What lies behind the decision about which countries are reported on and which are not? First is the relationship between news readers and that country. But what is a “relationship,” and how do we measure it? A “relationship” can arise as soon as one has some connection with that country. It may be a private “relationship.” For example, travel—whether mere leisure, visiting relatives, or time with a partner. There is also the possibility of a “relationship” in business. Even here it is hard to sum up in a single word, ranging from trade and overseas expansion to economic migration.

This time, we focus on trade among these “relationships.” We want to look at the relationship between trade and news coverage in Japan—namely, whether having economic ties with Japan affects how much coverage a country receives.

Photo: Alex Kolokythas Photography / Shutterstock.com

International Coverage in the Nikkei: Countries that Attract Attention

To analyze trade, we used the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) for our study. In Japan it enjoys a strong reputation and trust as a business newspaper and is widely read by the public, including many corporate executives.

First, look at the graph below. It shows the countries that received the most coverage in the Nikkei over roughly the decade since 2000.（※）

From this, we can see the overwhelming volume of coverage devoted to the United States. In fact, North America (in this article meaning the two countries of the United States and Canada) and Asia (with much attention directed at China) together account for more than 80% of international coverage.<

Interestingly, a closer look at the top two countries shows that in 2011 coverage of China surpassed that of the United States.

If trade influences media coverage, these data would indicate that in recent years Japan’s economic ties with China have become stronger than those with the United States. Indeed, Japan’s trade with China grew markedly over the past decade, and by 2007 the volume of trade with China had surpassed that with the United States. This can be taken as one piece of evidence suggesting a relationship between trade and coverage. In 2007, when trade with China overtook that with the United States, the Nikkei’s coverage of China did not yet exceed its coverage of the United States; the rankings in fact switched only in 2011. This four-year time lag suggests a possible causal relationship whereby, over time, the stronger the economic ties become, the more coverage increases.

International Coverage in the Nikkei: Countries that Do Not Attract Attention

As we have seen, the link between economic ties and coverage of a country holds for economic powers like the United States and China. But what about other countries? Compared with giants like the United States and China, most countries receive less than one-tenth the amount of coverage. Does the same relationship between trade and coverage hold for such countries as well?

To begin, consider Japan’s economic ties with the world. The pie chart below shows that from 2001 to 2012 more than half of Japan’s trade was with Asian countries. Looking at the Nikkei, Asia likewise tops the amount of coverage. After Asia come North America, Europe, Oceania, Latin America, and Africa in terms of trade shares, and this order almost matches the order of coverage in the Nikkei.

Asia’s position in Japan’s economy rose sharply over the decade since 2000. This does not mean that the absolute amount of trade between Japan and regions other than Asia decreased, but trade with Asia increased much more than with other regions. Such changes are reflected not only in trade but also in the Nikkei’s coverage.

Asia, Europe, and North America account for 90% of Japan’s trade. By contrast, Oceania, Latin America, and the African continent have so little presence that you have to stare at the top of the graph to see them. In particular, Africa—home to a quarter of the world’s countries and one-seventh of its people—ranks a distant last. Although Japan’s trade with the world’s regions dipped due to the 2009 global financial crisis, it quickly recovered thereafter. Only Africa had not recovered to pre-crisis levels as of 2012. This is a striking fact. Let’s dig further.

A closer look at the African continent reveals a major imbalance in trade with Japan: South Africa accounts for nearly half of Japan’s trade with Africa. This means that, excluding South Africa, Japan’s economic ties with African countries are exceedingly limited.

Next, as in our analysis of economic powers, we want to examine whether there is a relationship between trade and coverage for countries that are scarcely reported in Japan and have little trade with Japan. Does the relationship whereby coverage increases over time as economic ties grow stronger appear here as well? The following graphs show Japan’s trade with, and the amount of coverage in the Nikkei of, Mozambique in Africa and Cuba in Latin America, and from them a link between trade and coverage emerges. We confirmed similar patterns for other countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guatemala. It seems that the relationship—coverage increasing as economic ties strengthen—also exists for less prominent countries whose names are not often heard.

We have seen that Japan’s economic ties with countries around the world are closely related to coverage in the business media. The stronger the economic bond, the more coverage the Nikkei gives. However, even if trade volume is high, we cannot assert that it directly leads to more coverage. Other factors may be at play, such as physical distance, which could influence both trade volume and the amount of coverage. Still, this analysis poses a question for Japan’s media: Should they continue to report only news related to Japanese companies and businesspeople, or should they strive for unbiased international coverage from a fair standpoint? The obvious answer is “do both,” but for Japan’s media to deliver international coverage from a fair perspective, there still seem to be many hurdles to overcome. If that is achieved, the way we think about “relationships” may one day change as well.

※The graphs of coverage in the Nikkei count the number of articles whose headlines contain the relevant terms. We also note that the media research method used in this article differs from GNV’s database for the Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun, and Mainichi Shimbun.

Writer: Yani Karavasilev

Translation: Tadahiro Inoue