In Japan, the presence of the United States is extremely large. This is not only because it possesses overwhelming military and economic power globally, but also because the two countries have deep ties across many fields. In terms of security, the Japan-U.S. alliance is in place, U.S. military bases are deployed mainly in Okinawa, and Japan is under the U.S. nuclear umbrella. When the United States goes to war around the world, the Japanese government basically expresses support, and in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it also provided support. In trade relations, although friction sometimes occurs, the volume is extremely large. At the social and cultural level as well, the United States is a popular destination for travel and study abroad, and Japan is strongly influenced in areas such as film and fashion. So what about the media? This article compares U.S. and Japanese media—focusing on international news coverage—and explores their relationship.

Japan’s fixation on the U.S. as seen in its news coverage

Judging from international reporting, there is no country that Japanese media pay more attention to than the United States. Although attention to China, the large neighboring power, has increased in recent years, it still does not surpass that given to the United States. This tendency is evident in both the major national newspapers and television news. The gap with other countries widens even further when it comes to election coverage. In the case of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, election coverage in Japan became active two years before the vote and received many times more coverage than elections held in other countries. Since President Trump took office, attention has been so great that coverage of other countries has been sacrificed.

A reporter taking notes at a Japan–U.S. security-related press conference Photo: TSgt Jacob N. Bailey (defenseimagery.mil)

However, this attention is by no means only political. From social issues to entertainment and sports, the United States regularly accounts for a large portion of Japan’s international news coverage across a wide range of fields. There is even a wide show with a regular segment in which a correspondent broadcasts live from New York about local U.S. incidents. This tendency is also reflected in the long-term strategies of news organizations, which can be seen in the placement of their bureaus. For example, both NHK and the major national dailies each operate three regional headquarters in the United States alone; in terms of newsgathering capacity, that single country outweighs all of Africa and Latin America combined.

International coverage in Japan and the U.S.: a comparison by continent

Some have pointed out that the fixation on the United States seen in Japanese media is not limited to the amount of coverage about America itself; even for regions other than the United States, American media influence can be observed in Japanese international news. In other words, while Japanese media have their own interests, perspectives, and reporting capabilities for nearby regions such as China and the Korean Peninsula, the less interest they have in a region, the more susceptible they become to influence. If U.S. media cover a given region or topic, Japanese media are more likely to cover it too, and the priorities of news organizations begin to look similar.

Can such a tendency be seen in the volume of coverage? Below, we compare the international coverage (for 2015) of the New York Times (The New York Times) with that of Japan’s three major national dailies (the average of the Asahi Shimbun, Yomiuri Shimbun, and Mainichi Shimbun). The New York Times is chosen because it is considered highly influential not only in the United States but also worldwide.

What did the 2015 coverage look like? Looking broadly by continent (Note 1), as shown in the graph above, the interests of the New York Times and Japan’s major national dailies appear very close. The rankings of coverage volume across the six continents match completely, and the distributions are quite similar. In both, coverage of Asia is overwhelmingly large, and when combined with second-place Europe, the two together account for nearly 70% of all international news. Regarding North America, Japanese reporting allocates a larger share than the New York Times; however, in the case of the New York Times, much reporting about the United States is categorized as domestic news and is therefore not reflected here. Also, in both, coverage of Africa and Latin America is limited, but even for these regions, the New York Times allocates more than twice the share compared to Japanese newspapers. Japanese media show a more extreme gap between regions that are covered and those that are not.

Commonalities and differences by country

However, comparing only at the continental level hides some differences. For example, “Asia” includes both East Asia and the Middle East, and here the regions prioritized by U.S. and Japanese media differ. In Japan’s major national dailies, the Middle East (Note 2) accounts for about 19% of overall coverage of Asia, whereas in the New York Times, that share more than doubles to 43%.

We therefore analyze by country to further explore commonalities and differences. Below are graphs showing the top 10 countries by share of international coverage for the New York Times and for Japan’s three major national dailies. Next to the top 10 countries in each graph is the share devoted to coverage of the “own country” included within international news (Note 3).

Comparing the two graphs, six of the top 10 countries (China, France, Syria, Russia, the United Kingdom, and Germany) overlap between the New York Times and Japan’s three major national dailies, indicating that their priorities are somewhat similar even at the country level. With regard to China, it is a major power highly salient to both the United States and Japan at multiple levels, so it is easy to understand why it is a frequent subject of reporting. In 2015, the high volume of reporting on France stemmed from two terrorist attacks. Although not the largest in the world in terms of the scale of the attacks, one possible reason is that France is an advanced country that both Japan and the United States are keenly aware of in everyday coverage. Moreover, although numerous armed conflicts occur around the world, both the United States and Japan saw IS (the Islamic State) as a threat to their own countries, and thus the Syrian conflict received prominent attention. In addition, major European countries such as Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom are regularly salient to both the United States and Japan, even without major events.

Even among regions that receive little attention, commonalities can be found. For example, in Africa—where coverage volume was low—the top four countries by coverage were the same in both the New York Times and Japanese newspapers (Egypt, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Libya), although the order did not match. For Latin America, the top countries did not necessarily align, but the fact that nearly half of coverage of Latin America in Japanese newspapers was devoted to Cuba speaks to the strong interest in the United States; in 2015, most of that reporting concerned the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba.

Differences among the top 10 countries are also noteworthy. The New York Times shows a strong interest in the Middle East. In addition to Syria, the Israeli-Palestinian issue is a major presence in American politics, and that is reflected in the volume of coverage. Iraq, where the United States has long been militarily involved, and Iran, with which it has clashed over nuclear development, were also major subjects. Japan’s major national dailies paid relatively much attention to Iraq and Iran, but they did not make the top 10, and interest in Israel-Palestine was even lower. Conversely, Japanese newspapers far outpaced the New York Times in their attention to the geographically closer Korean Peninsula and Myanmar.

Lastly, while Japanese media show greater interest in the United States than in any other country, the New York Times seems relatively uninterested in Japan. By country, Japan ranks 21st, accounting for just 1% of international coverage.

Headquarters of The New York Times Photo: Anthony Quintano ( CC BY 2.0 )

Are Japanese media being influenced?

This comparison revealed various commonalities between American and Japanese media, but it is not always clear to what extent these can be understood as “influence.” The process by which media decide which regions or countries to prioritize is complex and the result of accumulated decisions over many years. Even if influence is observed, it may be a case of American media influencing Japanese media, or it may be that the Japanese government follows events that interest the United States and that interest then shifts from the Japanese government to Japanese media. It is also possible that regions prioritized by Japanese media independently happen to coincide with those prioritized by American media.

However, it is clear that the United States looms very large for Japanese media. Moreover, despite divergences in interest regarding the Middle East and East Asia, the imbalance in international coverage in Japan and the United States is strikingly similar. It is hard to deny that some kind of influence is at work. While working to correct the large biases in international reporting, we should seek to build an independent perspective that enables a more comprehensive view of the world.

Note 1: Regions follow the UNSD (United Nations Statistics Division) standard, divided into six regions: Asia, Africa, Oceania, Europe, North America, and Latin America.

Note 2: “Middle East” refers to the countries classified by UNSD as “Western Asia.”

Note 3: In the case of Japanese newspapers, for example, an article about Japan–China relations is counted as international news, and the portion pertaining to Japan is the “own country” share within that international news. For GNV’s definition of international news, see “GNV Data Analysis Method [PDF].”

Writer: Virgil Hawkins

Data assistance: Kim Sooyeon, Yosuke Tomino

Graphics: Yosuke Tomino