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Briefing Report

Message from FPCJ President Terada

[General] June 5 , 2007

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　June 5, 2007

On May 23, we had an FPCJ board members’ meeting and reported on FPCJ activities in FY2006. Compared with the previous fiscal year, the following three points were worth noting.
First, during the past fiscal year, 292 media reports, newspaper articles and TV programs, could be attributed to our assistance; a 23% increase over the previous year. This increase seems to indicate that FPCJ’s media assistance and information provision had been further improved.
Second, the number of accesses to our website has been steadily increasing. The total number of hits received by our website was 10.78 million, which is about 900,000 per month, and an 18% increase over the previous year. In terms of the number of page views, the total was 2.30 million, a 66% increase. Incidentally, the total number of accesses in May 2007 was 1.32 million, a 22% increase from the 1.08 million in April. That of page views was about 540,000, a great increase from 400,000 in April. We are expecting the number of our website visitors to greatly increase after we improve our website after June 15.
Third, ties and cooperation with local governments, municipalities and universities have been making progress: as of June 4, 15 municipalities had become FPCJ Supporting Members with a keen interest in putting out information overseas. FPCJ aims at further ties and cooperation with such organizations that have been eagerly working on making themselves known overseas.

FPCJ’s fellowship program for FY2007 has also started in earnest. We received six journalists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka from May 21 through June 2. As this year marks the 120th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and India, in particular, FPCJ invited three reporters from India. The Indian reporters covered city transportation and infrastructure improvement including subway extension work in Yokohama city, a sister city of Mumbai, and three other journalists from Southwest Asia visited Kitakyushu City and Kobe City to cover environmental issues and disaster prevention. In Hiroshima City, they interviewed atom-bomb victims and stayed with local families. We look forward to reading their articles on their experiences. From June 4 through July 14, a long-term fellowship program will be conducted for four young journalists, two each from Egypt and Afghanistan. By the courtesy of The Yomiuri Shimbun Osaka, The Shizuoka Shimbun and the Mainichi Broadcasting System, Inc., the four journalists will experience a two-week training program in the newspaper companies or a broadcasting station.
In the afternoon of May 22, we had an FPCJ wine gathering, inviting Asian correspondents in Japan. More than 30 journalists attended. As special guests, we invited Mr. Oe, Editorial Writer of The Yomiuri Shimbun, Mr. Ina, Vice Chair of the Nikkei Editorial Board, and Mr. Sakaba, Press Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The participants were able to enjoy informal networking over a glass or two of wine.

In June, we will have a briefing on “Manga Course at University” for the foreign press corps in the afternoon of June 8. Professor Keiichi Makino, Head of the Department of Manga, Kyoto Seika University, will talk about Japanese anime and manga, which are very popular not only in Asia but the world over.
In the afternoon of June 21, there will be a briefing titled “Has the Hollowing Out of Japanese Manufacturers Stopped?” FPCJ will be busy in June, too.
We welcome your comments and opinions on this column. Please e-mail them to cp@fpcj.or.jp.