{"id":18010,"date":"2016-02-19T11:36:58","date_gmt":"2016-02-19T16:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=18010"},"modified":"2016-02-19T11:36:58","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T16:36:58","slug":"japanese-government-cracks-down-hard-on-the-media-amid-pitiful-economic-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=18010","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Government Cracks Down Hard on the Media Amid Pitiful Economic Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Japanese Government Cracks Down Hard on the Media Amid Pitiful Economic Performance<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Their imminent departure from evening news programmes is not just a loss to their profession; critics say they were forced out as part of a crackdown on media dissent by an increasingly intolerant prime minister,\u00a0Shinzo Abe, and his supporters.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Only last week, the internal affairs minister, Sanae Takaichi, sent a clear message to media organizations. Broadcasters that repeatedly failed to show \u201cfairness\u201d in their political coverage, despite official warnings, could be taken off the air, she told MPs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Momii caused consternation after his appointment when he suggested that NHK would toe the government line on key diplomatic issues, including Japan\u2019s\u00a0territorial dispute with China<\/a>. \u201cInternational broadcasting is different from domestic,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would not do for us to say \u2018left\u2019 when the government is saying \u2018right\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

From the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0article:\u00a0Japanese TV Anchors Lose Their Jobs Amid Claims of Political Pressure<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve commented on the spectacular failure of Japan\u2019s \u201cAbenomics\u201d several times in the past, most recently in last summer\u2019s post,\u00a0Japan\u2019s Economic Disaster \u2013 Real Wages Lowest Since 1990, Record Numbers Describe \u201cHard\u201d Living Conditions<\/a><\/strong>. Here\u2019s what we learned:<\/p>\n

Prime Minister\u00a0Shinzo Abe came to power vowing\u00a0to\u00a0drag Japan out of deflation and stagnation. His\u00a0logic\u00a0was that rising prices would drive higher\u00a0salaries\u00a0and increased\u00a0consumption. More than two years on,\u00a0prices\u00a0are\u00a0rising, but wages adjusted for inflation have sunk\u00a0to the lowest since at least 1990.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A record 62 percent of Japanese households described their livelihoods as \u201chard\u201d last year in a survey on incomes. A sales-tax increase in 2014 helped drive up living costs faster than\u00a0wage gains. \u00a0At the same time,\u00a0the Bank of Japan\u2019s quantitative easing drove down the currency, boosting the cost\u00a0of\u00a0imported energy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fast forward a few months and things aren\u2019t getting any better.<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japanese Government Cracks Down Hard on the Media Amid Pitiful Economic Performance Their imminent departure from evening news programmes is not just a loss to their profession; critics say they were forced out as part of a crackdown on media dissent by an increasingly intolerant prime minister,\u00a0Shinzo Abe, and his supporters. Only last week, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4285,512,6174,938,12500,2189],"class_list":["post-18010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-liberty-blitzkrieg","tag-media","tag-michael-krieger","tag-press-freedom","tag-sanae-takaichi","tag-shinzo-abe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18010"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18011,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18010\/revisions\/18011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}