In this article, we present a translation of the second installment in a series of blog entries about the recent WaiWai controversy, posted by freelance journalist Sasaki Toshinao in early August at CNET Japan (see Adam Richards’s translation of Part 1). In the August 14th post, Sasaki describes a meeting he had with senior management at the Mainichi Shimbun, goes into more depth about the conflict between pro and anti-regulation factions within the newspaper, and responds to fears about “throwing fuel on the fire” by arguing that Mainichi’s enemies are not a bunch of trolls, but actually real ordinary people.

For those who are interested, I also interviewed Sasaki as part of a separate article at Japan Inc. about the use of streaming video in the June 8th Akihabara massacre. Many of the points he makes in this translation are echoed in comments there.

The articles are translated with permission from the author.

Original Japanese articles available here: Part 1, Part 2

Posted: August 11, 2008 14:38 PM, Author: Toshinao Sasaki

I met and talked with senior management at Mainichi

On July 20th, just before the Mainichi Shimbun published an examination of the sleazy articles, I had an opportunity to meet and talk with senior management of the company. At that meeting, I made the following points:

• Behind the conflict between mass media and the internet lies a generational conflict between, on the one hand, middle-aged and elderly people including the baby boomer generation, and on the other, the youth demographic consisting mainly of thirty-something members of the “Lost Generation” [people who came of age in the economic stagnation of the 1990s]. The conflict began to simmer in 2004 with the emergence of blogs as an arena for criticism and came to the forefront during the 2005 general elections. Contrary to the mass media, who repeatedly criticized former Prime Minister Koizumi, public opinion on the net supported Koizumi. Koizumi’s overwhelming victory brought the net world its first taste of victory, demonstrating that “public opinion on the net was more accurate than the mass media.” After this, however, no situation presented itself to bring this conflict back into the open. This became a sort of irritation, giving rise to the pessimistic view that “public opinion in blogs isn’t having any influence on the real world” and talk of the “limitations of blogs,” stirring up heated debate among blogging circles toward the end of 2007.

• Staff and managing editors working at the Mainichi Shimbun hail from the baby boomer generation, and it is for the generation of baby boomers, as well as older generations, that the traditional mass media was created. This situation has done absolutely nothing in terms of creating a space for discussion that is persuasive to young people. The mainstream media’s repetition of baseless criticisms about the internet, moreover, is seen as little more more than a reflection of the older generation’s sense of crisis over the younger generation.

• It was in the context of this simmering conflict that Mainichi — a mass media company that symbolizes the baby boomer generation — triggered a scandal of almost unimaginable proportions. This is not a simple localized dispute, but rather a war of confrontation between the net and the mass media, and between one generation and another. Mainichi’s sleazy articles were precisely the trigger that started this war.

• Whether in blogs or on 2-Channel, there are two elements regarded most highly in the discussion space of the net: visibility and logic. In other words, there is a demand that the processes by which things are done be properly disclosed, and moreover, that arguments be reasonable and built firmly on logic. While Mainichi’s response to its discovery of the articles may have been acceptable among fellow mass media companies, it proved entirely inadequate as a response to an internet world that today has grown incredibly large. The reason that many people are so irritated is that Mainichi’s stance has revealed nothing behind the company’s formal comments as to what employees are actually thinking, nor anything about how the company is trying to deal with the net.

After I explained these points, they asked me, “Open our thoughts to the net world — how are we supposed to do that?” I answered, “There are a number of ways, but generally speaking what they want is for you to talk, in your own words and based on your true intentions, about this succession of turmoil.” Unfortunately, however, Mainichi has yet to formally issue any such declaration.

Long interview with a manager at Mainichi

At the time, actually, I conducted a long-form interview with a manager at the digital media department of the paper, after gaining Mainichi Shimbun’s approval of the subject matter, with the arrangement that the results would be published in a different medium. In this interview, the manager spoke very frankly and honestly with me about the background of this incident and about how it had been handled internally. However — and this is terribly unfortunate — I am not presently able to release the details of this interview. The subject matter is amazingly fascinating — a manager speaking in his own words about the true internal situation at Mainichi — and it is something that I think absolutely needs to be made public, but ultimately I was never given the green light to release this interview. I will explain the reasons for this later.
Continued »