Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Introducing the Japan Press Weekly

The Japan Press Weekly is a publication of the Japan Press Service. While affiliated with a political party (Japanese Communist Party), which might cause some readers to overlook it, many of the articles present information on Japanese society that you will not find in other English language (or even most Japanese language) newspapers and journals. For example, one might conclude from reading the mainstream Japanese press that only Chinese and Korean government officials oppose PM Koizumi’s participation in Yasukuni Shrine ceremonies. Not so, there are many Japanese people actively opposed to the ever-rightward drift of the Japanese government, but this goes unreported most of the time, thus making even Japan’s so-called liberal newspapers like the Asahi and Mainichi accomplices of Koizumi and company by their abdication of any journalistic responsibility.  For English speakers, such a journalistic wasteland makes publications such as the Japan Press Weekly even more valuable.