In response to the influence of Internet and other virtual media's challenge, Japanese newspapers have followed the American press and gone online themselves.

As of December 1996, there were 50 digital newspapers online, and the newspapers have to devote considerable resources such as time, money and personnel to this new area just to stay competitive.

Japan's newspapers are aggressive. One of the leaders is Asahi Shimbun, which took advantage of the time differential to locate its home page at the San Jose Mercury on the US West Coast in August 1995. Now, the Asahi home page gets over two million hits on an ordinary day and is the most-visited electronic newspaper in Japan.

The Mainichi has set up a Mainichi Zaurus system whereby paying subscribers can read the Mainichi on their palmtops through one of the local BBS services, and the Nikkei's Hyperpress is a multimedia effort that involves moving pictures.

Now, all the national newspapers in Japan have their websites providing news services nationally and overseas.

*www.asahi.com connected with the Asahi Shimbun runs both Japanese and English versions, by which a larger group of audience could be reached. In addition, news from The New York Times, Silicon Valley and CNN.com are also provided, which means that more international news or affairs commentaries are available for Japanese.

*www.yomiuri.co.jp connected with the Yomiuri Shimbun, on the other hand, provides a summary of news from their dailies. When compared with the Asahi news, it is obvious that international news content is weaker nor any links with overseas agencies are provided.

*www.mainichi.co.jp connected with the Mainichi Shimbun provides daily economic news and a variety of news features, lifestyle articles as well as the most popular cartoons.

*www.sankei.co.jp connected with the Sankei Shimbun chose to expand their local influence rather than to go international at this stage. So, it is the only national newspaper's website run in Japanese.

*www.nni.nikkei.co.jp connected with Nikkei Shimbun, one of the business newspapers in Japan, focuses on a 24-hour international financial and business news coverage. In addition, direct link to Wall Street Journal, www.wsj.com, is provided.

*www.japantimes.co.jp connected to the English-language newspaper in Japan for expatriates provides an extensive coverage on international political and financial news.

The development of Internet actually poses a threat to the Japanese government who always wants to put the media under control. However, according to Yoichi, the government would make use of its close relationships with most of the Internet service provider run by major universities to censor the release of news stories.

Invasion of privacy and media trial
In May 1997, when a weekly magazine Focus ran a photo of an alleged teenage murderer accused in a child murder case, it sparked a national debate about media invasion of privacy and aroused public concern over the way the media cover the news.

Since then, pressure on the media by politicians and the public to self-censor, especially when reporting crime stories, has grown stronger.

However, these politicians and the public seem to have a double standard in this issue. While Focus was criticized for publishing the photo of the alleged teenage murderer, close-ups of suspects in various crime cases can still be seen, without any covering, in those day-time 'wide shows' on TV. The issue of trial by the media seems receiving little attention in Japan's media world.

The Focus case also put the reporting tactics of the Japanese press under the government's microscope. In the fall of 1999, a committee appointed by the Parliament to look into the general prevention of human rights abuses suggested censorship and prior checking as the ways to halt media abuse.

In response to the government's move, the Japan Newspaper Publishers and Editors Association (JNPEA) set up an ethics committee to conduct research on ethical problems in Japan's mass media and look at how media ethics issues are handled in other countries. The committee was scheduled to issue an interim report in April 2000 and proposed amendments to its non-abiding Canon of Journalism (see attached for the original code), which was formulated in 1946. (Details of JNPEA's interim report have not been announced by the time this project was submitted.)

Although the government has finally withdrawn its suggestion under journalists' strong opposition, the shadow of government's monitoring still prevails in Japan's media (see the following section 'Recent legislation affecting the media'). Moreover, journalists do not have high hopes on the JNPEA's interim report as the organization is regarded as part of the establishment.