Broadcasting Politics in Japan

Ellis S. Krauss is Professor in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is the coeditor of Beyond Bilateralism: U.S.-Japan Relations in the New Asia Pacific.

In this analysis of Japan's public service broadcaster, NHK, Ellis Krauss provides a wonderfully nuanced and detailed example of the ways the mass media and the Japanese state intersect, creating in the process a media product frequently serving the state's interests.... Krauss has written an important work, one that contributes greatly to our understanding of the role that specific institutions, norms, and practices as well as historical events have played in delimiting the watchdog function of the Japanese media, especially its public service broadcaster, NHK.- Laurie A. Freeman, University of California, Santa Barbara (Journal of Japanese Studies) Broadcasting Politics in Japan is one of the best new works on Japanese politics I have read in years, and it deserves a wide audience.... It is refreshing to find a genuinely creative and original book on Japan that should have broad relevance for research on the press and political legitimacy in general. This is an excellent book, filled with rich detail, sharp insights, and a novel approach.- David Leheny, University of Wisconsin, Madison (Monumenta Nipponica) Ellis Krauss analyzes in rich detail the unique relationship between Japan's public broadcasting network—the NHK—and its political system. This book not only advances the West's knowledge about the relationship between journalism and politics in Japan but offers useful lessons about the media that go far beyond the Japanese case.(Foreign Affairs) Krauss's book is a rare model of how research should be done—i.e. grounded in theory and executed systematically, longitudinally, and comparatively.... Krauss includes both English and Japanese sources to fully document what must be considered the most thoroughly researched book to date (in English) on Japanese broadcasting.(Choice) The reader need not accept Krauss's conclusions to derive great benefit from reading this book.- Nathaniel B. Thayer, Johns Hopkins University (Political Science Quarterly) This is unambiguously an academic work, but also immensely readable. He amusingly distinguishes four types of mass media functions: those of watchdog, guard dog, guide dog and lapdog.... The book includes an entertaining section on successive NHK presidents.- J.A.A. Stockwin, University of Oxford (Japanese Studies)