The once-dominant influence of major newspapers over public opinion has steadily declined.
Incidents such as the Asahi Shimbun coral fabrication scandal and increasing mutual criticism among papers weakened media authority, culminating in 2017 when mainstream newspapers could no longer shape public opinion at will.
An analysis of the transformation of Japan’s postwar media landscape.

The authority of newspapers faded, and in the Asahi coral graffiti incident even the company president lost his position.
2018-01-14.
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
Hasegawa.
It was an era when the influence of the seven newspapers on public opinion was overwhelmingly strong.
Takayama.
It was unprecedented that all the papers aligned even their editorials at Asahi’s bidding.
The newspapers were all the same except for their mastheads.
However, after that, gradual changes took place.
The collusive culture within the newspaper industry of overlooking each other’s scandals disappeared.
In the 1980s, when Asahi ran self-denigrating stories such as “This Is the Poison Gas Operation,” Sankei criticized them, saying, “That’s a lie.”
The authority of newspapers declined, and in the Asahi coral graffiti incident even the company president lost his position.
Even so, the structure of the mainstream media somehow managed to survive, but this year (2017), no matter what the major newspapers wrote, society no longer moved accordingly.
I think the biggest trigger for that was the program “News Joshi,” hosted by Hasegawa.
On January 2, “News Joshi” aired an episode titled “Okinawa the Media Does Not Report.”
To be continued.