The Press: Foot in the Door

The presence of foreign reporters at a press conference would be news in few nations of the free world. But it is in Japan. There since occupation’s end nearly four years ago, U.S. and other foreign newsmen have been barred from almost every important press conference, including those held by the government and by top industrialists. The door was slammed shut by the unofficial Japanese reporters’ clubs—the Kisha Kurabu—which run the conferences for their own special benefit.

Last week, after a long series of protests, foreign correspondents finally got a foot in the door. For the first time since Japan regained its independence, they attended the regular press conference of the Foreign Minister, now Mamoru Shigemitsu. In addition, the government supported the Foreign Correspondents Club in its campaign for equal access to the news.

The Japanese reporters’ clubs, which had long monopolized news coverage, were warned in 1946 by U.S. occupation authorities to reform, i.e., let in other newsmen, or dissolve. Instead, the Kisha Kurabu simply lay low, waited—and grew.

The clubs are so powerful that they have even tried to seal off visiting U.S. officials from U.S. correspondents. A month ago a group of American newsmen, who were waiting in the press room of Japan’s Defense Board, were told that they could not attend a press conference that featured Admiral Arthur Radford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Defense Board Reporters’ Club objected. The U.S. reporters had to argue their way in.

At week’s end new and powerful voices were raised for ending the restrictions. Twenty of Japan’s top newsmen called the closed door “impermissible,” promised their cooperation to open it. Clubs would have to be cracked one by one, but the pressure was on.