Comparative Analysis of Press Coverage on Public Works in Japan and The United States

抄録

In Japan, public works budgets are generally decreasing; other developed countries, however—such as the United States—have been increasing their respective public works budgets. The question of this study is why have only Japan decreased the public works budget. In democratic country, political decision such of government budget is affected by public opinion, which is likely to be affected by mass media coverage. We therefore analyzed newspaper coverage in Japan and in the United States, a developed country that also has a liberal democracy system, with respect to this issue. We analyzed the editorials in two leading Japanese newspapers and compared them to those in the United States. Ultimately, we found that the two Japanese newspapers tend to report more negatively on public works than those in the United States.