An analysis of the Japanese Online Media

While Japan is famous for its offline news media, the tech savvy world actually seems to hold little favor for its online counterpart. Mirroring the early stages of their U.S. brethren, the traditional Japanese media has been unsure of how to utilize the internet profitably and effectively. Believe it or not, Japan has actually been quite hesitant to experiment with media in relation to content creation and garnering a loyal readership.

The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications had recently published reports that indicate roughly 19.5 million broadband internet subscribers as of March 2005, a rate of nearly two in every five households with an estimated 62 million internet users as a whole in Japan. Despite the strong showing, the lack of true innovative online media is one of the few mysteries in Japanese culture.

Arguably some of the most popular homegrown sites on the net are privately owned bulletin and image boards leaving corporate owned entities in the dust. With the traditional Japanese mindset focused on harmony and working together, websites like the infamous 2channel often uncovers the latest scandals due to the anonymity the website provides, ironically many mainstream news reporters turn to 2ch to seek scoops for their traditional news outlets.

One of the things you may notice is the unprofessional and chaotic structure of Japanese websites, largely due to an unwillingness to pursue the growing art of web design as one of the fields to be taught at universities. The overall appreciation of the internet by news sources has been ignored.

Currently there are only a handful of major corporate news entities taking fastidious steps into the internet world, including Asahi, Yomiuri Shimbun, Mainichi Newspaper, Nikkei Keizai Shimbun, and Senkei Shimbun. Some of the companies offer streaming news clips, while others follow a subscription fee model best known to users of the New York Times website. According to experts, much of the problem may also lie in reluctance to hurt circulation of the physical newspaper, as many small businesses in Japan rely solely on newspaper distribution for profit. The Asahi Shimbun alone carries a distribution channel of over 3,000 agents encompassing almost 80,000 employees who’s jobs would be in jeopardy if the online media makes an impact in newspaper sales.

One of the stars in the race for online supremacy lies in the Kanagawa Shimbun, a Kanagawa Prefecture local daily, which launched an online news and community blog is one of the few sites to take advantage of the interactivity of the internet. The Kanaloco website incorporates news, blogs, sports, and local news. Many of the features that may have been too insignificant a story for print would end up on the website, including a crime blog, multimedia clips, train blogs, editorials, a even a forum for the staff to communicate directly to it’s readers.

Television media, including the likes of NHK, Fuji TV, NTV, Asahi, and TBS, have been a little more willing to offer streaming broadcasts of news events on their websites. There has even been a push to offer streaming news content online, but by way of mobile phone updates and alerts, to make the ability to get your news more useful and pertinent. Magazine websites have decided to utilize their websites to provide additional content to readers and subscribers, but with no wholly original content.

So now you know a little more about the way Japanese Online Media works, who the main players are, and what you should expect from them. It should come as no surprise that some of the most popular websites are often the least censored; I think it’s in human nature to enjoy gossip and seeing corruption and fraud revealed and punished.