Japan is one of the nations with the most advanced mass media in the world, and journalism plays an important role in politics, economics, and society as a whole. Before the end of World War II (1945) Japanese journalism played an expanded role in shaping pepople's behavior and thought, while fulfilling its function of reporting. When the war ended in defeat in 1945, and Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers led by the U.S., the Japanese press was re-educated to adopt the idea of objective reporting. This means that the main role of journalism is to give people information and provide materials for their own interpretation, and to guide their individual behavior. Similarly, in the field of mass communications, the results of studies developed in the U.S. were introduced one after another, mainly studies in mass communication process such as mass communicating and transmitting. They took the place of the prewar studies descended from Zeitungswissenschaft. These communication studies still hold an important position. Since the beginning of the 1970s, however, scholars' attention has been riveted again on the study of the communication process, the characteristics and comparison of each medium, and the history of journalism, which used to be the main study of journalism. In other words, the role of journalism has been reconsiderd. During this period, especially, newly-introduced media appeared, for example, TV, weekly magazines, local papers, various information papers, cable broadcasting, cable TV and so on. Together with their appearance and development, and changes in the social environment around them, the social functions and social roles of various forms of journalism came to be mentioned as newspapers, broadcasting, publications and movies seem to be different from what they were before. These changes in the social environment vary from changes in the reading publics habits to the individual's view of media in society. Furthermore they can be seen not only in Japanese journalism but also in the journalism of western countries. Journalism is a record of history that reports on everyday occurences. However as far as journalism is a social organ it should be regarded as something which has a more important social role and function, than simply an information provider. Each article of this special issue examining journalism in its function focuses on two questions : what is the social role of contemporary journalism? Is journalism fulfilling its responsibilities? This is an overview of the present conditions and problems of Japanese journalism.

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News reporting sometimes causes serious misunderstanding among mass media audiences, because it is not informing them of an event or a matter in itself but giving an image of it. This theory has two conditions. One is, people are apt to misunderstand when some crisis or acute situation continues. Another can be seen in the circumstance that receivers seldom have knowledge or experience about the reported subjects. Tensions such as a global war, however, have been moderated. One of the reasons may be that even ordinary people can now travel abroad, which increases the chances to experience other life styles and goods made by people who have different traditions from theirs. Meanwhile, on non-immediate matters readers and viewers have a tendency to respect the reporters' character. Therefore, the meaning of journalism signifies the spirit of a journalist who is reporting, editing and making up news, rather than media only giving news to persons. In Japan, especially, most mass media symbolize social trends through their patterns of expression, and journalism is mostly realized in the works of a writer or an artist.

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Present-day journalism in Japan, supported by one of the world's strongest economies and some of the most advanced technological innovations in the world, is one of the world's largest in scale. It is doubtful, however, whether this physically large power is giving full scope to journalism as "the fourth estate" in performing its social responsibility. On the contrary, it tends to have an adverse effect in a crisis, creating the conditions of so-called "total-journalism." This is especially the case with political journalism appearing in Japan's major newspapers which boast the world's largest circulation. Despite their tremendous power, they have made almost no contribution to bringing light the inherent contradictions in Japanese politics. This is symbolically illustrated in the "Tanaka case." This weakness of political journalism in Japan is further made clear when viewed from "Okinawa, " itself a mass of political contradictions. In Okinawa what should be guaranteed by the Constitution is neglected and non-democratic events are an everyday matter. In order to make definite the raison d'etre of political journalism and restore its social credibility, the concept of news itself should be totally changed. In other words, it is an indespensable premise that political journalism should no longer deal only with current events but should exert itself toward solving structuralized political problems.

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Studies of journalism in the past have focused on the analysis of records of everyday events. But now we should pay more attention to how those recorded events were communicated to and recognized by the people. In present-day society, flooded with information, in many cases much valuable information is transmitted only to be thrown away, without attracting atttention. Especially the case with news on environmental problems which are closely related to our everyday life. It is precisely in this field, therefore, that research should be conducted on what journalism should do to communicate with people concerned and how to gain their recognition. The results will serve as an index in evaluating future jnurnalistic activities.

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In the present-day "information society, " photographs can be seen everywhere, for instance in newspapers, magazines, advertisements, movies and TV, and so on. It is also easy to obtain various information through photographs. The word "photojournalism, " however, is not widely used nor understood in Japan. It has been one hundred years since photographs were invented. The concept of photojournalism was born and developed principally in Europe and the U.S. With the establishment of the world-wide photographic magazine Life, it reached its full development, giving birth to a number of photojournalists. During and after the second world war and in every part of the world they took photos which have become valuable records of history. Photojournalism was introduced into Japan around 1930 and was developed by young photojournalists. This paper discusses its historical development in Japan, referring to the tend of newspaper photographs in everyday news reporting.

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We cannot say that women's journalism with a critical function exists today, at least in Japan. Nevertheless, women's journalism has flourished for the last ten years, if we mean media which reflect and lead the dominant movement of women's culture, or magazines and other printed media whose readers are mostly women. Instead of reporting politics, economics and science, they have created a unique style covering fields which other kinds of magazines won't touch, for example : beauty, fashion, house-keeping, childcare, romance, marriage and so on. This paper describes the three main characteristics of the latest women's magazines as follows : (1) Spreading world-wide common ideas on the basics of charm or famous brand goods, originally modelled on the white middle class in western countries. (2) A Great volumes of advertisements, especially new cosmetics and fashions providing values that stress the desirability of "change, " "newness" or "consumption." (3) Challenging readers to change both physically and personally going beyond their ordinary family life style, as the private life of each person becomes more standarized. In future, it is thought that these phenomenon can affect not only women's but also men's society.

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This article is made up of considerations of three problems. First of all, what are the theoretical and practical grounds for "generation" to be established as a viewpoint of analysis? Secondly, what is the analytical framework to the relations between "generation and journalism"? Thirdly, what is the fundamental characteristics of the relationship between generation and journalism in contemporary Japan? Analysis of the last problem can show three hypotheses : (1) A Multiplex structure of generations has been brought about by the dramatic social changes in postwar Japan. Especially it is also clear that generation gaps exist not only in the dimension of traditional vs. modern values, but in another dimension of modern vs. post-modern values. (2) The changes in generation are directly related to people's behavior and attitudes toward mass communications. (3) Consequently journalism is forced to review its own fundamental framework in order to recognize, express and communicate social realities.

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The word "journalism" has never been translated into Japanese kanji. Today, therefore, we use "janarizumu, " written in Japanese katakana. Concerning the origin of the word, "sonohi sonohi shugi, " which means the principle of day, to day may be correct. Taking newspapers into consideration as the most important medium, followed by magazines and publications, Sogo Janarizumu Koza (Comprehensive Journalism Series) containing 12 vols was published in 1930-31. It includes some critics who definite journalism as activities of the newspapers and magazine community. On the the other hand, some recognize broadcasting journalism while others do not, because we use various expressions in Japanese, for example, "he makes his liviug by journalism." Consequently, these days, no one any longer tries to translate journalism into Japanese characters. This is no problem. But a number of scholars think, that real journalism should emphasize their critiques, comments and editorial articles. Many also think that principles of impartial reporting belongs to mass communication, but not journalism. This paper stresses that such ideas are historically unsupported.

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This article examines Soviet Journalism under four aspects ; namely, the concept of news, the functions and principles of news, and freedom of speech. Through content analysis of newspapers and the definition of news, it becomes clear that "news" in the Soviet Union is goal-oriented information aimed at the building up of socialism and the diffusion of party policies, rather than the reporting of events. Therefore, great emphasis is placed on political and economic "news." It can also be pointed out that commentary, education and the organization of movements are emphasized as the functions of journalism, and its principles are party-, people- and mass-oriented. Furthermore, the interpretation of freedom of the press is different from that in the western countries. Journalistic activities are not free from political power but free to pursue goals toward social and historical progress. On the whole, journalism in the Soviet Union is a means to diffuse political information and to realize party policies and therefore is strongly politically oriented in its nature.

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In the Third World, the development of the media is mainly in the hands of state-run broadcasting and television services, and any independent newspapers which watch the government's activities come after them. In the 1970s, when the Indian government began to consolidate its authoritative structure based on political and economic factors, its control on the press was reinforced. Consequently newspapers fell into a difficult time. On the other hand, the Third World's challenge to develop a free and balanced flow of information towards the western mass media was built up between it and the developed countries. However, it is quite natural that the Third World's international desire to establish a New World Information Order should go together with advances in creating an independent press that is not controlled by the home government. What supports democracy is a free press, and such is the case in India. This paper reviews the author's own experience as a journalist.

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