The Japanese news media landscape is characterized by an ongoing shift of consumer attention from traditional to online media. Traditional news media, such as national television networks and printed newspapers, have for a long time enjoyed a relatively strong position in Japan. Survey data shows that a vast majority of the population continues to use commercial and public television as
, but it is also clear that people spend less time on watching television than they did in earlier years, while the internet is becoming more and more important for people’s daily lives. This is particularly true in the case of young people, who spend much more time
Demographic constellation and trust in media as factors
One major reason for the endurance of traditional media is
Japan’s demographic makeup: the country has a highly aged population, which means that the media consumption of older people exerts a strong influence on Japan’s media industry. One additional aspect is the trust people place in the different forms of media. Trust levels vary depending on factors such as the type of medium, topic, and outlet. In general, newspapers and television enjoy a
much higher trust than the internet or magazines. According to an annually conducted survey, NHK News, which is an offering of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK,
is regarded as more trustworthy than other news outlets.
The rise of online media
Despite such factors, changing media consumption patterns clearly put a huge pressure on traditional news media. This can be seen, for instance, when looking at
newspaper circulation, which declined strongly in recent years. The
most commonly used type of text-based news service today are portal websites, which aggregate the news of other outlets. One service that stands out particularly in this regard is Yahoo News, which is by far the
most commonly used online news brand. News aggregators and curation services, which also include services such as Gunosy and SmartNews, represent a convenient way for people to consume news in an efficient manner, but have also been described as a factor that hampers the monetization of online content by news outlets.
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