The Implementation of mass communication policy should be considered in terms of two basic categories of positive and negative policy. Positive mass communication policy consists of government efforts to actively disseminate information about state policy, or in other words, propaganda. Negative mass communication policy consists, on the other hand, of efforts to control the mass media such as newspapers, magazines, and radio. Means of control includes legal regulation, censorship, "internal guidance"(naimen shido), and the control of resources. Most researches to date on wartime Japanese mass communication policy have concentrated on the latter, negative type of policy. During the period from 1936 to 1945, the Japanese government and military published a weekly national policy pamphlet, Shuho (The Weekly Report), with the aim of unifying the Japanese people for war mobilization. This essay seeks to examine Japanese wartime propaganda and mobilization efforts through analysis of the political context of Shuho, its distribution policy, circulation, readership, and editorial direction. After the Manchurian Incident in 1931, the Japanese government and military leadership developed a"domestic ideological strategy"(kokunai shiso sen) for the purpose of mobilizing the people for war through the eradication of so-called foreign thought, in particular liberalism and socialism. As a first step in this strategy, an information committee was created informally in 1932 and began immediately to enact a"plan for the guidance of domestic public opinion"(tainai yoron shido keikaku) which targetted public opinion leaders, particularly those considered to be democrat or liberal. In 1934, the Army Ministry further articulated state policy on public thought in a famous pamphlet entitled The True Meaning of National Defense and a Proposal for its Strengthening. The Information Committee was formalized as a cabinet body in 1936, and it began publishing Shuho as part of its positive policy on shaping domestic thought. During this period, privately published pamphlets which offered prompt analysis of rapidly changing international and domestic affairs had become extremely popular among intellectuals. The decision to publish Shuho was reached after the government had conducted a minute examination of the pamphlets. Shuho was designed to replicate them in form, editorial direction, distribution, and especially readership. As a result of the appearance of Shuho, along with the increasing severity of controls on the press, the number of privately published pamphlets began to decline gradually. Shuho was initially edited for an intellectual readership, but the success of newspaper and radio advertisements and of the development and use of official distribution routes to private vendors led to increased sales to a broader, more middlebrow audience. By the end of World War II, Shuho had achieved circulation of two million and had become a part of the Japanese people's daily life, thereby fulfilling its role in the dissemination of government and military propaganda.
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