TAKAYAMA: What did you want to achieve when you started your magazine 20 years ago?
OKADOME: I wanted to offer a critique of the Japanese media–not a mild one, but an outspoken one. That’s why most of the readers in the beginning were journalists. People are curious to see what’s said about them in print. Then I wanted to challenge the kind of issues that Japan’s mass media consider taboo, such as the imperial family, powerful ministries, advertising giants and some religious organizations. I wanted to print the kind of articles that reporters in the field were dying to write but knew would be killed by their own editors.
Why is that the case?
Because of the Japanese media’s notorious club system, whereby reporters of different publications all tend to get the same information from politicians and bureaucrats. With such a close relationship between the power and the media, journalists can be easily manipulated and controlled. Just study the front-page articles of major Japanese dailies. They are almost identical. Why? Because they just print what they are given. We wanted to show what the media should really be doing. In fact, frustrated reporters of the major media sometimes give us tips or even write articles for us.
You have been printing the scandals of prosecutors for years. Why?
Because it is a taboo just like the imperial family or the ministries. Though we have a lot of judicial reporters–or reporters covering justice–virtually none has ever written critical articles about the Prosecutors Office.
What do you see as your influence on Japanese culture and the Japanese press?
People talk about the information society, but are we really informed? For the past two decades, our small magazine tried to print what Japan’s mass media were afraid to print. I was a student activist, fought against the establishment and the government. I always believed it was an important mission of the media to keep a check on the state and the politically powerful; otherwise they are bound to go rotten. The Japanese media seem to have given up that task almost willingly.
Is the social attitude of the Japanese people toward scandal, marital infidelity and corruption changing?
I think Japan is going through a transitional period. When the power structure was intact, it was difficult for anyone to challenge it or to expose its scandals. But even the mighty Finance Ministry has fallen in recent years. Nevertheless, I think it’s hard to tell whether people’s attitudes are really changing, or whether what we’re seeing is just a passing trend.
Aren’t you afraid of pressures?
From the beginning I knew I was risking my life. I was prepared to be stabbed or attacked in some such way. By now I’m not really scared of anything. So far, I must have been taken to court about 30 times; there is an ongoing case with the Tokyo Prosecutors Office right now. What makes our magazine different and stronger than others is that I am the owner as well as the editor. So as long as I say yes, we can proceed with any project.
What do you think of Japan’s young generation of journalists?
They are becoming salarymen, tamed and obedient, who can fit in the corporate system smoothly. You see, they often take exams for a bank, a securities firm and a publishing house. Many join the press not because they have a passion to become a journalist, but simply because they were admitted. Journalism was a special area in the past. You needed courage and a strong will to enter the field. But I am afraid that the trade has become an ordinary salarymen’s occupation. Sorry to say, we don’t have a big enough supply of true journalists in the next generation.
