Mass media in Japan


The mass media in Japan include numerous television and radio networks as well as newspapers and magazines in Japan. For the most part, television networks were established based on capital investments by existing radio networks. Variety shows, serial dramas, and news constitute a large percentage of Japanese evening shows.
Western movies are also shown, many with a subchannel for English. There are all-English television channels on cable and satellite.

TV networks

There are 6 nationwide television networks, as follows:

AM radio

  1. NHK Radio 1, NHK Radio 2
  2. Japan Radio Network —Flagship Station: TBS radio
  3. National Radio Network —Flagship Stations: Nippon Cultural Broadcasting and Nippon Broadcasting System
  4. Radio Nikkei is an independent shortwave station broadcasts nationwide with two services.

    FM radio

  5. NHK-FM
  6. Japan FM Network —Tokyo FM Broadcasting Co.,ltd.
  7. Japan FM League—J-Wave Inc.
  8. MegaNet—FM Interwave

    Social Media

, Twitter, Instagram, and Line, are the leading used media platforms in the Japanese industry. Line is an app used for instant communication on electronic devices. Statistics show that Facebook use in Japan is at 47.75%, Twitter use is at 19.33%, YouTube use is at 13.9%, Pinterest use is at 10.69%, Instagram use is at 4.93%, and Tumblr use is at 2.29%. In Japan, as of 2017, nearly 100% of residents are online, smartphone use is reaching 80%, and some form of social media is being used by over half of the population.

Magazines

Weekly magazines

  1. Aera – Left-wing
  2. Friday – photo magazine
  3. Josei Jishin – for women
  4. Nikkei Business – economic
  5. Shūkan Asahi. Liberal.
  6. Shūkan Economist. Economic
  7. Shūkan Kinyoubi. Far-left.
  8. Shūkan Bunshun. Conservative
  9. Shūkan Diamond. Economic
  10. Shūkan Gendai 　Liberal.
  11. Shūkan Josei. For women
  12. Shūkan Post. Conservative
  13. Shūkan Shinchou. Conservative
  14. Shūkan Toyo Keizai. Economic
  15. Spa!.
  16. Sunday Mainichi.　Liberal

    Monthly magazines

  17. Bungei Shunjuu. Conservative.
  18. Chuuou Kouron. Affiliated with the Yomiuri Shimbun. Conservative.
  19. Seiron. Published by the Sankei Shimbun Company. Conservative.
  20. Sekai. Progressive.

    Manga magazines

Newspapers

National papers

  1. Yomiuri Shimbun. Conservative. First ranked in daily circulation at around 10 million per day. The Yomiuri exchanged a special contract with The Times. Affiliated with Nippon Television.
  2. Asahi Shimbun. Liberal. Second ranked in daily circulation at around 7 million copies per day. Known for being the main opposition newspaper. Affiliated with TV Asahi.
  3. Mainichi Shimbun. Centre-left. Third ranked in daily circulation—around 4 million per day. Affiliated with Tokyo Broadcasting System.
  4. Nikkei Shimbun. Conservative with more centre-right. Fourth ranked in daily circulation at around 3 million copies per day. Economic paper in the style of The Wall Street Journal. Affiliated with TV Tokyo.
  5. Sankei Shimbun.Conservative, pro-American and anti-Chinese communist party newspaper. Sixth ranked in daily circulation at around 2 million copies per day. Affiliated with Fuji Television.

    Regional papers

The Tokyo Shimbun in Kanto and Chunichi Shimbun in Chūbu are both owned by the Chunichi company and have a cumulative circulation that places them fourth nationally. Other nationally known regional papers include Nishinippon Shimbun in Kyushu, Hokkaido Shimbun in Hokkaido, Kahoku Shimpo in Tohoku.

Specialty papers

Among niche newspapers are publications like the widely circulated Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, the Buddhist organization Sōka Gakkai's daily Seikyo Shimbun, and Shimbun Akahata, the daily organ of the Japanese Communist Party. Other niches include papers devoted entirely to predicting the results of horse races. One of the best-known papers in the genre is Keiba Book. Shūkan Go is a weekly newspaper that covers the results of professional Go tournaments and contains hints on Go strategy.
As in other countries, surveys tend to show that the number of newspaper subscribers is declining, a trend which is expected to continue.

Claims of media bias

Claims of media bias in Japanese newspapers and the mainstream media in general are often seen on blogs and right-leaning Internet forums, where the "mass media" are often referred to as "mass garbage". Signs with this epithet were carried by demonstrators in Tokyo on 24 October 2010, at what was reportedly the first demonstration in Japan to be organized on Twitter. Among the general public, the credibility of the press suffered after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant crisis, when reporters failed to press government and industry sources for more information, and official reports turned out to be inaccurate or simply wrong. Kazuo Hizumi, a journalist turned lawyer, details structural problems in his book, 「マスコミはなぜマスゴミと呼ばれるのか？」, "Masukomi wa naze masugomi to yobareru no ka?",, which argues that a complex network of institutions, such as elite bureaucrats, judiciary, education system, law enforcement, and large corporations, all of whom stand to gain from maintaining the status quo, shapes the mass media and communication in a way that controls Japanese politics and discourages critical thinking.

Key stations: television and radio

In Japan, there are five broadcasting stations which take the lead in the network of commercial broadcasting. The five stations are Nippon Television, Tokyo Broadcasting System, Fuji Television, TV Asahi, and TV Tokyo. Their head offices are in Tokyo, and they are called zaikyō kī kyoku or kī kyoku.
The key stations make news shows and entertainment programs, and wholesale them to local broadcasting stations through the networks. Although local broadcasting stations also manufacture programs, the usage of the key stations is very large, and 55.7% of the TV program total sales in the 2002 fiscal year were sold by the key stations. Furthermore, the networks are strongly connected with newspaper publishing companies, and they influence the media very strongly. For this reason, they are often criticized.
In addition, there is CS broadcasting and Internet distribution by the subsidiaries of the key stations. The definition of key station has changed a little in recent years.

Outline

In Japan, every broadcasting company which performs terrestrial television broadcasts has an appointed broadcast region. In Article 2 of the Japanese Broadcasting Law, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications defines the fixed zone where the broadcast of the same program for every classification of broadcast is simultaneously receivable. So, the broadcasting company constructs a network with other regions, and with this network establishes the exchange of news or programs. The broadcasting companies which send out many programs to these networks are called key stations.
Presently the broadcasting stations located in Tokyo send out the programs for the whole country. However, although Tokyo MX is in the Tokyo region, it is only a Tokyo :ja:県域放送|region UHF independent station.
Broadcasting stations in Nagoya and other areas are older than those in Tokyo. However, in order to meet the large costs of making programs key stations were established in Tokyo to sell programs nationwide. Some local stations have a higher profit ratio since they can merely buy programs from the networks.

Sub-key stations

Since the broadcasting stations which assign the head offices in Kansai region have a program supply frame at prime time etc. and sent out many programs subsequently to kī kyoku, they are called jun kī kyoku.

List of key stations

Advertising agencies

  1. Dentsu. The largest advertising agency in Japan, and the fourth-largest worldwide. Dentsu has an enormous presence in television and other media, and has strong ties to the legislative branch of government.
  2. Hakuhodo. The second-largest Japanese advertising agency.
  3. Asatsu-DK. The third-largest Japanese advertising agency.

    Wire services

  4. Jiji Press.
  5. Kyodo News.
  6. JX PRESS.