Hanako Montgomery : Press Freedom and Digital Media as a Journalist in Japan | 16/100 Interviews

You might have seen her in Vice’s many documentaries on Japan about content that many would find taboo. Hanako Montgomery is an American-Japanese reporter and journalist who recently received an Emmy for her work on child abuse materials in Japan. As many of you may know, with the growth of TikTok and short-form streams of information, journalism has seen a tumultuous journey, and digital media is no exception. We spoke about Japan’s lack of freedom of speech, how media has changed in the last few years, and Hanako’s undying faith in journalism.

TLDR;

1?? The media industry is transforming to adapt to digital and social media, and media companies today are more similar to software companies rather than publications??

2?? Journalism in Japan is a challenging profession due to the kisha club system, which restricts access to information and encourages self-censorship??

3?? Hanako experienced the challenges of being an international journalist whilst reporting on explicit material in Japan that is penalized even with possession in certain regions????

How is media in 2023 and how has it evolved over the past few years?

The media industry has undergone a tumultuous transformation in recent years, with the rise of digital and social media. This has led to a number of challenges for media companies, including layoffs, shrinking budgets, and the need to constantly adapt to new technologies and trends. We’re seeing some outlets adjust to new trends by publishing directly on social media platforms - like Facebook or Instagram. But this means social media companies directly profit, rather than news organizations.?

Media companies today think about value creation just like software companies do, finding ways to provide ancillary services that customers would be willing to pay.

However, digitization and the overall gearing to short forms of content increased viewership, giving more eyeballs per story. TikTok is about brevity, where the punch is within the first three seconds, and news is made to be quickly and easily consumed. When you consider the purpose of media is to educate, inform, and entertain through information, reaching a wider audience should be a benefit.?

In this day and age, the majority of what we consume is decided by humans. Information that reaches us has gone through countless filters of decisions, and very often we forget that. In addition to these decision-makers and algorithms, the context also plays a great role in the emphasis on an event; in the same week of the South Korean Halloween crowd crush, a bridge in Gujarat India collapsed, killing 134 people. While there were more casualties during the Halloween stampede in South Korea, the coverage between the two stories was incomparably different despite both being great tragedies.?

What is journalism in Japan like?

Journalism in Japan is a challenging profession, with less press freedom than in the United States. One of the biggest challenges is the 記者クラブ (kisha club), a press club that gives journalists access to government officials and other sources of information that would otherwise take a few days to reach the public. With some exceptions, the standard is that to be a member of the Kisha Club, journalists must be Japanese and work for a Japanese media company. However, the catch is that journalists who write anything that is too critical of the government or powerful individuals may be kicked out of the Kisha Club. But without membership, reporters can hardly work, as one of the first questions a police officer asks when requesting information is, “Are you part of the Kisha Club?”.

Only certain members of the press can access information and even if they do, they face consequences if they do not publish what is agreed upon. This heavily tailored press environment has significant repercussions, barring the domestic and international public from information to keep the government accountable. A recent example would be the sexual abuse perpetrated by Johnny Kitagawa, the president of Japan’s most powerful idol talent agency; although many knew of the accusations, it wasn’t until the BBC shone light on it that actions were taken.

Another challenge for journalists in Japan is the value of anonymity. In the United States, journalists are typically expected to name their sources, unless the source is at significant risk. This is because journalists who are seen as being too close to their sources may be viewed as being biased, and could lose their credibility. However, in Japan, it is more common for journalists to grant anonymity to their sources.?

Japan is seen as a place where more feature stories are told than hard news stories about crises.?

There is an impression that hard news coverage usually consists of topics such as drugs, absolute poverty, or human rights violations. Japan, being a population where 92% consider themselves middle class (as opposed to 50% in the United States) and holds the seventh lowest crime index globally, is a relatively safe country and may have less breaking news coverage. That is not to say Japan doesn’t have its own set of social issues that are not focused enough.?

One of the most challenging journalism projects that Hanako reported on was on Japan’s legal child pornography; in correct terms, because pornography indicates that actors are of legal age, this content is formally known as ‘child abuse materials’. What made this case unique to Japan was that the children depicted were not real children but anime and manga. Animated child abuse material is legal in Japan because animation and manga are considered fantasies, and prohibiting this content is believed to infringe upon the freedom of thought. However, in the United States, it is illegal under the grounds that “any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor” is considered to be child pornography and not protected under the First Amendment. Hanako describes the difficulties communicating with the Vice editors when sending certain documents over to the U.S. since possession of such explicit content can put the editors in danger.?

Despite the recent struggles of media and journalism, Hanako continues to have faith in appreciation of journalism like this, continuing to show the difficult but true alleys of society. Although journalists gripe that news doesn’t make money, it will keep its impartiality by not shaking the hefty hands with big corporate paychecks. News is not a PR company, but the truth.?

References:

https://japantoday.com/category/features/kuchikomi/japan's-middle-class-slowly-sinking-into-poverty#:~:text=An%20astonishing%20fact%3A%2092%20percent,ministry%20report%20published%20in%202019.

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/crime-rate-by-country

https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ceos/citizens-guide-us-federal-law-child-pornography#:~:text=Images%20of%20child%20pornography%20are,under%2018%20years%20of%20age).??