Digitalisation and the rise of the internet have given people choice of a variety of information in huge volume through various media and platforms. With it emerged a question: How does it influence the way people access and consume news, and how is the news organisation adapting to the changing environment?The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ) at Oxford University, UK has been conducting comparative research since 2012 and publishes its findings every year in “Digital News Report.” In 2022, it carried out an online survey in 46 countries and territories, including Japan. Its main findings include a declining trust in news in many countries and a growing tendency to avoid certain topics, such as politics and the new coronavirus, which RISJ calls “selective news avoidance.”The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute became a sponsor organisation of the project in 2022. Given an access to comprehensive data set, we attempt to analyse the characteristics of the Japanese market through parameters of “access to news” and “trust” in order to understand the changing behaviour of audience and readers.

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The NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute is a member of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP). This paper presents Japanese attitudes and behavior towards medical care and health from Japan’s results of the 2021 ISSP survey themed on “Health and Health Care.”About 30% of the respondents feel their physical or mental health is “poor,” and around 40% have subjective mental symptoms including “I have lost confidence in myself.” Women have a higher percentage of those aware of physical or mental symptoms, and mental symptoms are particularly common among young women.About 50% of the respondents agree that “people use health care services more than necessary,” substantially exceeding those who disagree (around 20%), which indicates that many people feel that health care services are excessively provided in Japan.Meanwhile, those who trust doctors and the Japanese health care system are increasing, and 40% of the respondents consider the way the Covid-19 pandemic was handled “increased” their confidence in the health care system. Nevertheless, more than 60% feel that the treatment system for new infectious diseases is “not in place.”More than 80% of the respondents cite that “there are” people who cannot receive necessary health care in Japan. Those who believe that the accessibility to health care differs depending on income or nationality also account for more than 70%. On the other hand, there is an increase in those who do not see it as “unfair” that people with higher incomes can afford better health care than people with lower incomes.

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The 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games—the festival of Para sports—were held for 13 days from August 24th to September 5th, 2021, after being postponed one year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The NHK Broadcasting Culture Institute has been studying the efforts of NHK and other broadcasters in delivering this national event as well as the reception of viewers. Our research also explores how people with disabilities perceive Paralympic coverage and what attitudes they have towards the inclusive society, including web surveys conducted right after both the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Winter Games and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.This article reports the results of the web survey held immediately after the Tokyo Paralympics mainly aimed at people with disabilities. In addition, based on previous studies, and with an author making himself part of the research subject as a person with a disability, the paper examines the legacy of Paralympic broadcasts and the roles of broadcasting in representing diverse people including minorities such as people with disabilities, for the advancement of inclusive societies.

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