Chinese and Japanese Newspaper Reporting of the Yasukuni Shrine Controversy

The paper was written by Joseph Tan, President's Graduate Fellow at the National University of Singapore, and Ni Zhen of Fudan University.

Original quotes from the paper will be in italics.

A news discourse analysis methodology was used to analyze Chinese and Japanese newspapers' reporting on former Japanese Prime Minister Jun'ichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine to demonstrate empirically the existence of institutional media bias within these newsmaking organizations that is not necessarily consistent with the reconciliatory tone of both countries' state actions. A comparison of the results suggest that while institutional ideology may predict how Japanese newspapers shape their reporting, rhetoric is an important factor in the case of the Chinese press where state control is more stringent.

I think what they are saying is that the media brings its own bias to any report, although the degree to which that bias can be presented is ruled at least somewhat by the governmental level of control over that media, which China's government taking a firmer control of what the media says.

The Yasukuni shrine is the shrine in Tokyo where the souls of dead soldiers are said to go after they are killed in battle. This includes the souls of some of the men found guilty of war crimes during WWII along with the souls of kamikaze pilots from the same war. As such it is not very much cared for in China, which is not surprising considering what Japan did in China from 1931 to the end of the actual war.

From China's perspective, Japan has been perceived as disrespecting histories, justifying wartime aggression, neglecting foreign relations, and even attempting to repeat the same mistake in moving towards militarism. Japan, on the other hand, has felt increasingly threatened by the rise of China in the political, economic, and military arenas, as well as through their competition for energy resources.

There is no doubt that there are still a lot of bad feelings between the two countries, and between Korea and Japan due to what happened before and during WWII. The failure of the Japanese government to deal with apologize for the atrocities that it committed during the war, and the extent of apology and reparations expected, is still a major flare point between the two countries. There have been a lot of protests in China recently over the controversy about two islands that both Japan and China claim, islands which are pretty much useless by themselves but around which valuable deposits of oil are possible.

The authors point out that both countries have made some efforts at getting along better. The authors note polls in each country with the Chinese polls among youth holding that Japan was basically lacked respect for other Asian people, and a poll in Japan showing that ...friendly feelings towards China was at a record low in the country.

So, if the governments are at least trying to get along better, why is that not perceived by the people in both countries? The authors hold that it's the fault of the media.

This article therefore takes the position of considering the media as an important social actor in its own right, and will attempt to demonstrate empirically how newsmakers in China and Japan have chosen to shape news reports of an issue that has taken the limelight in both countries, namely, that of former Japanese Prime Minister Jun'ichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine.

In other words, I think what he author is saying is that the media are important as they are, having a direct impact on the views of the people watching or listening to the media. It may or may not be the same view that the government of that country has, though.

Chinese and Japanese newspapers were used for comparison purposes on how they covered and presented certain points of view.

After a visit by Koizumi to the shrine the Japanese media wanted to appease ...The Japanese public's fear that the constitutional article separating religion and state had been violated. The paper basically put a positive spin on the visit and tried to downplay any negative interpretation of the visit. It did offer some criticism of the timing of the visit, though.

Nonetheless, the paper argued that there was no need for Japan to 'overreact' as China was in no position to criticize Japan since it itself supported a 'strong nationalistic education,' and 'one historic view' which presents an understanding of past events that Japan need not 'always follow'

In other words, China's view of what happened in the past does not in any way require Japan to follow the same view.

The paper also was selective in its presentation of the information. The author notes that China and South Korea were noted as having criticisms of Japan, but other countries that had similar criticisms or worries were not mentioned.

He discusses another Japanese newspaper and its approach to the visit, then talks about Chinese newspapers.

The comparison of the Chinese and Japanese articles reveals that the news media may indeed contribute to the newsmaking process that is beyond the dictates of the normative discourses extant within both socio-cultural and political contexts. This introduces a new dynamic to the usual role of the media as only the passive propagator of ideas from groups designated as left and right-wing, or progressives and conservatives etc. The way this was done, however, differed between the Chinese and Japanese newspapers possibly because the former is more tightly regulated, while the latter belongs to a more liberal environment.

Comparatively, the Chinese media is under greater state scrutiny, which means that one should expect its content to revolve around greater reconciliation and lesser antagonism with Japan. And in fact, this is exactly what Xinhua and the People's Daily did to a large extent. While this in no way suggests that they condone the actions of Koizumi, their vehement protests are targeted only at the hard-line conservative elements in Japan, with the hand of friendship always remaining open to the majority of the Japanese people. Furthermore, since contrasting institutional ideologies in the Chinese context is somewhat of a misnomer, our analysis suggests that it is rather the rhetoric of the Chinese reporting that might be the cause of popular anti-Japanese sentiment.

He adds that the media cannot cover 100% of everything related to something so they pick and choose what they will use in their coverage. That picking-and-choosing is driven by the paper/station/tv/etc own ideological views just as FOX news in the United States is known as right-wing, and the Huffington Post online is considered left-wing. Just what is run can also be determined, though, by how much control the state has over the media, the media of China being under the strictest control.

Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page