Raw Japan

Cracks at Japan’s press clubs

Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada got a rapturous round of applause and a gift of a T-shirt when he made a speech at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo a few days ago. The reason had nothing to do with his diplomatic skills.

Reporters were simply grateful for his decision to open up his twice-weekly news conferences to journalists, including foreigners, who are not part of Japan’s rigid system of kisha, or press, clubs.

Access to news conferences and briefings at Japanese government ministries has long been at least partly restricted to members of the press clubs, which in general means the country’s mainstream media — not freelancers or foreigners.

Member reporters from the top newspapers and television networks have their own desks within the ministries they cover, including at the Imperial Household Agency, and pay a nominal fee for the privilege.

Not surprisingly, the Japanese media  tend to defend the press clubs, saying they have enabled the mass media to combine forces and push the sometimes secretive bureaucracy to reveal more information. 

But the novice Democratic Party government has begun to chip away at the system, which has been criticised for creating too cosy a relationship between reporters and those they write about. Several ministries have improved access for non-members.

The move has been welcomed enthusiastically by foreign journalists. But some reporters say opening up news conferences to non-press club members or even abolishing the clubs altogether, as one provincial governor did in his corner of Japan several years ago, will make little difference in the long run.

Unknown territory for bureaucrats and media

Japan’s new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, whose Democratic Party scored a historic victory in last month’s election, wants to radically change how the country is run and in particular reduce bureaucrats’ control over formulating policy. 

And his government has taken a symbolic approach – it has decided to ban top bureaucrats from holding news conferences to explain its policy stance. The Hatoyama government has also abolished twice-weekly meetings of top bureaucrats, which have discussed, coordinated and decided policy agendas before cabinet meetings so that cabinet ministers can rubber stamp them. Naoto Kan, the new deputy prime minister, has dubbed the so-called vice ministers’ meetings “the bid-rigging meetings” of bureaucrats.

I covered Japan’s Finance Ministry for nearly 10 years and I now cover other departments such as the Foreign Ministry.  Each ministry is different, but usually vice ministers hold press conferences Mondays and Thursdays to clarify the ministry’s stance on the development of policy-making as well as technical and historical background. In addition, there are many different types of press briefings by ministry officials of various ranks. Those are all in addition to regular news conferences by cabinet ministers every Tuesday and Friday.  Yes, there are a lot of press opportunities here – maybe too many.

Still, as soon as the Hatoyama government decided to allow only lawmakers — namely cabinet ministers and their deputies – to hold news conferences on policy ideas, reporters started to ask lots of  “what if” questions. 

“What if we want details on a disaster or the spread of the new H1N1 flu immediately when there is a new development?”, “What if ministers are not available right away or not fully aware enough of technical issues to be able to answer reporters’ questions, as has been the case in the past?”  

Similar questions dominated the first news conference by Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, Japan’s top government spokesman, just hours after the government was formed on Wednesday. Even a few days later, Hatoyama, Hirano and other cabinet ministers were still being repeatedly asked to clarify their stance on media access.  The widely circulated Yomiuri newspaper on Friday questioned the government’s approach in its editorial ”Muzzling bureaucrats might be step too far“, saying restricting press conferences would make the policy-making process less transparent.

Frog diplomacy

When he met Japan’s incoming prime minister, a football helmet was the catalyst for conservation . Then Washington’s envoy in Tokyo bonded with the next foreign minister over a frog.

Katsuya Okada, who is expected to be appointed as Japan’s next foreign minister this week, is a policy maven with a “Mr. Clean” image. He is also known in Japan as an avid collector of frog-related knick-knacks such as miniatures and soft toys.

When the new U.S. ambassador to Japan, John Roos, found out about Okada’s predilection for all things froggy, he clearly thought it would be an excellent icebreaker for a meeting between the two…although he stopped short of taking an actual frog to the rendezvous.

“I explained to him how I had started collecting frogs on my trip to Jerusalem and how I have been buying them whenever I see them on overseas trips,” Okada said.

“But I told him that I hadn’t found any decent frogs in the United States, and that I’d found only one frog when I was in Washington.”

So while it seems Americans are not quite as frog-crazy as Okada, Roos made a promise.

“Then he (the ambassador) told me he would find a good frog while he’s in office and give it to me as a present,” Okada said, adding that he would like to keep working closely with the ambassador.