Japan and the U.S.: Two Free Nations, Two Versions of Free Press

Student's Name

Eliza Koch, Minnesota State University, Mankato

1st Student's Major

Mass Media

1st Student's College

Arts and Humanities

Students' Professional Biography

Eliza Koch was born in 1984. She grew up on a farm outside of Gaylord, Minnesota. She has two brothers and is the middle child. She graduated from Sibley East High School in 2003. She thoroughly took pleasure in her English classes. Sibley East, also, offered her the opportunity to act in a number of plays as well as co-edit the yearbook her senior year. After high school Eliza attended Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato for two years. Upon receiving her Associates degree she transferred to Minnesota State University, Mankato. She is currently working on her Bachelors degree in mass communications- public relations with a minor in political science. It was during one of these political science classes that she stumbled upon this project. Her professor, Eiji Kawabata, encouraged her to develop a paper she wrote for his Politics in the Asian Pacific Rim course. She has worked at J.C. Penney since 2003 to pay for her schooling. After college she hopes to secure a career in the public relations field. Ideally Eliza would like to work for a public relations firm in the Twin Cities. She currently resides in North Mankato.

Mentor's Name

Eiji Kawabata

Mentor's Email Address

eiji.kawabata@mnsu.edu

Mentor's Department

Government

Mentor's College

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

The media are important in a democracy; they provide a means of communication between the government and its constituents. They also serve as a fourth branch to check the country’s government. Although these two nations have different histories there are many similarities in the media systems. This presentation examines the media and politics in two separate democratic nations, Japan and the United States. Despite their different historical and cultural backgrounds, they have similarities. Both nations have free press, but there are cases when both governmental systems have attempted to censure their media in one form or another. This presentation delves into the differences as well, for instance the Japanese system is more exclusive than the United States’. While analyzing the similar and diverse aspects of the media systems the presentation touches on the benefits and the disadvantages of both systems. Through these analyses, the presentation illuminates the fundamental relationship between the media and democracy.

Recommended Citation

Koch, Eliza (2006) "Japan and the U.S.: Two Free Nations, Two Versions of Free Press," Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato: Vol. 6, Article 12.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56816/2378-6949.1119
Available at: https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/jur/vol6/iss1/12

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License