- Nihon Shinbun Kyokai
- NSK News Bulletin
- NSK News Bulletin October 2012
NSK News Bulletin October 2012
Japanese Media Allowed Rare Coverage of Visit to WWII Graves in North Korea
The North Korean government allowed six major Japanese news media to accompany a private delegation on a ten-day, late-summer trip to graves of WWII Japanese soldiers in North Korea. The delegation was representing a private group seeking to return the soldiers’ remains to Japan.
The Mainichi Shimbun, Kyodo News, Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK), Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS), Nippon Television Network (NTV) and TV Asahi all received rare permission to accompany the delegation, which set out from Japan on Aug. 28.
The reporters and TV crews visited Pyongyang and various small cities that had long been off-limits to foreign media covering this issue, sending out articles and video footage.
The Japanese media covered the delegation’s memorial services and visits to burial sites in cities in eastern North Korea, including Chongjin and Hamhung. It is rare for North Korea to permit Japanese media to cover events in local cities.
The coverage was not without regulation. All media vehicles had to keep to designated routes and participating reporters and TV crews had to stay off of the cross-streets adjoining those routes.
Tokyo Meetings of IMF, World Bank Draw More Than 1,200 Journalists
- Press Center for Tokyo Meeting of IMF,World Bank
Media personnel had to conform to strict security at the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and of the World Bank, which were held in Tokyo for six days starting on Oct. 9.
A Press Center covering about 2,500 square meters opened on Oct.8 at the exhibition hall in the second basement of the Tokyo International Forum building in the Marunouchi district of Tokyo’s central Chiyoda Ward, where most of the IMF/World Bank annual meetings were held (see photo).
As the central base for newsgathering, the Press Center boasted as many as 400 work desks and chairs, with fixed-line telephones installed at 104 desks. There were also 20 working booths set up as part of an international broadcast center shared by various broadcasting stations.
Scenes from ongoing conferences were displayed on several gigantic monitors around the Press Center, where journalists wrote their stories in near real time, while keeping up with the events on personal computers.
According to the Finance Ministry officials hosting the meetings, about 1,200 Japanese and foreign media personnel registered with the Press Center. Roughly 30 IMF and Finance Ministry staff ran the Press Center.
Mohamad Younis, a reporter with Al Ayyam, a Palestinian newspaper, said the Press Center was convenient and comfortably appointed, offering a typically “Japanese” level of elevated quality and hospitality.
Japanese Consulate Rebuts New York Times’ Senkaku Isles Commentary
The Consulate General of Japan in New York on Oct. 2 posted a rebuttal in the New York Times’ Web edition, rejecting an opinion piece that claimed that the Meiji Government knew of Chinese claims on the Senkaku Islands in 1885.
The submission by Deputy Chief of Mission Yasuhisa Kawamura responded to an “On the Ground” column by Nicholas Kristof that was carried in the New York Times’ Web edition.
Kristof’s op-ed columns appear twice a week, often providing space for readers to make their voices heard.
On Sept. 19, Kristof’s column included a commentary by Han-Yi Shaw, a research fellow at the Research Center for International Legal Studies, at National Chengchi University, in Taipei, Taiwan.
In a contribution titled, “The Inconvenient Truth Behind the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands,” Shaw said he had found over 40 official documents in Japan that clearly demonstrate that the Meiji government acknowledged Chinese ownership of the islands in 1885. He also said Japan annexed the islands in 1895 as “war booty” of the Sino-Japanese War, calling China’s claim “…the inconvenient truth that the Japanese government has conveniently evaded.”
In a brief introduction to Shaw’s contribution, Kristof called the issue “… a dispute that both sides should refer to the International Court of Justice instead of letting it boil over into the streets. Kristof addressed the underlying question of which side has the best claim, saying, “I’m sympathetic to China’s position.” He also said, “The most interesting evidence is emerging from old Japanese government documents that suggest that Japan seized the islands from China in 1895 as war booty.”
In his counterargument, Kawamura called the Senkaku Islands an inherent part of the territory of Japan, based on historical facts and international law.
“Japan clearly demonstrated its intent to possess the islands that had not belonged to any state when Japan made a Cabinet Decision in January, 1895, to erect a claim marker on the islands that would incorporate the Senkaku Islands into Okinawa Prefecture,” he said.
He also emphasized that between 1895 and 1970, there is a wealth of evidence demonstrating that China recognized the Senkaku Islands as part of Japan.
An official with the International Press Division of Japan’s Foreign Ministry said the Consulate General in New York had merely sought to correct factual errors in the blog posts in the New York Times’ Web edition as part of reaffirming the Japanese government’s stance on the issue.
Kristof has served as a correspondent in the regional news hubs of Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo. He has won two Pulitzer Prizes, in 1990 and 2006 respectively, for his reporting of the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident in China and the Darfur conflict in Sudan.
