by Dr Joseph Haldane, Chairman and CEO of IAFOR, Japan, covered how exactly this plays out in Japan. The panel provided a quantitative and qualitative diagnosis of the Japanese press, revealing a media landscape that is increasingly inward-looking and isolated from global realities. Professor Hawkins presented findings from a ten-year longitudinal study conducted by Global News View (GNV), which analyses trends in international news coverage across Japan’s major newspapers. His data illustrated a severe geographic imbalance in media coverage of Japanese newspapers that is overwhelmingly concentrated on a small number of nations, with the United States, China, and Japan’s own foreign relations accounting for more than 40% of all international news. 

In photo: Professor Virgil Hawkins (IAFOR Research Centre and The University of Osaka, Japan) during the panel discussion

The implications of this concentration, as Professor Hawkins pointed out, are that vast regions of the world are effectively erased from public consciousness. Professor Hawkins argued that this is not merely a matter of editorial preference but a systemic failure to inform the public about the majority of the human population. He also noted a trend in the determinants of coverage: while population size and geographic proximity correlate with coverage, economic ties do not. The fact that the level of trade between Japan and a foreign nation does not predict news coverage suggests that the Japanese media is driven less by economic pragmatism than by the influence of the agenda-setting power of Western outlets like The New York Times.

In photo: Professor Nobuyuki Okumura (Musashi University, Japan) during the panel discussion

Professor Okumura complemented this quantitative data with a qualitative analysis of the newsroom culture that produces these distortions. Responding to Dr Haldane’s question about the role of the newspapers in encouraging the public to learn more about international news, he identified the kisha club (press club) system as a primary structural hindrance to high-quality international journalism. Unique to Japan, this system grants established media outlets exclusive access to government ministries, police departments, and corporate headquarters, effectively monopolising the flow of information. Professor Okumura argued that while this system provides reporters with privileged access, it fosters a relationship of dependency and cooptation rather than scrutiny. Reporters within the kisha club are often rotated to new posts every two years, a practice designed to prevent corruption, but one that simultaneously prevents the development of deep subject-matter expertise.

Consequently, Japanese reporting on international affairs often lacks depth and context. Professor Okumura described a negative spiral in which media outlets provide superficial coverage of complex global events, such as the focus on daily battle updates without explaining the historical background or long-term implications of conflicts in Ukraine or Gaza. This lack of context alienates readers, who find the news difficult to understand and therefore lose interest. Media executives then interpret this lack of engagement as a sign that international news ‘doesn’t sell’, leading to further cuts in foreign bureaus and correspondent numbers. He noted that many major Japanese outlets have closed bureaus in the Middle East, Africa, and South America over the last twenty years, leaving them reliant on newswires and unable to produce independent, Japanese-perspective analysis. 

Watch the panel discussion in the video below.

Banner image: Sara Aurora Cimminiello, Unsplash