Abstract
This paper is the result of an analysis of "Sunday Star-Times" articles printed from August 1997 to July 1999. It attempts to demonstrate how Asia and Japan are portrayed and viewed in news articles by means of the following four methods; (1) by comparing the number of main articles covering each country in the 'World' section placed in the last pages of the main volume, (2) by picking up from all the articles in the main volume Asian countries' and capitals' names and comparing each country's totals, with the contents in which those of China, Japan, and South korea appear classified and compared in detail, (3) by counting the number of Asia-related articles of the main volume and grouping them into respective countries as well as analyising Japan-related articles in detail, (4) by picking up and classifying Jabanese proper/ common nouns such as names of companies, places and so forth. Some of the findings from the analysis are as follws: In international news stories, with British and American coverage comprising over 40% while Asia counts for only 7.6%. China, Indonesia, and India are the three most frequently reported Asian countries in the 'World' section, getting nearly 50 % of the Asia total. However, when the names/ capitals of Asian countries are searched from all the pages of the main volume, China and Japan appear by far most frequently with almost equal numbers occupying nearly 40% of the total. This tendency is also observed when it comes to the country-by-country numbers of Asia-related articles, where Japan and China have the two highest incidence count totals. As for the contents of the Japanese articles, history and economy form the largest distinct categories, in which 'World War II' and 'automobile' are often the key words symbolizing the past and present facaes of Japan for New Zealand.
