Written on June 27, 2019.
This essay criticizes the press club system established at the centers of Japan’s political, business, and bureaucratic worlds for fostering mutual restraint and collusion among newspaper reporters, thereby reinforcing uniformity and irresponsibility in reporting.
Using former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato’s resignation press conference as an example, it portrays reporters choosing obedience to press club discipline over responsibility to the subject of coverage, and sharply questions the structural reasons why the Japanese mass media is painted in a single tone and color.

2019-06-27
There are times when foreigners ask why the Japanese mass media is painted in monotone and monocolor, but,

The press club system also functions as something that reinforces the irresponsibility of newspaper articles.
At the centers of the political world, the business world, and the bureaucratic world, press clubs are established, and reporters from the various newspapers gather there.
And each of those worlds, presumably because they want themselves to be reported on favorably, grants various conveniences to the press clubs.　
Within the press clubs, collusion takes place so that they will not scoop one another in the form of exclusive stories.
Furthermore, there is also loose collusion regarding the level at which and the direction in which given material should be handled.　
For example, when former Prime Minister Eisaku Sato made his resignation announcement, there was a time when he said, “Television can be trusted because it is live coverage, but newspaper reporters should leave.”
Whatever the validity of that remark may have been, the moment one reporter shouted, “Then let us leave,” all the reporters from the other newspapers followed him and withdrew from that press conference.　
Why was there not even one reporter who stood up, openly protested Mr. Eisaku Sato’s remark, appealed against the injustice of excluding newspaper reporters, and tried to write an article on the 모습 of Sato’s resignation?
It would be hard to object if they were criticized for having chosen obedience to the control of the press club over concern for the object of their reporting.
This behavior of united solidarity was probably the fruit of many years of collusion within the press club.　
There are times when foreigners ask why the Japanese mass media is painted in monotone and monocolor, and it would seem that this is thanks to the mutual exchange of information and the mutual regulation of information within the press clubs.