NSK News Bulletin Online
January 2005
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*	From the New Year's Message of NSK Chairman Shinichi Hakoshima --Accomplishing the Missions and Roles of News Reporting
*	2004 Aggregate Newspaper Circulation 53.02 million

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*Topics
--Press Photographers Announce Awards
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Story of the Month>>>
2005 Prospects for Japan's Newspaper Industry
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From the New Year's Message of NSK Chairman Shinichi Hakoshima
--Accomplishing the Missions and Roles of News Reporting

I address this New Year's message to everyone involved in news reporting…

The world has ushered in a new year with numerous unresolved issues carried over from 2004. In Iraq, confusion continues to deepen as the parliamentary election draws closer. Yet the deployment of the Self-Defense Forces in Iraq has been extended for another year. The abductions issue with North Korea remains, with little prospect for any early settlement. The Palestine issue after the death of President Arafat, and the growth of separatist movements in former Soviet regions including Ukraine and Chechnya, are casting shadows of uncertainty.

In Japan, 2004 saw numerous natural disasters, including an abnormal heat wave, successive typhoons, and strong earthquakes in Niigata Prefecture. The economy moved toward recovery, but the steep rise in crude-oil prices and the continued appreciation of the yen against the dollar are generating renewed fear of economic stagnation. While corporate earnings have improved, the government is set to phase-out cuts in fixed taxes after already raising pension premiums. Further increases in the consumption tax loom ahead. Such moves are likely to discourage business.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has repeatedly promised not to raise the consumption tax. But given the state's more than 40-percent fiscal dependence on bond issues and increasing social security costs due to the declining birthrate and aging population, it seems inevitable that the consumption tax will rise as soon as he leaves office.

NSK set up a special ad hoc task force last year on Measures to Cope With the Tax System to continue discussions on how the newspaper industry should respond to a consumption tax hike. There has already been six months of broad research and investigation covering the tax system, the Constitution and cultural policy. Taking into account US and European precedents, the task force in December released a report titled, “Low Newspaper Taxes Is Common Sense.”

The report says:

1) Newspapers are a root source of all kinds of information media. Public access to varied information through newspapers is indispensable for a democratic state and a stable society;

2) Raising the consumption tax for newspapers would discourage many people from subscribing, thereby worsening an existing trend. The end result will be lower literacy and a weakening of the national fabric, hurting the people as a whole; and

3) Most EU countries, known for their freedom and democracy, and over half of the US states charge no tax or a reduced rate for newspapers. This is a common international approach.

The newspaper industry has long opposed any tax hikes that would impede newspapers from performing their role in sustaining freedom of speech and reporting. The industry also maintains that eliminating taxes and offering other tax relief are appropriate ways to recognize the public service provided by newspapers.

Task force members consulted taxation and constitutional law experts, as well as government officials in the U.S. and some European countries. They also talked with media executives, scholars and tax officials. The task force concluded that newspapers constitute a vital “social infrastructure” needed to maintain and develop a democratic society and that cutting taxes to help newspapers is a reasonable approach. The task force conclusion is positive, but it remains to be seen how the government will act. I am determined to address this issue on the basis of the task force report and I look forward to your broad support on this issue.

Our request for tax breaks and other preferential treatment for newspapers is not only in the interest of the newspaper industry, but also in the general public interest and we must seek reader support on this issue. We must pursue our missions and roles as media, including presenting a diverse range of reports and ideas. We must also refrain from anything that draws reader criticism in news reporting, sales promotion, advertising and other activities. I therefore find it regrettable that newspaper companies have recently drawn criticism for their irregular stockholdings in major broadcasters. This situation needs to be rectified to cut shareholdings below the set ceilings and to correct any other associated irregularities.

Newspapers cannot avoid the coming era of reform. There are mountains of issues that must be squarely addressed by all newspapers. They include reviewing business and management systems, recruitment and the nurturing of reporters and other human resources. They also include making newspapers that earn their readers’ trust and support while adapting to the rapidly changing media environment.

At the outset of this New Year, I wish you a fruitful year and conclude this address by praying for your good health and for the further development of each NSK member company.

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Topics.......Topics.......Topics........

Press Photographers Announce Awards The press photographers associations of Tokyo, Tohoku and Chubu have announced their respective 2004 awards. The main awards and their winners include: *** Tokyo Press Photographers Association Award The association award went to a news photograph by Atsushi Takedatsu of the Yomiuri Shimbun’s Tokyo head office of the moment of the miraculous October rescue of a 2-year-old boy, four days after he was buried by an earthquake-triggered landslide in a car with his mother and younger brother in Niigata Prefecture. Benefiting from the advantages of digital cameras, Takedatsu captured the scene with a picture quality better than that of the live TV broadcast and his photo's impact was unrivaled by those carried by other newspapers. He positioned himself on the opposite shore of a river that cut through the site. He aimed under rainy drizzle while over the view-finder, he saw the boy's wide-open eyes. He said that despite being moved by the rescue, he kept on pressing the shutter button and forcing himself to “calm down.” “It was the most delightful moment in my five years and seven months as a photojournalist. This award is a tribute to all the staff involved in covering the rescue,” he said. COURTESY, TOKYO PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS ASSOCIATION *** Tohoku Press Photographers Association The top award for newspapers went to a series of seven photos of a local railway in northern Miyagi Prefecture, by Isao Kadota and Kimitoshi Kawamura, both of the Kahoku Shimpo. The local Kirihara Denen Tetsudo railway has been serving rural communities ever since opening in 1921. But the railway is to close in March 2007. The newspaper carried a feature series on the railway and the lives of people in the farming communities it serves. The photo appeared together with the series. By the choice of subjects, the photographs convey the close ties between local people and the railway through all four seasons and in deliberate contrasts of dark and light. This railway once flourished as a mine freight line. Kadota called the line a “cultural asset” critical to local communities. The feature series appeared in the newspaper’s evening edition, which is mainly distributed in the urban area of Sendai City. Kadota said he wanted to convey to city people the feelings of those in rural areas and help them remember a life they might have forgotten. COURTESY, TOHOKU PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS ASSOCIATION *** Chubu Press Photographers Association The association did not grant its annual award for 2004, but the outstanding performance award for newspapers and news agencies went to a photograph by Masao Honda, deputy chief of the Chunichi Shimbun photo division, of an antelope caught in a dog attack. Honda captured the scene of an antelope, a protected animal, facing a dog attack at the edge of Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. He caught the decisive instant through years of observing nature. Honda shot the photo to draw attention to the culpability of the dog owner. But upon publication, the photo drew many letters from readers angry that he had not put down his camera to try to save the antelope himself. Honda said he had wondered whether it was right to keep shooting. But he also remembered his terror at the sight of a dog killing its prey, a feeling that could never be appreciated by readers accustomed to seeing dogs as pets. He said he aims to keep photographing nature as his life's work. COURTESY, CHUBU PRESS PHOTOGRAPHERS ASSOCIATION