News reporting in Japan : emphasis on tabloid-style crime stories

It surprises me how often I see news about murder cases on TV in Japan. In the last few months, there is hardly a day without its atrocious murder story. This contrasts sharply with what I was used to in Europe. I check BBC news everyday, and rarely find murder stories making the headlines.

That doesn't mean that Japan has proportionally more murders. Maybe it's just that Japan's population is much bigger than individual European countries. But I think that the difference is mainly due to the reporting style. Many local murders won't make the headlines (especially on TV) in Europe because there is too much happening in the world to concentrate on that. It's mostly tabloid papers that make of horrendous crimes their headlines. But in Japan it seems that every news agency behaves like European tabloids, even NHK (the Japanese equivalent of the BBC). Do Japanese people like crime stories so much that it takes such an important place in the news ? I wish they would report more international news (or spend more time on it) and drop the family or neighbour murder stories - let alone the insistence on foreign crimes.

Surely, the news of the fire of Hokkaido are reported by Kyushu.

A Japanese criminal white paper
http://www.moj.go.jp/HOUSO/2004/hk1_1.html#1-3

The television station in Japan has lost the investigation capability of a report.
The television station explains the newspaper contents every morning.
They make a fool of a televiewer.

Very interesting observation Maciamo. This has also made me raise my eyebrows a few times. Japan, to me, is very much intrigued with murder not only in the headlines, but in TV movies as well. Just look at the weekly movies such as on Thursday and Saturday nights. There is always a "Shimoda Satsujin Jiken" (Murder in Shimoda) for example. Twice a week there will be a police detective drama with the title "Murder in (insert city or train name)" and they are very popular.

Why I do not know, nor have I investigated this. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that there are so few murders in Japan? Or that alot of murders are not random acts of violence, but comitted by people known to the victim for one reason or another.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pachipro

Japan, to me, is very much intrigued with murder not only in the headlines, but in TV movies as well. Just look at the weekly movies such as on Thursday and Saturday nights. There is always a "Shimoda Satsujin Jiken" (Murder in Shimoda) for example. Twice a week there will be a police detective drama with the title "Murder in (insert city or train name)" and they are very popular.
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i think in this case most people are obsessed/intigued by murder
not just in japan
check out popular dramas from the US..
CSI (i havent watched it but i guess its about murder)
Homicide (havent watched it either but the title gives it away)
Monk (murder mystery)
im sure there are more

well, im from ireland where we also report the murders
probably because the other news is not so shocking
i too like international news but the fact is if 1 person is killed in your city its more shocking than if 100 people are killed in zimbabwe

Deadhippo, you are quite right. Maybe all cultures are obsessed with dramas on TV portraying murder in one form or another.

I think most cultures have voyeuristic tendencies for the murder genre. Sherlock Holmes is still popular. So is "Perry Mason" and other crime dramas in the U.S. Death is fascinating to people in general. Look at how people have to stop and look at accident scenes ("I wanna see the dead guy!").