Introduction

The point of policy analysis is to help achieve better policies or enhance policies currently being implemented. For the latter, that may include proposing possible alternatives. For those involved, it is indispensable to accurately grasp policy tasks or issues and carefully analyse the effects of policies worked out by the government. Needless to say, such intellectual work requires talented individuals.

This requirement applies to all sectors of society, and the mass media is no exception. However, compared with other players in society, journalists often have easier access to the venues where government officials, politicians and others actually implement or influence policy. As such, the mass media bears an especially large responsibility for yielding fruitful results in digging up facts and inspecting the policies involved. Under such circumstances, the expectations placed on investigative reporting are growing larger, while journalism itself, in trying to meet these expectations, is working to enhance its methods and human resources for achieving this task.

More people in the Japanese media industry are recognising the necessity for and significance of policy analysis, one aspect of which is investigative reporting. One might say that in policy analysis, we can take advantage of the mass media's unique characteristics and bring people's attention to this uniqueness. Newspapers, in particular, need to enhance their capabilities in analysis and commentary because of the constraints on their news-delivery speed in the age of television and online news.

The mass media is also expected to have a critical viewpoint or stance towards the government in power. To understand the importance of this, one need only recall the investigative coverage by the Washington Post in the 1970s that uncovered a White House scandal and eventually forced the US president to step down. Inspection and analysis from a critical viewpoint are precisely what is needed from the media in terms of policy analysis. The Japanese media has started to acknowledge this, though it still has room for improvement here.

As Japanese newspapers step up their investigative reporting, they are becoming more active in making policy proposals. This trend has become increasingly clear since the early 1990s, suggesting that the media is gradually playing a bigger role in policy analysis and formation.