Media Law and Ethics

In Japan, Act on Protection of Specially Designated Secrets, which is sort of media law, is the most controversial issue and the most important thing for understanding it. Act on Protection of Specially Designated Secrets is the low that Japanese government enacted to protect some special information that they do not want outside of Japan to see, and to protect the country. In addition, this law is categorized by 4 departments such as defense, diplomacy, Prevention of Specified Harmful Activities and Prevention of Terrorist Activities. However, this law called SDS is ambiguous about how much range is legal and illegal and what they are doing inside of government so Japanese citizens are worried about being infringed on their rights to know and some of them concerned that the law can be influence content in Japanese media because media, especially journalists and reporters might lose their freedom of the press. If they lost it, who could get the information of the country. No one can even figure out what is going on the country. Which means, the government can monopolize the information and it might be dictatorship by taking their freedom of the press up from them even to protect the special information of the country. Additionally, people were demonstrating to try to stop passing this bill. So I would say that SDS is not good law if we see individual, I mean, for citizens. Japanese government should not maintain this law, and has to change the details of it for not only the country but also for the each citizens who are living there.

Overview of Act on Protection of Specially Designated Secrets

Propaganda techniques

This propaganda used in Japan to attract immigrants to Brazil around 100 years ago. Its slogan is "Let's go to South America with your family." because Japan used to be really poor county then. And some of them started thinking of making money in the different countries because there were no jobs. At the same time, Brazil needed some labors to make coffee, so Japanese government made it to facilitate immigrants using simple slogan and glittering generalities. However, most of people had never been to Brazil before, so they did not know about exact climate, wage and what was happening there. I would say that this propaganda also used half-truth because immigrants who went there were working a lot without almost no break, hit really hotter climate and got the low wage etc. However, they got successful there by cooperating each other, now over 1.5M Japanese Brazilian are living in brazil which is the biggest Japanese population outside of Japan. If government did not show this propaganda up to citizens then, it would not have occurred something like that.

This propaganda was published during World War 2. Japan built The Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere which Japan released the countries in Southeast Asia from occupying countries and tried to make new power for coexistence and co prosperity. This propaganda is saying "RISE OF ASIA" which is really simple and clear slogan. By drawing the giant who looks like Asian guy and showing a bunch of losers pictures bottom of the giant, I think that it wanted to show demonizing the enemy up to Asian people ti start thinking that Asia was strong, and could beat them. If it made them motivated to avoid from bad living condition, it might be good.