JOURNAL OF MASS COMMUNICATION STUDIES
Online ISSN : 2432-0838
Print ISSN : 1341-1306
ISSN-L : 1341-1306
Volume 86
Displaying 1-16 of 16 articles from this issue
Eighty Year History of the Tokyo Olympics and the Media : Rethinking its History as a Reflection of Contemporary Japan after the 3.11 Earthquake
  • Tetsuo NISHIYAMA
    Article type: Article
    2015 Volume 86 Pages 3-17
    Published: January 31, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: October 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper aims to study the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic games in order to examine how these events will influence the future of Japanese society and mass media. If one includes the 1940 games that were never actually held due to World War II, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are the third Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Tokyo. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics provided an opportunity to show the world that Japan had recovered from its defeat in World War II and returned as a member of the international community. Today, parties inside and outside Japan expect the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to promote recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. In reality, however, there is a risk that the Olympic Games will be used as a means to help Tokyo survive as a global city while seriously jeopardizing the interests of other regions of Japan. Unlike in 1964, it may be difficult to organize the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games as a national event actively supported by all Japanese people. The only possibility for a national event is nationwide development of facilities for the Paralympic games. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, advances in ICT technology will likely enable individuals to broadcast videos that will compete with broadcasting by mass media. Considering that broadcasting fees provided by TV stations and advertising agencies constitute a major financial source for the present over-sized Olympic Games, the risk that these fees may not be obtained may prove lethal to the event in 2020. At the same time, such a crisis would also place the mass media at a crossroads in which it must ensure the survival of its business in the face of an overflow of network technologies.
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  • Shunya YOSHIMI
    Article type: Article
    2015 Volume 86 Pages 19-37
    Published: January 31, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: October 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In postwar Japan, the Olympic Games were organized as "postwar" events in the strict sense of the term-specifically, the Olympic Games not only symbolized the history of Japan's postwar recovery and economic growth, but also the athletic facilities that provided stages for many national dramas were postwar products created by transforming facilities used for military purposes during the war. Many of the national dramas that unfolded on these stages were also products created by shifting the focus of dramaturgy from military heroism to athletic heroism. The term "postwar period" as used here refers to the transition from militarism (war) to peace. In this paper, we first verify that the major facilities for the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games were constructed on former Japanese military facility sites. Next, we confirm that throughout Japan, after the war many athletic facilities were constructed in places where military facilities were located during the war. Then, we reveal that in the process of returning Washington Heights in Yoyogi to Japan in order to construct facilities for the Olympics, there was a gap between the intentions of the United States and the Japanese government, which was actually seeking the return of the U.S. base in Asaka. In addition, we also confirm that the Oriental Witches and Kokichi Tsuburaya, who played leading roles in the national dramas of the Olympics, were both closely tied to the process through which a poor nation turned itself into an industrialized country-the Oriental Witches as former female workers of cotton mills, and Tsuburaya as a member of the Self-defense Forces from the Tohoku region. Thus, this paper aims to throw light on the continuous elements from the war period of the 1964 Olympic Games.
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  • Kenta YAMADA
    Article type: Article
    2015 Volume 86 Pages 39-62
    Published: January 31, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: October 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper reviews the relationship between the Olympic Games and the media from the perspective of journalism. The objects of study are the perspectives from which newspaper space and broadcast programs are created when media-particularly newspapers-handle the Olympic Games as national events using terms like "the national interest" or "nationalism" as keywords. In this paper, rather than focusing on previous Olympic Games, we adopt a research approach that reviews currently unfolding events to predict how the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games will be reported on in the future. More specifically, this study mainly concerns the Great East Japan Earthquake. This is because the earthquake and Tokyo Olympic Games are closely related to one another, as evidenced by the slogan "Recovery Olympics." We also focus on the inverse relationship between these two: the 2011 earthquake moves further away in time as we move toward the 2020 Olympic Games. This inverse temporal relationship is likely to significantly affect mass media reporting. In addition, we also discuss issues related to the incorrect reporting published by the Asahi Newspaper, which developed into a major social phenomenon in the Japanese mass media during 2014. This is not merely a matter of newspaper reporting, but directly relates to the keywords taken up by this paper, as exemplified by statements in Diet discussions that such reporting "jeopardizes the national interest."
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  • Hisashi SANADA
    Article type: Article
    2015 Volume 86 Pages 63-80
    Published: January 31, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: October 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper aims to shed light on the philosophy and activities of Jigoro Kano, the Japanese IOC member who oversaw the successful bid to hold the 1940 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Tokyo was chosen to host the twelfth Olympic Games at the 1936 IOC Session held in Berlin. At the time, Japan had withdrawn from the League of Nations and was becoming increasingly isolated from the rest of the world; in addition, it took nearly 20 days to travel from Europe to Japan, which would have been agonizing for European athletes. The reason why Kano's bid for the Olympic Games won despite such difficulties was because IOC members supported his view of the Tokyo Olympics, namely that the Olympics could lead to the creation of a truly global culture only if the Games were held in Asia. Jigoro Kano aimed to contribute to world peace through physical exercise, as shown in his 1922 declaration that physical and mental training were required as part of efforts to eliminate racial prejudices, to improve culture, and to achieve prosperity for all nations. However, for Tokyo's Olympic Committee members, the principal reasons for holding the Olympic Games in Tokyo were to contribute to improving physical conditions for the Japanese people guarding the home front as well as to publicize to the rest of the world the Japanese spirit of global unification represented by the Manchurian Incident. Their understanding differed greatly from Jigoro Kano's view of the Olympic Games.
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Articles
  • Kazumi OTSUKA
    Article type: Article
    2015 Volume 86 Pages 83-102
    Published: January 31, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: October 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This study aims to examine the influence of the Espionage Act of 1917 on freedom of the press in the United States. This article consists of the following sections. The first section introduces the outline of the system for classifying state secrets and the Espionage Act. The second section presents problems in the Espionage Act regarding freedom of the press. The third section provides cases that show the tendency to broadly apply the Espionage Act. The last section considers the strict control of access to information under the Espionage Act by the Obama administration. This study concludes that the Espionage Act has had a damaging effect on freedom of the press for the following reasons. Prosecuting people who divulge information brings about the chilling effect of furnishing the information. Government officials are increasingly afraid to talk to journalists. This situation is especially serious in the Obama administration compared with all previous U.S. administrations because of the aggressive prosecution of people who have divulged classified information. Although the Justice Department has never prosecuted journalists for violating the Espionage Act, there are dangerous attempts to prosecute individuals who act like journalists. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against a journalist forced to reveal his source who disclosed information illegally. Laws and systems for protecting state secrets in which provisions are ambiguous and interpretations thereof are arbitrary infringe on civil liberties. Moreover, broad electronic information surveillance also deters sources from providing information to journalists. These problems occur not only in the United States but in Japan also. Because the Special Secrecy Law in Japan has no regard for the people's right to know, conditions in Japan will worsen with the enforcement of this law.
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  • Yusuke SHINDO
    Article type: Article
    2015 Volume 86 Pages 103-122
    Published: January 31, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: October 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This study aims to examine pamphlets when the Japanese translation of Das Kapital had yet to be completed, mainly in the 1920s, and reveal the way pamphlets changed their form, reached people such as workers and farmers, and made it possible to diffuse knowledge about Marxism and socialism in Japan. In 1915, New Society (Shin Shakai) edited by Toshihiko Sakai changed its name from Flower of Loofah (Hechima no Hana) and began running socialist articles. However, the police and Home Ministry considered New Society dangerous and often prohibited it from being published. On the other hand, the Home Ministry did not prohibit the study of socialism and Marxism. In 1919, Studies on Social Problems (Shakai Mondai Kenkyu) edited by Professor Hajime Kawakami, was able to run Marxist articles without sales being prohibited, because professors had the right to study freely. Therefore, by emulating Kawakami, Sakai and Hitoshi Yamakawa launched Studies on Socialism (Shakaishugi Kenkyu) as a study that featured articles about Marxism and it circumvented circulation from being prohibited. However, it was more important for Yamakawa to propagate socialism, which the police and Home Ministry banned. He produced the Wednesday Society pamphlets for people to understand socialism easily, because it was too difficult for ordinary people to study Marxism directly. He insisted on the need to popularize the social movement, and published Mechanism of Capitalism (Shihonshugi no Karakuri) as an easy-to-understand introductory guide to Das Kapital. This pamphlet changed its form according to its aim-from a lecture to a magazine and from a magazine to a pamphlet, for example-by having Japanese syllabic characters printed next to the Chinese characters to aid in the reading and adding subtitles. Mechanism of Capitalism spread in rural areas through the labor movement and agrarian disputes. People obtained their knowledge of socialism and Marxism mainly from these easy-to-read pamphlets, not Das Kapital, translated commentary on it, or magazines.
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  • Yasai CHEN
    Article type: Article
    2015 Volume 86 Pages 123-142
    Published: January 31, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: October 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper clarifies the formation of online public opinion through the analysis of a micro-blog, a news site, BBS's reports and posts regarding the 7.23 Wenzhou Train Crash. The conclusion can be summarized in the following four points. 1) During the accident, the news site mainly performed the function of disseminating information, and the micro-blog mainly performed the function of disseminating and observing information. Finally, the BBS mainly performed the function of observing and analyzing information. 2) Online public opinion might affect public opinion of traditional news media. Through this analysis, the author was able to observe that less than 10% of critical reports on the government were from traditional media outlets on the Sina news site. Furthermore, the account of traditional media outlets on Sina Weibo posted four critical reports on the government. These findings confirm that traditional media outlets resisted the prohibition of news reports from the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the CPC. Therefore, it can be assumed that criticism on the government circulating on the Internet affected the reporting by traditional media outlets. 3) The dependence on the traditional media outlet of the Sina news site was the strongest, and Sina Weibo and Tianya BBS depended less on traditional media outlets. 4) This demonstrates the interdependent and cooperative relationship between traditional media outlets and online media during the accident. The interaction between them amplified the power of online public opinion. In summary, the news website's function of disseminating information, the micro-blog's function of disseminating and observing information, the BBS's function of observing information and the cooperation of the traditional media outlets facilitated information of the 7.23 train crash quickly being transmitted, and formed online public opinion that was critical of the Ministry of Railways.
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  • Takahito NIIKURA
    Article type: Article
    2015 Volume 86 Pages 143-160
    Published: January 31, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: October 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    In 1952, the Treaty of San Francisco ended the Allied occupation of Japan, and it was during the same year that the Japan Society for Journalistic Studies-predecessor of The Japan Society for Studies in Journalism and Mass Communication-first published the Japanese Journalism Review. As the subtitle of this journal, "Devoted to Research Studies in the Field of Mass Communication" showed, postwar Japanese society began with the formation of mass communication studies and a mass society. The purpose of this article is to shed light on the introduction of automation technology into postwar Japanese society through a historical analysis of discourses collected from publications from that period. As new technological innovations were made during World War II, automation was an industrial and technological condition for forming a mass society in postwar Japan. Furthermore, automation technology accompanied the concept of business administration, and it promoted the dissemination of the notion of management among not only business leaders but also academic intellectuals. First, the formation of a consumer society is reconsidered regarding management through business computing, one of the essential aspects of automation technology. Second, the historical process of the spread of automation technologies among postwar Japanese society is described. This includes the establishment of the Japan Productivity Center, the installation of IBM's circulators, and the outset of the research and development of nuclear energy. Finally, the ideological significance of automation technology among academic intellectuals such as Maruyama Masao is revealed by tracing how the issues of organization and productivity are accepted and focused upon. Automation technology in postwar Japanese society has been discussed less than its real effects on society. In other words, this article may contribute by adding a new facet to the previous discourse on postwar Japanese society.
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  • Yoshitaka KATAYAMA
    Article type: Article
    2015 Volume 86 Pages 161-180
    Published: January 31, 2015
    Released on J-STAGE: October 06, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    The purpose of this article is to investigate Japanese newspaper reports on the Korean Secret Mission to the Second Peace Conference at The Hague and the Third Japanese-Korean Treaty in 1907. This paper analyzes ten Japanese Newspapers-Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, Miyako Shimbun, Yorozu Cyoho, Tokyo Niroku Shimbun, Osaka Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, Kokumin Shimbun, Jiji Shimpo, Hochi Shimbun-especially Osaka Mainichi Shimbun. Although there has been much academic research on the history of Japan-Korea relations in the past, there have been few media history studies. Takaishi Shingoro, special correspondent at The Hague for the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun, reported the Korean Secret Mission to the Second Peace Conference at The Hague objectively. Three Koreans accused Japan of ruling Korea in the newspaper Courrier de la Conference. Some Japanese newspapers feared that foreign journalists expressed sympathy with Korea. Much of the Japanese press supported the Third Japanese-Korean Treaty. In contrast, much of the Japanese media criticized The Second Japanese-Korean Treaty in 1905 and few newspapers insisted on Japan's Annexation of Korea. Almost all of the Japanese media were calmer then compared to two years ago. Probably foreign journalists' sympathizing with Korea influenced this change in much of the Japanese media.
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