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Media and Civic Engagement in Japan

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Book cover Civic Engagement in Contemporary Japan

Part of the book series: Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies ((NCSS))

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Orutanatibu media is a Japanese neologism from the English “alternative media.” Shimin is the Japanese word for “citizen.” As the English terms “alternative” and “citizens media” have historical connotations that are not necessarily appropriate to Japan, Japanese terms are here used. See Hadl (2007) for a detailed discussion of English terms.

  2. 2.

    Japanese neologism from English “mass communication”: the major news media, mainstream media, “the” media.

  3. 3.

    http://www.labornetjp.org/

  4. 4.

    http://www.nikkanberita.com

  5. 5.

    A network established to report on civic actions around the 2008 G8 Summit in Japan, made up of Videopress, Ourplanet-TV, IMCjp (all discussed below) and others. It also worked closely with the Sapporo Citizens Media Center, discussed belowhttp://g8medianetwork.org.

  6. 6.

    High-profile examples include the so-called NHK Educational TV issue (NHK ETV bangumi kaizan jiken). In 2001, the national public broadcaster significantly altered a program on the issue of Japanese war crimes after receiving threats from right-wing groups and taking into account the comments of politicians who held NHK budget strings, including (later prime minister) Shinzo Abe (Tokyo High Court Verdict, January 29, 2007).

  7. 7.

    All translations are by the author. Interviewees who chose to speak anonymously are referred to by organization name and number.

  8. 8.

    Japan Council of Community, Citizens’, and Alternative Mediahttp://alternative-media.jp/.

  9. 9.

    Minshuu no media renrakukai, established 1992, currently inactive. See PMN (1996) for details.

  10. 10.

    http://www.jca.apc.org/femin/

  11. 11.

    http://www.wacca.com/88/

  12. 12.

    “Disinformation disseminated (…) so as to present an environmentally responsible public image” (Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 10th edition).

  13. 13.

    http://www.aa.alpha-net.ne.jp/skayano/menu.html

  14. 14.

    Ainu and Japanese transcript at http://www.aa.alpha-net.ne.jp/skayano/IIPN-A.T1.html. Translation by the author.

  15. 15.

    http://www.tcc117.org/fmyy/

  16. 16.

    NEET stands for “not in employment, education or training.”

  17. 17.

    http://ourplanet-tv.org/

  18. 18.

    http://www.terere.jp/

  19. 19.

    Two other interviewees related similar stories where cable companies who had called for submissions rejected their work because it dealt with “political” issues.

  20. 20.

    “Recording, expression, and memory organization,” founded 2001 (http://remo.or.jp).

  21. 21.

    Through the Videoact! Catalog, an associated project (http://www.videoact.jp).

  22. 22.

    http://video.labornetjp.org/

  23. 23.

    Both claims are overdrawn: Participatory and people’s journalism is a many-decades-old practice (Downing 2001; Rodríguez 2001), and online news is dominated by the same two agencies as print/broadcast news (Paterson 2006).

  24. 24.

    Other types of online news sites include online versions of mass comi, aggregators like googlenews, and individuals’ newsblogs.

  25. 25.

    Though OhMynews is often cited as a prime example of citizens’ and alternative media and has social movement roots, it now views citizens’ reporters as part of his business model and sees the label “alternative” as a marketing tool (Oh 2006).

  26. 26.

    Japan Alternative News for Justices and New Cultures (http://www.janjan.jp/).

  27. 27.

    http://japan.indymedia.org

  28. 28.

    Indymedia is internationally well-researched (c.f. Downing 2003; Coyer et al. 2007; Media Development 2003). Information on IMCjp was obtained through participatory observation 2003-2008.

  29. 29.

    “All IMC’s, (…) shall (…) allow (…) individuals, groups and organizations to express their views, anonymously if desired.” http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/PrinciplesOfUnity.

  30. 30.

    Japan Computer Access for Empowerment. Originally called JCA (http://www.jcafe.net/).

  31. 31.

    http://www.apc.org

  32. 32.

    http://imc-sapporo.blogspot.com/

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Acknowledgment

This research was conducted with the financial support of Japanese tax payers in the form of a JSPS fellowship and a Kyoto Prefectural International Friendship Ambassador Subsidy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kwansei Gakuin University, Kobe, Japan

    Gabriele Hadl

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  1. Gabriele Hadl
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku), Senri Expo Park 10-1, Suita, Osaka, 565-8511, Japan

    Henk Vinken

  2. Komazawa University, Komazawa 1-23-1, Setagaya, Tokyo, 154-8525, Japan

    Yuko Nishimura

  3. Doshisha University, Kyotanabe, Kyoto, 610-0394, Japan

    Bruce L. J. White

  4. National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku), Senri Expo Park 10-1, Suita, Osaka, 565-8511, Japan

    Masayuki Deguchi

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Hadl, G. (2010). Media and Civic Engagement in Japan. In: Vinken, H., Nishimura, Y., White, B., Deguchi, M. (eds) Civic Engagement in Contemporary Japan. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1504-7_9

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