New Press Conference Policy of Japanese Government

Wednesday, September 23, 2009 – Osaka, Japan

The first issue tackled by the new Japanese government led by new Prime Minister, Mr. Hatoyama, upon kick-off his new administration, was announcing the change in press announcement policy at the night of September 16, the first day of the new administration. The objective is to take initiatives from the bureaucrats. This has provoked hot debate among journalists and media.

1. How the press announcement was done and how government information used to be delivered to media

Press conference spoken by the head of ministries are held regularly and ad-hoc basis (e.g. emergency announcement), and it was bureaucrats that composed speeches; the spokespersons simply read the script. Also, major ministries had been regularly holding press conferences, speakers being administrative vice minister, assistant vice minister and chief of bureau, i.e. bureaucrats. Such press conferences can be covered specifying the speaker. Major ministries had also been regularly holding round-table conference by the same speakers. With this system, the news is covered by not specifying the speaker so usually such expression as “executive of so so ministry” as the speaker is used.

In addition, that some reporters regularly rode with administrative vice minister on his way to work to “communicate” and inform the essence to other reporters because they cannot possibly have enough time to communicate with administrative vice ministers even though they visit their house before going to work.

This system may seem “collusion” between the bureaucrats and the media, but it is true that this system was established as a result of long-year coordination of public (i.e. government) and media. Government has accountability and responsibility of information disclosure. Media has responsibility of answering to citizen’s right to know about the government. And “press club” exists as the interaction of the responsibility of the two parties.

The existence of press club is valid even though there has been some criticism, and what is critical question was bureaucrats had 100% control over information disclosure to the media and citizens.

2. The objective of new policy of press announcement and communication with media is to exclude bureaucrats

In the night of September 16, Mr. Hirano, the Chief Secretary Cabinet, announced the policy that “under the new government, no more press conferences by bureaucrats will be held”. This means that in the future, press conference will be only by politicians, i.e. ministers, deputy ministers and ministerial aids, with the objective of the new press conference policy is to take initiative from the bureaucrats. Briefing such as background explanation will not be included in this regulation. With this announcement, some ministries actually decided to abolish regular press conference spoken by the minister. Media’s reaction to the policy was negative, with such comments as “news control”.

The biggest merit of the policy is fulfillment of the objective, i.e. politicians taking the initiative to change Japan. Japanese government faced this challenge for many years and had been one of the biggest issues and therefore the new policy can be highly evaluated and appreciated. In addition, the politicians will be speaking in their own words to deliver their own strong message with passion. Speech in the speaker’s own words would also enhance speaker’s ownership, accountability and commitment. So speeches would surely be convincing, unlike most previous speakers of the press conference who read the script in monotone, even incorrectly in a few cases.

The demerits of the policy are the increase in the workload of politicians (speakers), question of whether they are capable of explaining details the bureaucrats had been explaining to the media, and communication to the media being non-interactive and less intensive compared to what it had been. Bureaucrats had been communicating intensively on the daily basis, so too much control of communication between bureaucrats and media could refrain two parties from communicating frankly, interactively and intensively. This could lead to between the two parties may well lead to possible decrease in the quantity and quality (including background and nuance) of information disclosed to the media compared to what it had been.

3. Ideal information disclosure system is expected to be created and developed by both the new government and media

Strategic and effective information disclosure of the government to communicate interactively with the media and citizens would greatly contribute to driving change, the objective and mission of the new government. From that perspective, it seems evident that the old press conference system needs review and improvement, and it is quite logical that this issue of press announcement policy, one of the most important and symbolic issue, was handled first.

There is no “the only correct solution” as in all issues, and it is highly desired that the new government and media collaborate to develop an ideal total information closure system including official press conference and unofficial settings on the daily basis. Such a new system would fulfill the responsibilities of both two parties (government and media), and achieve the new government’s objectives of the new policy announcement while accepting maximum freedom of research, reporting and expressing oneself of media.


* Information on the past press announcement and how the government communicated with the media is from a Japanese column which was posted on Nikkei PB web site on September 17
http://www.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/column/20090917/182230/