Nearly half of foreign media dissatisfied with Japanese corporate communications
TOKYO —
Some 44% of foreign media feel they are served ineffectively by Japanese companies, according to a survey. Targeting foreign journalists specializing in Japanese corporate news, these findings were part of an online survey, conducted by the firm in March 2010 among dozens of journalists.
The purpose of the survey, conducted by Weber Shandwick Tokyo, was to raise awareness of the communication issues experienced by journalists in Japan and abroad and to therefore encourage corporate Japan to better communicate with the media, locally and internationally.
The most prevalent issue for journalists representing non-Japanese news outlets was poor access to management, an observation shared by 60% of respondents. Other areas needing improvement included speed of response (33%) and proactive PR strategies (27%).
The majority of respondents were Japan-based (70%); the balance hailing from Asia Pacific (23%), North America (7%) and Europe (7%). Print newspapers were the most common type of media to which respondents contributed reports on Japanese companies, followed by online media, magazines, newswires and broadcast media.
Many of the comments made by the journalists addressed a lack of openness regarding Japanese corporate communications. Examples include a reference to PR managers exhibiting a tendency to protect rather than promote the CEO, and company representatives who treat meetings with foreign journalists as opportunities to merely greet them instead of sharing news. Several journalists raised the issue of inequality, demanding the simultaneous distribution of Japanese and English press releases, equal access for domestic and foreign media and the proper maintenance of English-language corporate websites.
Public relations offices/agencies of Japanese companies can begin to build and develop trust with journalists by promoting transparency. A commitment to simple yet effective steps – proactively sharing information, answering tough questions before they are asked, allowing CEOs to tell their stories – will lay the groundwork for better media relations.
Order by Time Order by Popularity
4 Comments
Login to comment
0
jruaustralia
Sounds like an editorial, but I agree.
0
herefornow
No surprise here really. Unlike their Western counterparts, Japanese CEO's are not as concerned about their stock price and providing information to investors -- due to the large amount of cross-holdings. This has both good and bad results. Not likely to change any time soon either.
0
some14some
Sounds so undemocratic !
0
Good_Jorb
Democracy and corporation are two words that generally don't go together.
It doesn't surprise that the media is dissatisfied with Japanese corporate communications, a lot of corporation seem to have trouble enough writing contracts that aren't so vague and ambiguous that you have every clause rewritten.
It seems sometimes that full disclosure is almost a bad word in Japan, but then again they don't even try to pretend that to care about securities market efficiency. The only thing that might change Japan is if there is push in the bigger corporations to change to IFRS accounting standards to keep access to foreign capital markets and it trickles down to the smaller companies(but it's doubtful).
Back to top