The French sociologist César Castellvi has made the Japanese press his subject of study. In a book, he recounts the functioning of Japanese newspapers, the organization of the work of Japanese journalists and the current challenges of these giants of printed paper in the land of the rising sun.
The Media Workshop receives Cesar Castellvi, doctor in sociology, lecturer in Japanese studies at the University of Paris and associate researcher at the Center for Research on Japan (CRJ). He published in January 2022 The last empire of the press, a sociology of journalism in Japan (CNRS editions), culmination of his thesis and research work carried out over the past decade.
In an interview of about forty minutes, it is about the awesome prints that some Japanese daily newspapers like the Yomiuri Shimbun and theAsahi Shimbun8 and 6 million copies every day.
César Castellvi explains how the 記者クラブ – kisha kurabu, press clubs which bring together journalists in most of the country’s institutions. These clubs are the subject of a number of fairly strong criticisms.
In Japan, there is no professional association which specifically represents journalists. No journalism school either. Journalists often graduate from major universities and begin learning the trade by dealing with miscellaneous facts in the regional press. In fact, this profession suffers from a vocations crisis mainly because of the working conditions and the requirement.
Their economic model remains solid: the principle ofsubscription is crumbling but two-thirds of Japanese households still subscribe to a daily newspaper; the advertising represents a small part of the turnover.
Japanese newspapers do not carry out a digital transition accelerated. The proof is: in 2022, the Yomiuri Shimbunthe world’s leading daily, still does not offer a pure digital subscription.
For their consumption of information online, the Japanese make extensive use of portals such as Yahoo News Japan or the messaging app Line.
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