The past five years has seen a swift increase in the number of Japanese newspaper and news agency correspondents and branch offices in China.

With gross domestic product (GDP) surging to become the world’s fourth largest, and a society undergoing rapid transformation, China is starting to make its mark in international politics. Japanese media are responding by giving China the same level of attention as they previously devoted only to the United States and Europe. Beijing is becoming a key center for information about North Korea’s nuclear development and Northeast Asian security affairs. Coverage of China is also building up for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

There are now 53 Japanese newspaper and news agency correspondents in China, up from 31 in 2001. And that excludes those in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Asahi Shimbun and Kyodo News each have four more correspondents than they had five years ago, while the Yomiuri Shimbun and the Nikkei Shimbun each have three more.

In addition to Beijing, the Asahi has branches in Guangzhou and Shenyang. The Nikkei Shimbun has a branch in Chongqing, and the Mainichi Shimbun and Sankei Shimbun have branches in Shanghai.

As Japanese media increase their newsgathering in China, the number of correspondents in Moscow has fallen from two or three per company to one or two today. Nikkei has pulled out of Zurich, while Jiji Press, the Hokkaido Shimbun and the Chunichi Shimbun have left Vienna, their main "eye" on Eastern Europe during the Cold War era.

The Japanese media’s moves reflect China's high-speed economic growth, its entry into the Western system via its 2001 admission to the World Trade Organization, and its increasingly interdependent business relations with Japan.

China's growth is also attracting major international events, including the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing and the 2010 World Exposition in Shanghai.

On the North Korea nuclear issue, China has played a leading international role by chairing the six-party talks and by exercising its calming influence on Pyongyang.

Beijing Grows in Importance

Major Japanese media now have a total of 38 correspondents in general bureaus in Beijing. Their main mission was originally to cover Chinese domestic political news and city news. But more than 40 percent of their routine work is now related to North Korean affairs, according to an official of one major media organization.

Kyodo News has a reporter in Beijing specializing on the Korean Peninsula. Kyodo opened a branch in Pyongyang in September and the chief of the Beijing General Bureau is also the head of the Pyongyang branch.

As the Olympic Games approach, many Japanese media are sending sports reporters to Beijing. The Yomiuri sent a sports reporter to its Beijing bureau in August 2005, three years ahead of the Olympics. A Yomiuri official said the company put the sports reporter in Beijing to prepare for the Olympics, including learning the Chinese language. “China is a socialist country and we have to take into account the likelihood that it will take time to complete procedures for official approval of our newsgathering activities,” the official said.

Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chongqing -- Fast-Growing Economic Centers

Since the turn of this year, the Mainichi and Sankei have opened branches in Shanghai, which is becoming a major cosmopolitan business city. While many correspondents in Shanghai came from business news divisions in the past, both newspapers have now chosen reporters from their non-business news divisions. A Sankei official said Shanghai is a city that symbolizes China’s economic development, but it is also caught up in corruption, environmental hazards and other social issues associated with economic growth. A Mainichi official said their correspondent in Shanghai will report on the dynamic transformation of Chinese society amid this economic boom heading into the 2010 Shanghai Expo. Mainichi is also counting on its new Shanghai branch to cover news in southern parts of China, in place of its Hong Kong branch, which it recently closed.

Asahi and Nikkei have business reporters in Guangzhou. Both see the city as a business and manufacturing center and want to cover changing Chinese society through business and economic news. Nikkei is the sole Japanese media organization with a branch in Chongqing. A Nikkei official said that while China’s economic development is centered on coastal areas, its branch in the inland region will help it cover both the “light and shadow” of China’s economic growth.

Tight Controls on Newsgathering

China is pursuing reforms and liberalization for economic development, but is maintaining tight controls on newsgathering by foreign journalists. Some former Japanese correspondents in China are now calling on Chinese authorities to ease their regulations on journalists.

For instance, one correspondent first sent to China in 1984 recalls that a public security officer always visited his home and his news source the very next day after he interviewed an ordinary Chinese citizen. He said he had to use a bicycle and take other measures to visit homes of his news sources while protecting their identities from Chinese public security authorities. Another Japanese correspondent first assigned to China in 1988 said that eavesdropping and tailing was an everyday experience in the 1980s.

But there were signs of change at the start of the 1990s. Japanese correspondents were allowed to meet face-to-face with ordinary citizens without prior permission. And some Chinese openly criticized the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in interviews in their homes. Yet, the authorities still lacked any understanding of free newsgathering, said a former correspondent.

In the fall of 2002, China witnessed the massive outbreak of a pneumonia known as SARS. A Japanese correspondent in China at that time recalls that Chinese officials avoided accepting questions from Japanese reporters during news conferences because their questions were seen as likely to be problematic.

Even today, foreign journalists need prior approval when they wish to cover news outside the cities in which they are stationed. And permission is not always granted. “When I sought permission to visit a factory about an environmental issue, I was told after a while that they would let me visit a different factory,” one Japanese correspondent said.