In Japan, "the dream" of the "peaceful uses" of atomic energy was already being discussed in newspapers and books published immediately after the defeat. Censorship by the occupation after the defeat was lifted, and the brutality by the atomic bomb came to be widely discussed and pictured. In the mid-1950s, the experience of Bikini incident also raised public opinion against atomic and hydrogen bombs. Self-awareness as the international opinion leader in prohibiting the use atomic and hydrogen bombs, along with the memories of being atom-bombed, was a distinct characteristic of Japan's new national identity. At the same time, "the dream" of the "peaceful uses" of atomic energy was also believed to build a "science-oriented nation" and to support economic development after the defeat of Japan. Press reports that praised the "peaceful uses" of atomic energy while calling for atomic and hydrogen bombs prohibition without raising essential questions regarding the defeat of the war and atomic energy were probably consistent with such a mentality of the defeated nation.

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The purpose of this paper is to propose a hypothesis about the process through which the media builds up collective expectations concerning nuclear power (the Nuclear Dream) and the transformation of such expectations. We focus on the Asahi and Yomiuri Newspapers and study not only editorials, but also regular features that are likely to have affected public opinion as much as editorials. The period targeted in this paper is the 20 years from 1945 to 1965. We divide these 20 years into three periods based on changes in the Nuclear Dream: the dream of war deterrence (1945 to 1949) ; the dream of peaceful use (1949 to 1957) ; and the dream of nuclear power generation (1957 to 1965). Japanese newspapers were unknowingly trapped in the Nuclear Dream that they built up through their own discourse; while they detached themselves from the Nuclear Dream in the late 1950s, they expanded the dream again in the 1960s. By describing this process, we examine how it is possible to meet collective expectations built up by the media.

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The purpose of this paper is to examine how Japan's nuclear policies were discussed in TV documentaries during the program concentration period subsequent to the Chernobyl nuclear accident. To this end, the author analyzes three TV programs that discussed nuclear plant location policies, nuclear fuel cycle policies and policies regarding radiation exposure control for nuclear plant workers, focusing on how the TV staff obtained the facts that were essential for critical reviews in each program. The results reveal that the three programs critically reviewed nuclear policies by making effective use of facts obtained through one of the following processes: cooperating with the media, leaking confidential information, whistleblowing and investigative reporting. By placing the critical facts in the historical context of the post-Chernobyl period, the author studies how these critical facts were obtained and examines the meaning of the facts. In conclusion, the author points out the importance of understanding TV documentaries as products jointly produced by journalists and information sources.

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During the 1950s and 1960s, major Japanese newspapers mostly took positions in favor of the peaceful use of nuclear power without raising any questions about such use. Therefore, issues regarding the peaceful use of nuclear power were rarely mentioned in public opinion polls. In the meantime, however, the United States Information Agency (USIA) was conducting public opinion polls in Japan at the time. These public opinion polls reveal that compared to Europeans, a higher percentage of Japanese people tended to regard nuclear power as something that brings "curse" rather than "boon" to humanity. Even in those days, the Japanese were reluctant to adopt a clear-cut attitude that favored the peaceful use of nuclear power over its use for military purposes. What is also important is the fact that even during the 1970s and beyond, when non-academic researchers belonging to electric power companies and affiliated think tanks began to study topics related to nuclear power and public opinion or mass media, such topics were rarely discussed in academia and a few academic studies conducted on such topics had almost nothing in common with non-academic studies. In the future, it will be necessary to enhance research in these fields instead of making it an ephemeral phenomenon after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

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This paper first examines how the Japan Broadcasting Corporation broadcasted in each region prior to the Pacific War, and how they regarded regional characteristics in each broadcast, based on data from journals such as The Japan Broadcasting Corporation journal from that time, in order to clarify discussion of locality in broadcasts prior to the Pacific War. From this research, it is clear that the locality of early radio broadcasts in Japan had three different aspects as follows: 1) the locality of broadcasting that existed initially, 2) the subsequent centralization of Japanese Broadcasting, and 3) the resumption of local broadcasting for wartime emergency broadcasts. The first aspect stemmed from the fact the Corporation organized entertainment centered programs and had been trying to provide programs to suit the taste of listeners in each region. The second aspect stemmed from the fact when the ratio of program leadership grew nationwide, regionalism in broadcasting was often emphasized by the Corporation through strengthening central control, and it was possible to broadcast relative to the political background of the time. The third aspect stemmed from the fact since it had become necessary to acknowledge practical issues such as increased production and promotion of the war, local broadcasts were once again emphasized. The first and third aspects prioritize local circumstances in broadcasting for different reasons. However, the second aspect deals with standardized local broadcasts, used by the Corporation, to influence the Japanese public.

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The purpose of this paper is to clarify how the category that applies to young people was carried out in national newspapers in Japan. Recent research in Japan criticizing discourses on the youth in mass media through empirical data has increased. Researchers insist that many of the discourses on the youth were stereotypes that ignored their diversity. However, in the only studies that are intended to dismantle the clarity of discourses on the youth, the question of why non-empirical discourses have been accepted by the reading public has been overlooked. Given these issues of concern, this research uses conceptual analysis in ethnomethodical research to understand how the category that applies to young people was carried out. Ethnomethodology aims to clarify the operational norms that make it possible to understand their act by describing how people use categories and concepts. In precious studies, other researches have focused on seinen and wakamono: seinen roughly means youth while wakamono means young people. The subject of analysis is articles in national newspapers from the 1950s to the 1960s, which used seinen and wakamono categories. This analysis revealed that in mass media the carrying out of seinen and wakamono as categories actually had various activities. These categories were never intended to be only stereotypes, rather they have allowed for many activities other than understanding the actual conditions of young people. Seinen was associated with organized institutions, with strong ties to educational oppotunities for men and women. Wakamono was associated with non-institutional groups, and it was also associated with the mass media's self-describing and synthesizing practice. By way of this function, these categories were affecting the way of segmentation and how newspapers create an understanding of young people.

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This paper examines perspectives for studying audiences in the complex media environment in contemporary society. First, I point out the following three changes in the media environment: transition to a ubiquitous society, diversification of information, and the use of two-way communication in the media. Next, based on the review of past audience studies, I point out the importance of audience identity. In past audience studies, audience identities were studied as identities of specific social groups. In this paper, however, I argue that such a perspective is inadequate for understanding the relationship between the media and audience identity in contemporary society; in order to analyze multi-faceted identities in contemporary society, it is necessary to adopt an alternative perspective. For this reason, I propose a perspective that focuses on narratives about audiences' media experience and studies how identities are constructed in such narratives. Then, based on the proposal, I review the following two analysis perspectives: First, I present a spectacle/performance paradigm. This paradigm assumes that individuals present their identities through their media experience. Identities are analyzed as narratives that are created for other individuals. Secondly, I present the perspective of ethnomethodology as an approach for analyzing narrations that cannot function as narratives. This perspective analyzes methods used by individuals to achieve actions. In this perspective, identities are resources presented by narrators to achieve interaction. These two perspectives study identities not as characteristics assigned by researchers to audiences, but as characteristics constructed by audiences themselves. In conclusion, I argue that the use of these two perspectives makes it possible to study complex and diversified audience identities in the media environment in contemporary society.

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Whistleblowing can have a major impact not only on an organization, but also on the society in which it is being reported as news. This impact is established by the cooperation of the whistleblowers who transmit internal information, and the journalists who report it as news. However, there are serious conflicts on reporting information from whistleblowers. Reporting of whistleblowing could damage the reputation of an organization and its members. Furthermore it may lead to defamation lawsuits against the press and/or the whistleblowers. In addition, the reporting of whistleblowing sometimes leads to the dismissal or other disadvantageous treatment of whistleblowers as employees. The purpose of this research is to elucidate the best way for journalists to collect and report information obtained from whistleblowers, focusing on the relationship between whistleblowers and journalists. This issue may include problems in verifying the accuracy of sources and protecting whistleblowers. In particular, this issue is examined in three steps. First, Section 2 tackles problems related to the reporting of whistleblowing from records of legal proceedings in court cases and legislative systems of information in Japan. Next, Section 3 describes a theory to justify the reporting of whistleblowing by applying the theory of Panopticon and studies concerning the ethics of care and analyzing court cases related to the reporting of whistleblowing and whistleblowing ethics which have advanced in the field of business ethics. After that, Section 4 of this research summarizes the above analysis and suggests how journalists can report whistleblowing. Finally, this study concludes that the best way to report whistleblowing may be not only trying to verify the truth and public interest in the matter, but also by trying to protect whistleblowers as news sources.

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Neutrality and objectivity are basic and central norms in professional journalism and Japanese mass media journalism always place a high value on them. However, diversity and balance have become increasingly important in international journalism ethics and standards, because establishing clear definitions of neutrality and objectivity has become more difficult in today's diverse society that contains various cultures and values. Although ethical changes have emerged and accompany globalization, Japanese mass media journalism has not paid enough attention to the role of ethnic minorities or foreigners within the mass media. Thus, there is a discrepancy between Japanese mass media journalism and trends in international journalism ethics and standards. Therefore, this study aims to explore how this conflict influences minority journalists in Japanese mainstream media. In addition, the accumulation of studies in the United States shows that even though minority journalists are encouraged to adopt viewpoints as a minority in journalism, they indeed struggle with a personal dilemma between the nature of being a minority and the ideal of meeting professional needs. This article investigates how compatible this case is in regard to Japanese minority journalists by interviewing Zainichi (ethnic Korean residents of Japan) journalists in the Japanese mainstream media. Zainichi are one of the largest ethnic minority groups in Japan. As a result, this study found that Zainichi journalists struggle with the dilemma as expected from previous research. However, unlike in the United States, Zainichi journalists utilize their advantage as an ethnic minority in their journalism. Thus, in the process of utilizing their ethnicity, they struggle with other difficulties that do not occur in the United States.

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