How much are Japanese newspapers conveying about the world? Is what they report biased? How do they portray the world? How has their international reporting been changing?

Since 2015, GNV has examined all the news from Japan’s three major newspapers (Asahi, Mainichi, Yomiuri) and collected data on international reporting. Furthermore, by analyzing every international news article across 11 items—such as news category, related countries, and the impression an article gives—we make it possible to consider international reporting from diverse perspectives.

The Monthly Report (Monthly report) released this year compiles these data month by month and visualizes the main results. Displaying it by month makes it possible to observe trends in international reporting continuously and over the long term. (Note 1)

The Monthly Report is broadly divided into three sections.

1. Analysis of overall international reporting

It shows the monthly and annual proportions for the three papers and their month-to-month changes, as well as the share by section/page. For example, it makes clear here that international reporting in Japanese newspapers currently often accounts for less than 10% of all coverage.

2. Analysis by region and country

It shows the shares and changes in reporting volume by region and by country. What we would especially like you to focus on here is the analysis of reporting volume by country. We used colors to make it easy to see at a glance which countries within a region are particularly covered and which are not. Please be sure to view it together with the regional analysis. (Note 2)

3. Analysis of article tone

We analyze the content of each article by classifying it into three categories—positive, negative, and neutral—and the Monthly Report also shows the proportions and trends for each of the three papers, as well as by region. Overall, negatives far outnumber positives. However, that is not necessarily the case for every region. So in which regions is there a higher proportion of positive coverage?

The Monthly Report presents only data, not analysis. For GNV’s analysis of international reporting, please see the articles in News View. We hope you will use these data together with world events to consider the issues in international reporting.

Notes

Note 1: As of January 4, 2017, one year of data for 2015 has been released; the monthly data and data from 2016 onward are scheduled to be released in sequence.

Note 2: The country-by-country graphs are scheduled to be released in mid-January.