Japanese media gave voters lots of information to decide how to cast their ballots in the Aug. 30 general election fought over the future of the then government.

Newspapers across Japan carried articles analyzing the political parties’ manifestos (campaign platforms) from the viewpoint of everyday citizens’ lives, giving extensive coverage to speeches made by top party leaders on major street corners during the election campaign.

The following are comments by editors handling the general election at major media organizations. They outline the challenges they faced during the campaign, as well as the results of the election.

Manifestos (Platforms)

The Yomiuri Shimbun ran a 12-part series titled “Checking out the Party Manifestos” in August, weighing each party’s policy pledges on the issues, including the fight against global warming and the future of Japan’s consumption tax. Reporters from the Living Information Division and the Economic News Division joined reporters from the political news division to gather news and write the series. Masanobu Takagi, a deputy chief in the political news division, recalled that the general election was the first in which voters had a clear choice between two different approaches to government. “We in the political news division collaborated with other divisions for the first time, in the aim of preparing a special series that would give plenty of information on which our readers could base their election choices,” he said.

The Mainichi Shimbun also put priority on covering policy issues, and in June began publishing installments in a series titled “Guide to the Choice ? General Election 2009.” The installments came out once a week, in general, with the primary focus on comparing the policy pledges between the Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party of Japan. Takahiro Hirata, a deputy chief in the political news division, said that the newspaper attempted to inform readers of what might happen in the case of a change of government from the LDP to the DPJ.

The Asahi Shimbun ran a 13-part series “Points in Contention for Japan” in August, to examine the main policy challenges facing the nation, such as finding funds for new policies, strengthening the troubled pension system and supporting child-rearing. Toyoki Nakanishi, a deputy chief at the political news group, said that public interest in political parties’ manifestos has been growing, with the practice of preparing a campaign platform for voters taking root in Japan gradually, over time.

Some newspapers reviewed to what degree the parties had actually stuck to their manifestos from the general election four years ago.

Kenji Koguchi, a deputy chief in Kyodo News’ political news division, said that in reporting the parties’ policy pledges, he tried to take into account the main concerns for ordinary workers and housewives. In the case of the Asahi’s series, a special inset corner was incorporated into each article to explain political jargon and practices in an easy-to-understand way.

Kiyoyuki Uchiyama, a deputy chief of the political news division and senior editor at the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, said the question was how to evaluate the manifestos, especially in terms of practicality and effectiveness.

Some newspapers carried comments by experts, while reporting in detail their evaluations of each party’s policy platform as assessed by a non-partisan council of opinion leaders from all walks of life including the National Governors’ Association, for instance.

As to the question of how to finance the DPJ’s policy pledges, many newspapers carried articles that were overtly critical in light of the government’s severe fiscal predicament. However, the Mainichi’s Hirata said he felt it unfair that the media had overwhelmingly criticized the DPJ for vagueness on financial resources. The Asahi’s Nakanishi shared Hirata’s sentiment and said he felt it unfair to merely repeat the LDP’s criticisms of the DPJ’s policy pledges. But he did embrace doubts about whether the DPJ could actually carry out what it had promised, expressing his mixed feelings, he said.

Nikkei’s Uchiyama said that the media needs to more closely cover the public speeches by candidates in election campaigns. “Politicians have to focus on priority issues in their time-limited public speeches. By the same token, the media must reconsider the way it reports on their speeches and analyses what they say,” he added.

During the campaign, the Asahi published a list of the places and times of the main public speeches by each party’s top leaders during the campaign. For its print editions, the Asahi carried a series titled “Let’s Go Out to See the Party Chiefs,” mobilizing reporters who did not normally cover the party heads to ensure “objectivity” in their reporting.

Satoshi Kaneko, a deputy chief in the political news division at the Sankei Shimbun, said the newspaper made extra effort to cover candidates’ election activities live, given the historic significance of the general election. The Yomiuri also carried many articles on the public speeches.

(Election results and future newsgathering)

After the Aug. 30 voting, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan had 308 seats in the Lower House and the Liberal Democratic Party lost its position as the largest single party in the Lower House for the first time since the party’s establishment 1955.

Many political news editors agreed that Japanese voters had not necessarily supported nor even approved of the DPJ’s policy pledges.

Kyodo’s Koguchi said the DPJ’s landslide victory was the result of deep public disappointment with the LDP. “Faced with the harsh reality of economic downturn, many voters opted for a simple choice ? a change of government. They did vote for change,” he said.

Mainichi’s Hirata said, “As they struggle under tough living conditions, many voters questioned the wisdom of leaving politics to the LDP and its coalition partner New Komeito. In a sharp turnaround from the last general election, public sentiment was tilting to the DPJ.”

Asked about new challenges for media coverage of political news, Nikkei’s Uchiyama said it is becoming difficult for media to grasp political trends only via words and deeds of faction leaders or party strongmen. “We must gather more information and report, in detail, about what is going on in the political world. In this sense, the difficulty level for the coverage of political news had to climb,” he said.

Yomiuri’s Takagi said the media will follow and report in full detail what the DPJ is going to achieve, adding that he would like to give more coverage to the opinions of the opposition camp than before.

As the DPJ aims to pursue its policy of weakening the bureaucracy and of integrating the government and ruling party in policymaking, the conventional manner of media coverage for political news is likely to undergo a sweeping change, forecast Asahi’s Nakanishi.

In the past the ruling party had the policymaking initiative and the government just gave a nod to whatever the ruling party decided. Reporters made it a rule to approach top bureaucrats to get information about government policies, according to Nakanishi. “Now, we must closely watch how the flows of information will change and explore a new mode of political news reporting,” he said.