A comparative study on Japanese and South Korean media coverage of foreign and security affairs

Abstract

The media in Korea and Japan share many common features. Young reporters in Korea today are still trained in the Japanese way; they begin their training by working in and around a police station, what they term as Satsu-mawari. The trainees must stay in the station for one or two months (harikomi) to make themselves accustomed to the police station, and more importantly, to leam the most effective method of abstracting news from day-to-day incidents. After spending two or three years at the police station, these reporters move to the prosecutor's office where they spend another two or three years. Only then are they entitled to work for such sections as politics, economy, culture andsports. In addition, Korean newspapers still use many Japanese words like urakei and nawabari. Common terminology used both by the Korean and Japanese media indicate that their working styles are similar. Indeed, reporters in Korea and Japan work under similar systems of reporting not only in terms of their hierarchical order but also in terms of the 'cap(tain) system' in the field.