How long can Japanese newspapers live？

During my first few years in Japan, my interests were mainly focused on two things: one was to study media law, and the other was to try to run the media. The former is the main business and the latter is a sideline, but this sideline takes up a lot of my time. In those years, I participated in the establishment of Japanese Students Abroad, China Economic Times, and Japanese-Chinese Medicine Exchange. At this time, the Japanese newspaper industry is surging-according to a survey by the Japan Press Association, the circulation of Japanese newspapers in 1997 was as high as 53.77 million copies, so I can count it as a success.

Compared with other countries, Japanese newspaper industry has several remarkable characteristics: first, the number of publications is huge; Second, newspapers are issued directly, and the sales network covers the whole country; Then the major newspapers belong to the "senior mass newspaper", unlike the European and American newspapers, the "senior newspaper" and "mass newspaper" are completely different.

Today, with the decline of paper media, there are still more than 100 newspapers "alive" in Japan, and one third of them are divided into two versions: "Korean issue" and "evening issue". The largest Yomiuri Shimbun is published nearly 10 million times a day. Japanese people are the people who love reading newspapers in the world. Many families subscribe to two newspapers, a national newspaper and a local newspaper. According to a survey in 2008, 90% of Japanese people have the habit of reading newspapers every day.

In the 1990s, domestic weekly newspapers and metropolis newspapers rose, and the China Newspaper Association sent many delegations to visit Japan. I have set up a bridge between China Press Association and Japan Press Association, and have done many projects to promote exchanges between the two sides. At that time, the domestic newspaper industry was in a period of rapid expansion, and many places lacked newspapers, newsprint and even ink. The exchanges between the two sides mainly focused on operation and management. For the Japanese newspaper industry, the domestic media is very yearning.

In Japan, newspapers belong to the private sector and are self-financing for the market. The state neither "owns" newspapers, nor subsidizes them, nor is it in a position to dictate their contents. More than half of the income of the paper media comes from sales, and the readers are the parents of food and clothing, so the distribution and service of Japanese newspapers are also directly oriented to readers. In Japan, 95% newspapers are delivered directly to subscribers’ homes by newspaper couriers, rain or shine. It is a part of many Japanese people’s life to have breakfast and read morning newspapers. Day after day, they gradually develop their attachment to type and paper.

High-quality distribution and service are considered to be one of the main reasons for Japanese newspapers to retain readers. In my opinion, the best service of newspapers comes from truth. Japanese newspapers have a good record of objectivity. This stems from the "freedom of the press" guaranteed by the postwar constitution. In 1947, the Japanese Constitution prohibited any form of news censorship. On this basis, the principle of "objectivity" and "neutrality" of newspapers becomes possible. Unlike European and American media, Japanese newspapers keep a distance from politics while presenting facts. Politicians do not directly intervene in the media, and journalists will not turn to politics. Subscribers rarely subscribe to a newspaper because of their political stance, because the editorials of these newspapers are not very different. In a survey last year, the credibility score of newspapers reached 68.7 points (out of 100 points), which was significantly better than the 51.4 points of online new media.

However, the crisis is also obvious. In the Heisei era, the paper media experienced a process of reaching the peak and then slipping. Last year, Japanese newspapers published 39.9 million copies a day, which greatly exceeded the global level, but it has shrunk by about a quarter compared with the peak of 20 years ago. As mentioned earlier, the revenue of Japanese newspapers mainly depends on selling newspapers, and the shrinking circulation means that the income of publishers decreases. According to statistics, the total sales of Japanese newspapers decreased by about 458 billion yen (about 29.1 billion yuan) in the decade from 2003 to 2013. In the late Heisei generation, it has become normal for print media to attack each other in order to compete for declining subscribers.

There are cracks in the business model on which Japanese newspapers depend, and this crack will become more and more obvious with the aging of the "lump generation". The so-called "mass generation" was born shortly after the war, and has developed the habit of reading newspapers since childhood, and is the most loyal reader of newspapers. These people are now over 70 years old. According to statistics, the "healthy life expectancy" of Japanese men is 71 years old, while that of Japanese women is 74 years old. Later, they will either enter the nursing home or gradually become too tired to read. At that time, the wave of newspaper subscription cancellation will come.

Young people who grew up in the internet age are not attached to newspapers, and they don’t even watch TV. Surfing the internet is their daily life, and more than 90% of Japanese in their twenties and thirties are netizens. According to a survey conducted by the Press and Communication Research Association last year, in Japan, the number of people browsing news through mobile phones or computers has exceeded the readers of early newspapers.

Personally, I have less and less time to read newspapers. This is not just a matter of time, but that newspapers are no longer an irreplaceable source of information. In the past, news that could only be obtained by reading newspapers and watching TV can now be easily obtained online, even without the need for professional news organizations to provide it.

In the early 1990s, when I first arrived in Japan, there was often no news of China in the mainstream Japanese media for several days, as if there was no such country as "China" on the earth. My fellow students and I founded China Overseas Students Daily and China Economic Times to fill this gap. The former is aimed at the minority group of "Japanese students studying abroad" and published in both Chinese and Japanese languages; The latter is for Japanese readers and published in Japanese. Later, the two newspapers both disappeared at the door of the internet age, unable to find a new position, and lack of editing and editing power, which were the main reasons for the suspension of publication.

1995 was called the "first year of the Internet" in Japan. In that year, traditional media began to enter the network, and the media performance became more diversified. In 1997, the circulation of Japanese newspapers reached its peak, and has been shrinking year by year since then. People generally attribute this to the impact of the internet age. In fact, Achilles’ heel is different for different newspapers. For western mainstream media, the loss of advertising is a fatal blow, but the main income of Japanese newspapers does not depend on advertising. What Japanese newspapers lack is, I think, in-depth information and investigative reports that only professional media can provide. This shortcoming has always existed, but it is only in the Internet age that Japanese newspapers have accelerated their depreciation.

Reporters Without Borders released media freedom in 180 countries and regions around the world in April this year, and Japan ranked only 67th, ranking last in the Group of Seven. Why is this happening? As mentioned above, Japan’s Constitution guarantees freedom of the press, which is the same as other countries in the G-7, except that there is a "press club" system in Japan.

"Journalists’ Club" is an exclusive organization established by Japanese government departments and business clubs at all levels for the media. Only club members can obtain the first-hand information and data provided by the government and relevant clubs. There are hundreds of such press clubs all over Japan, and there are special "press rooms" from the Prime Minister’s Office to the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Through the club, journalists and so-called authoritative sources have formed a mutually beneficial "non-confrontational" relationship-journalists can easily get fed without having to chase after them, and sources regulate information release to realize public opinion management.

This system has been criticized by foreign countries, thinking that it has actually caused "self-censorship" of the media. Japanese newspapers are full of news from journalists’ clubs, and there are few in-depth investigative reports and even few critical reports. As mentioned above, Japanese newspapers don’t tell lies, but truth doesn’t mean truth, which is often hidden under fragmented facts and needs to be excavated by journalists. The reason why the media is important to a democratic society is that it builds an information base for people’s political participation. Only when people are fully informed can people’s autonomy become possible. Unfortunately, Japanese newspapers are not so conscious.

Martin Fackler, former director of The New York Times branch in Japan, noticed that the media are very popular with Japanese fresh graduates because of their high salaries and comparable treatment to banks, securities companies and trading houses. This kind of "motivation" makes Japanese journalists more like "wage earners". Unlike American journalists from the grassroots, they lack professional passion and confidence in questioning dignitaries.

At present, Shinzo Abe has become one of the longest-serving prime ministers in Japan, thanks in part to the media. Every major newspaper in Japan has a column of "The Prime Minister’s Movement" to report the whereabouts of the Prime Minister. It is not difficult to find that almost all the heads of major media are Abe’s guests. According to some statistics, since returning to the post of Prime Minister in 2012, the number of times Abe has had dinner with media people has greatly increased. Today’s Japanese media have little criticism of Abe’s government. "I’m not so much worried about the Abe regime that controls the media," Martin Fakler sighed. "I’m more worried about the Japanese media so easily."

In the 2010s, the life of Japanese newspapers became more and more difficult. Of course, they will not sit still. Many newspapers publish online editions and offer them to subscribers at very low prices. In addition, there are various plans and promotions for specific groups, such as launching special topics for women or "student subscription prices" for young people to attract more subscribers and readers. However, the declining sales volume year by year shows that these methods are not effective, at least not enough to reverse the decline. Perhaps it is time for Japanese newspapers to consider a reporting strategy outside the press club.

Near the Dome Gymnasium in Tokyo, there is a dormitory for international students named "Houleliao". The entrance and floor are inlaid with green glazed tiles, which is full of ancient meaning. It used to be the "Manchukuo Students’ Club for Studying in Japan", but it has been transformed into the dormitory for international students of the Japan-China Friendship Club. I remember that my room was Room 104, which was once the editorial department of China Overseas Students.

In the past 30 years, only the Japanese-Chinese Medicine Exchange magazine, the three media I participated in, has survived, and I heard that it has developed well. Perhaps, yesterday’s "public" has collapsed, people no longer read the same newspaper at the same time, and today’s media must satisfy countless "minorities" with varied tastes.

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Author Darren Liu is a professor at the Department of Comprehensive Policy and Graduate School of Xinglin University.