Dec 24
Since I have not been in Japan for about four months, I am not knowledgeable about the current situation in Japan. Thus, I decided to read some articles about the “Unification Church” from mainstream media.
Before starting my journal, I would like to convey the use of the “Unification Church” in Japan. Pious believers of “Unification Church” are known as “Moonies” in English, and they changed their name to “The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification” for the sake of erasing its notoriety. However, because the term “Unification Church” is widely recognized in Japan, the media continues to use “Unification Church.”
For the next five to eight days, I will read as many Japanese articles for several fields and summarize them in English. The summarization would be the journal for the first days of Japan since
- Prevent spreading COVID, R.S.V., flu around by interviewing people in-person;
- Re-capping current Japanese media’s attitude towards the “Unification Church” and its related problems;
- Jet lag might not allow me to behave like those in Japan.
Today, I will focus on the dynamic changes in the media’s way of presenting this issue to the public.
The situation surrounding media have been shifting quickly. Before I left Japan, most of the media didn’t mention the “Unification Church,” Instead, they called it “the Religious Group.” I don’t know why they didn’t say about the “Unification Church” despite the media from the US or Europe mentioning the “Unification Church” or “Moonies” at that moment. However, this weird regard didn’t last long.
On July 11, the head of the Church’s Japanese organization held a press conference to express their official statements with a “selected” medium. After the first conference, all the TVs and newspapers started using “Unification Church” because they could finally convey both sides’ information about the problem. After the conference, the “Unification Church” organized some panels, so tomorrow, I will focus on these events and other announcements from the Church.
References
- The graph of the TV coverage time about “Unification Church”
- Matsutani, Soichiro. “統一教会の抗議でテレビは萎縮したのか？──安倍元首相銃撃から２か月、テレビ報道量の推移（松谷創一郎） – 個人.” Yahoo!ニュース. Yahoo!ニュース, September 8, 2022. https://news.yahoo.co.jp/byline/soichiromatsutani/20220905-00313548.
- The reason why TV and newspapers didn’t use “Unification Church” at first
- “当初は匿名報道のテレビが「統一教会」を厳しく報道し始めたワケ（Friday）.” Yahoo!ニュース. Yahoo!ニュース, July 16, 2022. https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/e16c0069ffc9b8767be7b4bbc832328b82877551. Friday is Japanese news/gossip magazine.
- Script of the first press conference by “Unification Church”
- Yokoyama, Kotaro, and Rio Nishiyama, eds. “旧・統一教会が会見｢動機だとすれば重く受け止める｣田中会長が語る【会見全文】.” BUSINESS INSIDER JAPAN. BUSINESS INSIDER JAPAN, July 29, 2022. https://www.businessinsider.jp/post-256503.