ABSTRACT
Women journalists are not a new phenomenon in Japan: they once dominated the field. It has been generally assumed that Heian women were better writers than men because they used native Japanese while men wrote in Chinese. The media play a profound role in shaping and maintaining the image of Japanese women. The massive volume of printed and projected material plus Japan’s small size and concentrated population create nearly total media saturation. In the area of “decency and good taste” media does its own censoring. Aside from this area there is another more subtle form of censorship, the reporter’s self-imposed restraint stemming from the system of close and lengthy association with a particular company or governmental agency. Another subtle form of censorship affects women in media who attempt innovation or image change. It operates through the “group consensus” decision-making practice.
