Over the two days of June 28 and 29, 2019, the leaders’ meeting (G20 Summit) of the G20 (Group of Twenty)—a forum of 20 countries and regions comprising the major 19 advanced and emerging economies plus the European Union (EU)—will be held in Osaka, Japan. As a group of countries with large economies, the G20 has engaged in repeated dialogue on monetary policy and trade. With Japan hosting a summit for the first time, the G20 is drawing attention domestically; but have the G20’s existence, role, and decisions ever been in the spotlight in Japan’s international reporting? This article examines how much, and in what ways, the news media—tasked with conveying global events—have covered the G20.

2018, at the Buenos Aires Summit in Argentina (OECD/Flickr [CC BY-NC 2.0])

Background to the formation of the G20

To begin with, what kind of group is the G20, and how was it formed? The trigger goes back about 20 years. In the late 1990s, including the 1997 Asian financial crisis, multiple financial crises occurred in emerging economies around the same time. In response, it was seen as a problem that emerging economies lacked a framework to discuss economic and financial policy alongside advanced economies. At the proposal of the Group of Seven (G7), which had already been meeting, finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 advanced and emerging economies plus the EU began meeting as the G20. That was in 1999. Since then, meetings have been held annually, but in 2008, when the global financial crisis erupted following the Lehman Shock, U.S. President George Bush (at the time) elevated the meeting to the leaders’ level and the first G20 Summit in its current form was convened. There, leaders discussed how to address the global financial crisis and systems to prevent similar problems from recurring.

The members are the United States, Argentina, the United Kingdom, Italy, India, Indonesia, Australia, Canada, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Germany, Turkey, Japan, France, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Russia, and the EU. In addition to these, several invited countries and international organizations also participate each year. Invited countries are selected based on an overall assessment of their relevance to the summit agenda and other factors. The G20 is a gathering of nations with substantial economic power; for example, the combined GDP of its members accounts for 85% of the world total. As the first summit was convened in response to a global financial crisis, its agenda is mainly economic; however, it has varied widely with the times—for instance, Ebola was addressed at the 2014 Brisbane Summit in Australia, and gender issues at the 2017 Hamburg Summit in Germany.

Japan’s international reporting on the G20

So how has the G20 been covered in Japan’s international news? We examined related articles on the international pages of the Asahi Shimbun. Over the five years from 2014 to 2018, there were 101 articles that mentioned the G20 in their text. Of these, only 12 included “G20” in the headline and made it a primary theme. The other articles focused on the movements of participating countries, with only brief mention of the G20 as related information about that country. In other words, there were only about two articles a year that placed the G20 at the center. It appears that the G20’s existence and activities have drawn little attention to date.

What themes did the articles that mentioned the G20 address? The most common was bilateral relations, with as many as 44 articles. Examples include articles about U.S. and Chinese leaders holding talks to break through trade disputes; the G20 was mentioned merely as the next venue where the two leaders would meet. The next most frequent theme was domestic politics, with 21 articles. For instance, in pieces reporting public reactions after national elections in Turkey, a country’s G20 membership was noted as background information. Even articles centered on the G20 often focused on issues like leaders from participating countries skipping or arriving late to the summit—topics not closely related to the substance of the discussions.

What about the countries that appear in G20-related coverage? Below are the total counts of appearances of countries (※1) in G20 articles.

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Across the 101 articles that mentioned the G20, the total number of times countries around the world appeared came to 198. Although the G20 Summit, including invited countries, should involve leaders from more than 20 countries, there is a marked bias in the countries mentioned in Japan’s international reporting. First, the United States and China each account for over 20% of the total appearance count. In terms of number of articles, both appear in more than 40%. Since the 2016 summit was held in China, it is expected that mentions of China increased to some extent before and after the event, but even allowing for that, the proportion is quite high. Moreover, the top five countries account for 67% of the total. Among the 19 G20 members excluding the EU, roughly half—nine countries (Argentina, Italy, India, Indonesia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa, and Mexico)—appeared no more than twice over five years, a stark contrast to the treatment of the United States and China. In addition, if we total appearances by G7 members (the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Germany, Japan, and France), the figure comes to 75, nearly 40% of the overall count.

Another noteworthy case is North Korea. Despite not being a G20 member, it appeared frequently in articles—such as those on U.S.–China relations—as an issue of common concern to the two countries, likely because of the significant impact its actions have on Japan. As a result, North Korea ranks among the top five most-mentioned countries in articles about the G20.

Given this situation, Japan’s international reporting on the G20 is not only limited in volume, but its content also prominently features advanced economies like those in the G7 and countries closely related to Japan such as China, Russia, and North Korea. The distinctiveness of the G20 as a joint framework between advanced and emerging economies has not been strongly captured, and it seems fair to say that information on the G20’s existence, role, and decisions has not been adequately conveyed.

2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron converse at the Buenos Aires Summit in Argentina (President of Russia [CC BY 4.0])

G20 criticisms that go unreported

Among the least reported are criticisms of the G20 itself. One line of criticism targets the very existence of the G20. At the 2010 summit in Toronto, Canada, Norway’s then–Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre strongly condemned the G20, likening it to 19th-century international society: major economic powers, without clear responsibilities or mandates, had formed a group on their own; the strong in the international community were pursuing their national interests rather than the common good while discussing and deciding on matters of the world economy. He called it “one of the greatest setbacks since World War II.”

Another oft-seen criticism concerns fairness in the global economy. Although the G20 Summit has espoused reform of financial markets since its first meeting, many of its members are economic powers that benefit from the international system and have shown no inclination to regulate their own large corporations. Nor has it shown a commitment to addressing the debt problems of low-income countries arising from loans provided as investment or aid by advanced economies, or to tackling global economic inequality, where in some regions more than 40% of people live in extreme poverty on less than $1.90 a day. Furthermore, the lack of focus on sufficiently developing renewable energy as a response to environmental issues such as climate change has also drawn criticism.

2017, demonstration during the Hamburg Summit in Germany (Uwe Hiksch/Flickr [CC BY-NC-SA 2.0])

On these points, many organizations around the world have questioned the G20’s approach and taken action to voice their criticism. For example, “G20 Waves of Protest,” a coalition that organized demonstrations at the 2017 summit in Hamburg, Germany, is one such group. It included the environmental NGO Greenpeace, the German branch of the anti-poverty organization Oxfam (Oxfam Germany), and several political parties within Germany. At the 2014 Brisbane Summit in Australia as well, roughly 2,000 people demonstrated in protest against the G20.

However, most of these criticisms and demonstrations have not been reported. Over the five-year period, not a single article was written that criticized the G20’s raison d’être or activities, or that referenced the kinds of global criticisms noted above. As for demonstrations, there was one article introducing protests at the Brisbane Summit, but it merely conveyed that demonstrations calling for the elimination of economic inequality took place at the summit venue; it did not mention that these were protests against the G20. With such a lack of information and critical perspectives on the G20’s approach and activities, it seems difficult for readers relying on Japan’s international coverage to question or criticize the G20.

2018, media coverage at the Buenos Aires Summit in Argentina (G20 Argentina/Wikimedia Commons [CC BY 2.0])

As a gathering of large economies, the G20 wields considerable influence on the international community and is therefore expected to show sensitivity to various issues—and has at times been the target of harsh criticism. Yet in Japan’s international reporting to date, not only has the volume of coverage been small, but the content has focused on the relations and movements of a handful of major powers rather than the G20 itself, with little room for questions or criticism. The host of the 2020 summit will be Saudi Arabia, a country for which many problems have been pointed out. Once the summit currently drawing attention moves on from Japan, will the G20 again disappear from international coverage?

※1 Countries that appeared: countries that were clearly mentioned in an article as having taken some action, or as being a country related to actions taken by another country.

Writer: Suzu Asai

Graphics: Yow Shuning, Saki Takeuchi

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