“Correspondents to Japan Are Absent”

The New York Times reported on the 12th from Tokyo that although Japan still was the second greatest economical power in the world, it became a ‘forgotten country’ after losing energy due to long slump over 10 years; therefore, media of each country are withdrawing correspondents from Japan.

The newspapers that closed Tokyo office in last few months are the Chicago Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor of America, the Independent of the UK, the Dazens Niheter of Sweden, and the Corier Della Sera of Italy. The Dazens Niheter once sent 8 reporters, but now they left only one.

The New York Times pointed out, “Japan will keep the great economic power status for tens of years; however, the world is not interested in reports from Japan anymore since the slump becomes a long term issue.” That is because the only news from Japan are like: ‘the bank advances in July dropped by 4.6%,’ ‘wholesale price of July dropped by 1.2%,’ and ‘IMF predicted that the Japanese economy would be withered by 0.5%.’

As a result, the correspondents to Tokyo of foreign media often go to business trip to other countries. The ABC News correspondent Jim Skiuto, who has been appointed for 5 years, was in Afghanistan for 3 and half months, and he is now in Israel. The Tokyo branch managers of the LA Times and the Washington Post went business trips to Israel, and the branch manager of the New York Times is covering Pakistan. The Chicago Tribune appointed the correspondent to Tokyo to Beijing of China. The Times reported that the Western media are using reporters for really necessary news from Japan or buying stories from freelance reporters.

konihong@donga.com