News in Japan

I am starting to understand more and more of the news and I must say, American news networks should take note.

I just watched a story about an outbreak of food poisoning at a restaurant (5 people have died and about 100 are sick) and the story was not about pointing fingers and blaming people.  The story began by introducing the three places where the meat could have been contaminated.  First the reporter took a tour of the slaughterhouse where the meat came from and documented the methods that the slaughterhouse used.  They checked current meat stocks and demonstrated how they take pride in their quality control processes.  In the end, they talked about extra safety precautions they will add to prevent this type of thing from happening again.

Next they showed the company that shipped the meat to the restaurant. Again they showed how the shipment process worked and then ways they were preventing the situation from happening again.

And then they go to the restaurant and show the kitchen where the meat is prepared and repeat the same process of explaining the process and what they are doing to improve.

Finally they show some of the customers who were sick and document their stories.

As almost an afterthought, at the end of the story they said the owner of the restaurant had resigned and he gave his apology.

And that was it.  The story was about what was being done about the situation and ways to improve in the future.  This is so different than American news stories.  They would have focused on blaming the meat producers, demand that the owner of the restaurant give them lots of money and there would have been very little, mention of things that were being done to improve the situation.  They would have told everyone that if you eat any meat, you will die.  They would have said it was the worst epidemic of food poisoning in history and that this could potentially get worse and end the meat industry.  They would have said it was the democrats/republicans (depending on which news channel you were watching) fault for cutting funding to the FDA and then blamed the FDA for not catching the contaminated meat until it was too late.  They would have a press conference for Obama and got his thoughts on the event and then spend 2 hours either attacking or praising what he said.

This was also blatantly obvious in the news reports of the Sendai earthquake.  In Japan, nothing except stories about how they are cleaning up Sendai and what they are doing to improve the situation in the Fukashima nuclear plant.  Stories that did not place blame on anyone, but instead focused on what was being done.

American news networks covering the Sendai earthquake: Worst disaster in history!  All of Japan will become a nuclear dead zone!  We can detect high levels of radiation in the ocean even in America!  Everyone in Japan is going to be evacuated!  Are we safe here in America?  Glen Beck saying it was God's way of showing the world that he was unhappy with what the democrats were doing.

Whenever I watched the news in the US, I ended up feeling angry at the end of the story.  Whenever I understand a news story in Japan, I end up feeling informed.

So yea, I think two huge things that makes life in Japan so enjoyable is the complete lack of political segregation and unbiased news networks.  Hardly anyone in Japan cares what political party you belong to, nobody blames the other party for the making their lives terrible.  News stories are about improving current conditions, and nobody worries about what politicians say.  I will definitely continue to get my world news from Japan sources when I return to the States, and I will be a much happier person because of it.