The Conservatization Of Japan's Mass Media And Its Influence Upon Sino-Japanese Relations

With a background of increasing right-deviation of politics and overall conservatization of society, Japan's mass media, though flaunting about its freedom and impartiality, are gradually showing the tendency of being more and more conservative within recent years.Focusing on the notion of conservatization, this article carries out a research into Japan's mass media with combined angles of view from both international relations and mass media. This thesis is composed of five parts. In the Introduction, a review is given about the origin of the subject and the literature of preceding researchers. The related notions are defined and the methodology applied in this article put forward. In the first part of the main body, the expressions of conservatization of Japan's mass media under the cloak of liberalization are summed up. This thesis selects three representative newspapers in Japan, i.e. the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Asahi Shimbun and the Mainichi Shimbun, as its materials. And for the cases studied, particular emphasis is laid on the newly-occurred and comparatively significant events. After the analysis with the methods such as sampling, comparison, induction etc, the nature of conservatization is concluded as to take the national interests as its only criterion. The second part of the main body, being highlighted, analyses the historical and realistic factors leading to the conservatization of Japan's mass media from historical, political, economic and social angles respectively, which includes the system of correspondents club, the interaction between correspondent and government, the relation among authorities, financial groups and mass media, the influence of cultural tradition and the conservatization of social sense and ideology, etc. In general, the conservatization of Japan's mass media is the consequence of synthetic functioning of various factors. The third part is mainly concerned with the influence of such conservatization on the policy-making of Japan foreign affairs and, on Sino-Japanese relations as well. In the final part, the Conclusion, a summary is made and suggestions brought forward on how to evaluate the conservatization of Japan's mass media, in favor of a normal development of Sino-Japanese relations.