May 7, 2007

   Twice a week on average, FPCJ issues “Japan Brief,” a compactly compiled report on editorials of Japan’s major newspapers together with background information. Besides Japanese and English, we carry it on our website in Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish for the viewers overseas. While Prime Minister Abe was visiting the U.S. and the Middle East from the end of April to early May, FPCJ picked up Mr. Abe's visit to the U.S. in “Japan Brief,” titled “Japan and the U.S. Reaffirm 'Irreplaceable' Alliance in Abe-Bush Talks."
   We recently compiled the results of our assistance to the foreign media covering Japan in the last fiscal year (April 2006 - March 2007) and found it reflected in 280 articles. In my message in April, I introduced Ms. Rene´e Loth, editorial page editor of The Boston Globe. We helped her cover Japan and her editorial was reprinted in other papers. In the last fiscal year, we extended media assistance to 97 individual foreign journalists as well as those invited by FPCJ. We also gave a helping hand to Tokyo-based foreign journalists by, for example, organizing press tours. As a result, we have found 280 articles as far as we know. The foreign press corps took an interest in the political situation after the birth of the Abe administration, North Korean and other diplomatic and defense issues, recovery of the Japanese economy, the declining birth rate, the growing income gap and the environment. We in FPCJ will try to provide painstaking media assistance so that we can meet foreign journalists’ individual needs and interests and thus enable them to report more precisely on many aspects of Japan.
   We are planning to have a press briefing entitled “Japanese Films on a Roll” from 3 p.m. on May 11. The lecturer will be Mr. Yoshio Kakeo, director of the Kinema Junpo Film Institute. For further details, go to the ‘Press Briefing’ page. Besides the press corps, our supporting members may also attend the press briefing.

*We welcome your comments and opinions on this column. Please e-mail them to cp@fpcj.or.jp.