MEDIA MANIPULATION
Meanwhile, the Abe administration has also been trying to manipulate the media through bribery, intimidation and other coercive methods.
As suggested by some Japanese media outlets, Abe has had private dinners with high-level management or editors of media organizations around 70 times since he assumed power at the end of 2014, far more exceeding former prime ministers of Japan and arousing many questions and ongoing suspicion as to the backroom agenda.
Abe's government has also intimidated the media into self-censoring. At the end of 2014, Abe's LDP notified major private TV stations to make sure so-called "fairness" in content and guest choice of programs were suitable for the government. "Such flagrant interference with the press has never been heard of before," said Arasaki.
Last June, at a gathering of the ruling LDP lawmakers, a lawmaker claimed that "the best way to punish the press is to cut off their advertising revenue," and asked the economic community to control the income source of the media and bankrupt those that criticize the government.
In February, the minister of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Abe government claimed that if TV stations violate the so-called "political fairness" principle, the TV station could be shut down. Whether the TV station violates such principle is at the government's autonomous discretion, which makes the minister's words an assumed, if not direct threat to those TV stations criticizing the government.
"Self-censorship in Japanese media is becoming more common. Many media choose to dilute or avoid reporting on sensitive issues and critical reports to avoid trouble. Such situations are worrisome," said Arasaki.
"Since the secrecy laws were enacted over a year ago, Japanese media have found it more difficult to interview or get information from civil servants in the defense ministry and other government departments, as they are afraid of being punished and refuse to be interviewed," said Arasaki.
Senior professors at state-backed or party government-funded universities and other notable analysts working for government educational institutions or state-funded think tanks have also become increasingly reluctant to speak out about the Abe administration to the press, for the same reasons of fear and reprisal.
"The secrecy laws will punish media who obtain information illegally, but do not specify which kind of methods are illegal. It forces the media to resort to self censorship," he added.
Local media in Okinawa were even directly attacked for their critical stance of the government. According to Tsuyoshi Arakaki, member of editorial board of Ryukyushimpo, the paper's attempt to rent an office in Tokyo was rejected and rightwingers viciously attacked the paper on the Internet.
ALL EYES ON JAPAN
Abe's suppression of press freedom has caught the attention of well-known international media.
Carsten Germis, a well-known correspondent from German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, said last April in an article that he was baselessly accused by Japan of being "nobbled" by the Chinese government after publishing reports criticizing Abe government's historical revisionism.
Martin Fackler, former head of the Tokyo branch of the New York Times, published a book in Japanese-language here in February, which, translated as "Japanese media succumbed by Abe administration," denounces Abe's government for undermining press freedom.
