Overseas media organizations report that Japanese news programs on politics are cowardly. This is extremely shameful and it's impermissible.

What do you expect with a fascist organisation (LDP) tromping on them?

Sometimes the truth hurts. And it is not the actions of overseas media which are shameful and impermissible, but those here in Japan, when they fail to report what the people have a right to know about their leaders.

This is news?

Then show some guts and stop firing all the reporters who are justifiably critical of the Abe administration.

This is extremely shameful and it's impermissible.

The quote is out of context so it is hard to tell, but is Kawabata saying that it is shameful/impermissible that Japanese news programs on politics are cowardly? Or, does he mean that overseas media reporting as such is shameful/impermissible?

I go with the former, and do think it is shameful that there is so much omission and tip-toeing around unpalatable truths, with media outlets here too willing to report at face value what they have been spoon fed at sanctioned press conferences by the powers that be.

Well there's your problem right there. These fascists clowns running the, "Broadcasting Ethic and Improvement Organization Committee."

The cowardly news and political programs are always tailored for the Japanese viewer's point of view. There needs to be a change-up in both how the political news is reported and how its perceived by the sheepish viewers who no better.

@jpn_guy

Thank you for clarifying that. Now it makes much more sense.

In the English-language Mainichi article containing this quote, Kawabata is criticizing the government's "administrative guidance" of Japan's media, and essentially chastises Japan's media for being cowardly.

Here is another translated quote from the Mainichi article: Kawabata said, "If the people who make programs shrink back and don't convey the information they should convey, then the public will not be able to make correct judgments," he said.

The article: http://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20160317/p2a/00m/0na/002000c

the Japanese don't know how to make comedy out of politics, all the "comedy" here is very visual and out of date. whyyy japanese people???

It should NOT be allowed to happen, no, but it HAS happened and IS happening, and so it is extremely true; "cowardly" sums it up nicely, and the Yomiuri is the worst of the offenders next to NHK.

With ya, 'YeahRight' Hurts when they cut to the quick, eh?

Yep this quote is too short cant tell which way the guy was going with this, thx to J-guy, Sensato for doing jt's job for them.

And yeah J-media has always been way to soft on politicians, putting it mildly!

A lot of overseas news programmes on politics are just as gutless.

Who won a cooking or dancing show is more important in their eyes.

Well, they are. That also goes for newspapers & radio. You'd think the chairman of the Broadcasting Ethics and Program Improvement Organization (BPO) Committee for the Investigation of Broadcasting Ethics (doesn't exactly roll off the tongue) would be working toward a free press with debate & dialogue being welcomed. Not here in Japan! Those in the media who criticise - you're fired!

The Japanese media did not cover themselves in any glory with coverage of the Olympus scandal, picking up on it well after it had been broken overseas. The UK's FT was running the story prominently well before the Nikkei (it is worrying that the Nikkei has subsequently bought the FT).

Coverage of the aftermath of the tsunami was also poor, playing down risks related to the nuclear disaster at Fukushima. Yes, this may have prevented panic, but it is not the media's role to be part of the government's PR operations - it is to acquire and publish the truth to allow the public to make up its own mind.

When translated correctly, it's clear that Kawabata is not an apologist for the Japanese media. However, like other readers, when I first read the headline, I assumed it was the other way around.

We would be likely to assume it is the other way around due to the actions of the LDP, such as the rcent secerecy laws and the appointment of Katsuo Momii to run NHK. The news in Japan is nothing like it is in other developed countries. Political and business scandals are not reported until doing so becomes unavoidable. The Olymous scandal of a few years ago was reported on the front pages in New York and London, but buried deep in the business sections in Japanese newspapers. Worse yet, rather than report the known facts of the case, they greatly assigned the blame to a "foreigner who didn't understand Japanese culture" (that this "foreigner" had worked at the company for 20 years, and was the CEO makes that statement rather incongruous).

The government, big business, and the press all share the same bed in Japan, and all are careful not to roll over each other.

Lets hope this will shame the J media into doing a better job- but I'm not holding my breath.