NEWSPAPERS IN JAPAN
Japan having taken on most of the characteristics and some of the
idiosyncracies of Western civilisation, has naturally developed a
newspaper press of its own. Of course newspapers in Japan are no new
thing. Mr. Kumoto, editor of the _Japan Times_, claims for Japanese
journalism an origin as far back as the early part of the seventeenth
century. "Long before," he remarks, "our doors of seclusion were
forced open by the impatient nations of the West, our ancestors had
found a device by which they kept themselves in touch with current
events and news. The news-sheets of those days were roughly got up,
being printed from wooden blocks hastily purchased for each issue.
They were meagre in news, uncouth in form, and quite irregular in
appearance, there being no fixed date for publication. Neither were
they issued by any particular and fixed publisher. Anybody could issue
them, and at any time they pleased. These sheets were called Yomuri,
which, being translated, means 'sold by hawking.'" These ancient
newspapers had, however, palpably nothing in common with modern
journalism, and anything in the shape of criticism or comment, or any
attempt to guide or mould public opinion was, of course, not to be
found therein. He would have been a bold man at the beginning of the
seventeenth century, or indeed very much later, who would have
ventured to print and publish anything tending to influence public
opinion, or having the appearance of being a criticism on those in
authority.
We may take it that for all practical purposes the rise of the native
newspaper press of Japan did not take place till some time after the
Revolution of 1868. If its rise has been recent its progress has
certainly been rapid. There can be no question that both the rise and
development of the vernacular press has been largely influenced by
English journalism. There have always, since the opening of the
country, been English newspapers in Japan, and very admirable
newspapers too. One or more Englishmen have started papers printed in
Japanese, and although these ventures were not commercially
successful, they, at any rate, showed the way for Japanese journalism.
Mr. Kumoto in his very interesting remarks published in Stead's "Japan
and the Japanese," gives an amusing illustration of the somewhat
amateur business lines on which the native Japanese newspapers were at
first produced. He quotes the following notice which appeared in one
of them: "The editors note with satisfaction the growing prosperity of
their venture, and notify their subscribers that in view of the
increased labour and trouble entailed on them by their increasing
circulation, the gracious subscribers will kindly spare them the
trouble by sending for their copies instead of having them delivered
to them as before." There has certainly been a remarkable development
in the Japanese newspaper press since this somewhat jejune
announcement was published. Tokio at the present time possesses about
forty daily newspapers, and there is hardly a town in the country of
any importance that has not one or two papers of its own. There are
now more than a thousand magazines and newspapers of various kinds
published in the country--a number which yearly increases, and is
certain to increase in the near future to a very much greater extent.
But besides newspapers, Japan possesses news agencies on somewhat
similar lines to those that exist in this country, whose function it
is to supply the press with the latest news on every matter of public
and, I am afraid, sometimes of merely private importance. Whether
these news agencies perform useful functions either in this country or
in Japan, is a matter upon which I shall express no opinion. News
acquired in a hurry in competition with other agencies which exist for
a similar purpose, and purveyed to journals printed in a hurry and
read in a hurry, does not often allow of discrimination being
exercised in regard to its circulation. The sensational element in the
native press in Japan is quite as much in evidence as in that of this
country. In regard to this kind of literary fare, the appetite
increases with feeding, if I may vary an old French proverb, and the
sensational journals of the Japanese capital are increasing in demand
from every part of the country.
As to the part which the press of Japan exercises in moulding public
opinion, I confess I have not formed any clear idea; indeed, it is one
upon which it is difficult to come to any conclusion. How far the
press there moulds, and how far it follows public opinion is somewhat
problematical. Be that as it may, many of the native papers are
vigorously and effectively written, and indeed many eminent men in
Japan have been either directly or indirectly connected with the
press. The newspapers of Japan differ in this respect from those of
this country--that there is a press law there, and newspapers are in
theory, at any rate, somewhat more hampered in their criticisms and
the publication of news than is the case here. This press law seems to
have irritated the English more than the vernacular press of Japan,
especially during the late war. Under the provisions of the law, a
warning is always given to an offending newspaper before any official
action is taken. The English journals in Japan have, perhaps not
unnaturally, not so far been able to divest themselves of the idea
that they have still extra-territorial rights, and are consequently
justified in publishing any criticisms or news irrespective of the
provisions of the press law.
Newspapers in Japan do not of course attain such large circulations as
some of those in England. I do not think there is any paper in the
country with a circulation exceeding 100,000, and there are only one
or two which reach anything like that figure. Advertising in Japan in
papers has not attained the same importance as in this country. Of
course all the journals, whether daily or weekly, have a large number
of advertisements, but the non-advertisement portion of the paper
forms a greater portion of the whole than is the case here. It may
interest some of my readers to know that poetry which has long been
tabooed by the press of this country is still a feature in that of
Japan, and that the novel "to be continued in our next," is also
served up for the delectation of Japanese readers.
A free press in a free country is no doubt an admirable institution,
but it has its disadvantages. I need not enumerate them, as my readers
probably know them as well as I do myself. Indeed, both in England
and America of late years we have had plenty of object-lessons, were
any needed, in regard to these disadvantages. "The yellow press" is a
phrase which has now come into general use to denote the certain kind
of journalism which lives and thrives by pandering to the desire that
so many persons in this world have for morbid sensationalism and the
publication of nauseating and shocking details. People who have
appetites of this kind are in need of having them perennially
gratified, and accordingly it naturally comes about that the
conductors of journals such as I have referred to, if they cannot
provide a sufficient quantity of sensationalism true or partly true,
have either to invent it or exaggerate some perhaps innocent or
innocuous incident. I am sorry to say that yellow journalism is not
only not unknown in Japan, but is apparently in a very flourishing
condition there. I regret the fact all the more because the people of
Japan are not yet sufficiently educated or enlightened to receive what
they read in the newspaper in a sceptical spirit. That educational and
enlightening process is only effected by a long course of newspaper
reading. Even in this country we can remember the time when any
statement was implicitly believed because it was "in the papers." Now
some other and better evidence of the truth of any report is needed
than the publication thereof in a newspaper. Young Japan will no doubt
ere long assimilate this fact, and when it does the yellow press of
Japan will probably find its _clientele_ a diminishing quantity. I
hope my readers will not deduce from these remarks that I entertain,
on the whole, a poor opinion of the native press of Japan. Considering
the difficulties it has had to contend with, I consider that the
progress it has made during the comparatively few years it has been
in existence is as wonderful as anything in the country. And I am
furthermore of opinion that the influence it exercises is, on the
whole, a healthy one. It has done a great work in the education of the
mass of the Japanese people in the direction of taking a broader view
of life and teaching them that there is a world outside their own
particular locality and beyond their own country. And while referring
to the newspaper press I may also give a meed of praise to the large
number of journals and magazines of a literary, scientific, and
religious nature. The effect of these ably conducted periodicals as an
educational influence must be immense. The number of them is gradually
growing, and the support rendered to them serves to show, were any
proof needed, how profoundly interested the Japan of to-day is in all
those questions, whether political, scientific, religious, or
literary, which are not the possession of or the subject of discussion
among any particular nation but are exercising the minds and
consciences of the civilised world.
One pleasing feature of the native press of Japan I cannot help
referring to, and that is the friendly sentiments which it almost
invariably expresses in regard to Great Britain. As I have before
remarked, it was this country which in some degree influenced at first
the Japanese press. I am pleased that of late at any rate, since the
somewhat heated agitation in reference to the revision of the treaties
has come to an end, its tone has been almost universally friendly to
this country, and its approval of the alliance between Japan and Great
Britain was not only unanimous but enthusiastic.
The English newspapers in Japan are still, as they have always been,
ably conducted journals. Captain Brinkley, the editor of one of them,
is a great authority on everything connected with Japan, and the paper
he edits is worthy of all that is best in English journalism. At the
same time it is hardly necessary to remark that the English press in
Japan exercises little or no influence outside the immediate circle it
represents. It very naturally looks at everything, or almost
everything, not from the point of view of the Japanese but from that
of the foreigner in Japan. It may be truthfully averred of the foreign
press that, considered as a whole, it has never done anything or
attempted to do anything to break down the barriers caused by racial
differences. The European press in Japan has in tone always been
distinctly anti-Japanese, and the sentiments which it has expressed
and the vigorous, not to say violent, language in which those
sentiments have been expressed has undoubtedly in the past occasioned
much bitterness of feeling among the Japanese people or that portion
of it which either read or heard of those sentiments. The
characteristics or idiosyncracies of the people of Japan were either
exaggerated or misrepresented, and there were not unnaturally
reprisals quite as vigorous in the native newspapers. During the war
with China, for example, the attitude of the European press was
exasperating to a degree--that is, exasperating to the Japanese
people. There were journals which avowedly took the part of China and
expressed a desire for China's success. The victories of Japan in the
course of the war were sneered at and at first belittled.
Subsequently, when the success of Japan was self-evident, it was
suggested by some of these newspapers that she was suffering from
swelled head and was in need of being put in her place and kept there.
And, accordingly, when certain of the European Powers stepped in and
deprived Japan of the fruits of her victories, the action of those
Powers was applauded, and the undoubted sympathy of the English people
in England with Japan in the matter was derided by English editors in
Japan as mere maudlin sentimentality. Language of this kind occasioned
deep resentment among the people of the country. The foreign press is
now, I am glad to say, saner, inasmuch as it to some extent recognises
facts and the trend of events, but I fear it even still is for the
most part representative of a community which regards the Japanese
from the standpoint that most Europeans in the Far East regard the
Eastern races with whom they are brought in contact. The position of
the English papers in Japan has, I should say, been considerably
affected of recent years by the development of the vernacular press.
Twenty-five years or so ago they were practically the only organs that
voiced public opinion of any kind in the country. Now they only voice
the opinion of a section of the foreign community. A reference to a
quarter of a century ago brings up memories of a gentleman connected
to some extent with the newspaper press in Japan of those days. I
refer to the late Mr. Wergman, who owned and edited and filled--I am
not quite certain he did not print--that somewhat extraordinary
journal, the Yokohama _Punch_. It appeared at uncertain intervals, and
it dealt both in print and illustration with various members of the
foreign community in Yokohama and its neighbourhood with a vigour and
freedom, not to say licence, which would now hardly be tolerated. Its
proprietor is long since dead, and so I believe is the journal which
he owned and whose fitful appearances used to create such a mild
excitement among the foreign community in Yokohama.
The functions of the press as a mirror of the times, as a censor of
men and things, and as a guide and a leader of public opinion are of
considerable importance. As I have before remarked the press of Japan
is at present if not in its infancy at any rate in its youth. It is
accordingly ebullient, energetic, optimistic. Time will no doubt
correct many of its failings. Be that as it may, I certainly am of
opinion that, considering everything, it has attained a wonderful
degree of development, that it has reached a position of great
importance in the country as an educational and enlightening
influence, and that all who wish well to Japan may look upon its
future with hope. It will no doubt play an important part as the years
roll by in the development of the country and in the holding up before
the people of worthy ideals in reference to economic conditions,
material progress, and the conservation of the prestige and security
of the Japanese Empire.