My Vision No.31
2017.9Confronting the “Post-Truth Era”
2016 was an era of upheaval in global politics, bringing us both Britain’s withdrawal from the
EU and the presidency of Donald Trump in the US. In the same year, “post-truth” was selected
as word of the year. This word gives expression to a situation in which objective facts are
sidelined and emotional appeals possess greater political influence.
This issue of My Vision considers the effect of a state of “post-truth” around the world and theroles demanded of politics and the media in such an era, seeking suggestions as to just how weshould respond to such a situation.

About this Issue

Examining tension between politics and the media
Masaki Taniguchi

NIRA Executive Vice President, Professor of Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, The Universityof Tokyo
Keywords…Polarization of politics, development of Internet media, divisions among the public, echochamber effect, increasing information literacy

Expert Opinions

Confronting the “Post-Truth Era”
Against the background of global political upheaval, how are individual nations being affected by
the “post-truth” era?
What roles are demanded of politics and the media in such a situation?

The collapse of faith in politics and theestablishment

The spurring of political divisions bypartisan polarization

Takako Imai

Rentaro Iida

Professor, Faculty of Law, Seikei University

Project Researcher, Institute of Business Law andComparative Law & Politics, Graduate Schools for
Law and Politics, The University of Tokyo
Keywords…The US, polarization of politicalparties, divergence of ideologies, media
partisanship, lack of trust in media

Keywords…Britain, Brexit, collapse of trust,abandoned workers

Strengthening party structures andenhancing journalism

Increase trust in facts throughFact-checking and verification of thevalidity of reportage

Iwao Osaka

Koji Sonoda

Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Komazawa
University
Keywords…Weakening of party structures,growth in non-affiliated voters, enhancement ofjournalism, grassroots movements

Political Reporter, The Asahi Shimbun
Keywords……Distrust of existing media,
monitoring of public authority, fact-checking,verification of the validity of reportage

The Internet: Dividing and connecting
society
Daisuke Furuta
Founding Editor, BuzzFeed Japan
Keywords…Internet, filter bubble, division ofsociety, fact-based verification of information

Interview period：May, 2017
Interviewer：Mari Kawamoto（NIRA Research Coordinator, Researcher）
Maiko Sakaki（NIRA Research Coordinator, Researcher）
Editor：Isao Arai

This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese. NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Translated by Michael Faul
Copyright Ⓒ 2017 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

My Vision No.31
2017.9About this Issue

Examining Tension between Politics and theMedia
The Divisions among the Public at the Root of “Post-truth”
Politics
Oxford University Press chose “post-truth” as its Oxford
Dictionaries Word of the Year for 2016. “Post-truth” was defined
as an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which
objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion thanappeals to emotion and personal belief.”

Masaki Taniguchi
NIRA Executive Vice President,
Professor of Political Science,
Graduate Schools for Law and
Politics, The University of
Tokyo“Post-truth”had existed as a term for some time prior to its
selection as word of the year, but it was the British referendum
regarding the nation’s withdrawal from the European Unionand the US presidential election in 2016 that brought the term
into wider usage.
Prior to the British referendum, the pro-Brexit side employed

the slogan “We send the EU £350 million a week. Let’s fund our NHS instead.” The BBC reported
that the British government’s expenditure on the EU was actually £160 million per week,
representing a little more than 1% of government expenditure. However, this fact was only vaguely
apprehended.
In the US, the Trump administration is still frequently the subject of controversy as a result of
inaccurate or inappropriate statements. The benchmark for these was provided by the Counselor to
the President in responding to queries regarding the veracity of the official claim that the crowd
attending Trump’s inauguration was the largest ever – a comparison of photographs taken from thesame vantage point clearly showed that the crowd attending Obama’s inauguration was larger –when she indicated that the Press Secretary had been presenting “alternative facts.”
In their interviews in this issue, Professor Takako Imai of Seikei University, a specialist in
British politics, and Rentaro Iida, a Project Researcher at The University of Tokyo and a specialist
in US politics, indicate that the result of the British referendum was not influenced by the Leave
campaign, and that Trump’s lies and exaggerations did not increase his support. In separately
conducted interviews, what both scholars emphasize is the recognition that as one aspect ofpolitical polarization, the development of Internet media has made it possible for supporters ofeither side to take in only the information that suits their position, and that the division among a
public that does not give attention to the existing media or differing opinions is the issue at theroot of “post-truth” politics.
This leads to what is known as the“echo chamber effect”in political communication theory.
The spread of cable television and the Internet has made it possible for individuals to selectively
tune in to only discourse that matches their political inclinations – a conservative, for example,
might read newspapers with a conservative editorial orientation, listen to talk radio programs on
which the conservative hosts strongly disparage liberals, watch television programs on whichconservative commentators appear, and exchange opinions in conservative chat rooms and on
This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese. NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Translated by Michael Faul
Copyright Ⓒ 2017 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

My Vision No.31
2017.9conservative message boards on the Internet. The result of this is that the same voices reverberateendlessly inside these people, as if they were in an echo chamber, and their opinions become
further solidified. Furthermore, what matters in this case is whether or not the information
matches the individual’s prejudices; the degree of truth or falsity of that information is a secondary
consideration.
But what is the situation in Japan? As indicated by the phrase “netto uyoku (“online rightwinger”),” the spread of Internet use has certainly also increased the visibility of right- and leftwing discourse in Japan. However, political polarization at the level of the electorate has notadvanced to the extent that it has in the US or Europe. The influence of “fake news,” in the sense ofbolstering partisanship among the public, is small, but in the opinion of Associate Professor Iwao
Osaka of Komazawa University, precisely because Japan has such a high percentage of nonaffiliated voters, exaggerations in the mass media and on the Internet can radically alter public
opinion, and at times can even affect the fate of an administration. To the extent that falsehoods
and exaggerations are highly persuasive, their potential impact can be even greater in Japan.

We must increase Information Literacy
How then do we oppose “post-truth” politics?
The first response that can be indicated is fact-checking – verifying whether or not thestatements of politicians correspond to facts, and informing the public of the results. A body known
as the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) was founded in 2015. In Japan, newspapers
including The Asahi Shimbun and the Tokyo Shimbun have commenced publishing articles related
to fact-checking. Koji Sonoda, a political reporter with The Asahi Shimbun, who was a pioneer inthis area, positions fact-checking as a method of enabling the mass media to fulfill its role as asocial watchdog, and projects the aspiration for the media to offer professional journalism,
presenting carefully corroborated facts, with the orientation of the media itself as the “fourth
estate” also coming under scrutiny. A movement in this direction is already underway in Internet
media. BuzzFeed Japan’s Founding Editor, Daisuke Furuta, introduces an advanced experiment in“debunking,” in which information spread on SNS and in other forums is subject to verification andlies are exposed.
Naturally, issues remain in the area of fact-checking. Accurate verification of the facts before a
falsehood is spread necessitates speed and involves a burden of cost. It will also frequently produce
articles that are anything but easy to read, showing which part of some specific information iscorrect, which part exaggerated, and which part mistaken. In addition, individuals who filter
information based more on its compatibility with their attitudes than its authenticity will notnecessarily accept the results of fact-checking.
Just as overcoming a disease requires both the development of medicines and the diffusion of
preventative measures, in addition to systemic responses including fact-checking and therequirement for responsibility from the providers of information, in responding to thepervasiveness of inaccurate information it will also be necessary, while it may be a less direct
approach, to make ongoing efforts in order to increase information literacy.

Professor Taniguchi is a Professor of Political Science in the Graduate Schools for Law and Politics, The Universityof Tokyo. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from The University of Tokyo, and specializes in the study of politicalscience and contemporary Japanese politics.
This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese. NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Translated by Michael Faul
Copyright Ⓒ 2017 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

My Vision No.31
2017.9Expert Opinions

The Collapse of Faith in Politics and theEstablishment
Brexit. The outcome of the June 2016 British referendum, Britain’s
withdrawal from the EU, is etched in our memories as a historicalevent. There has been speculation that “Leave” voters were deliberately
misguided by the leaders of the pro-Brexit camp, who appealed to theemotions through exaggeration, distortion and even falsification offacts.
While this may be the case, however, it is not to say that those who
voted for Brexit simply acted on a fleeting impulse as a result ofmanipulation in this fashion. Surveys of public opinion following thereferendum showed that the majority of voters had made up their
Takako Imaiminds well before the campaign commenced, and almost 90% of “Leave”
Professor, Faculty ofvoters indicated that they would vote the same way if the referendum
Law, Seikei University
were to be held again. Prior to polling day, politicians and experts
desperately pointed out the facts in relation to the tremendous damage that leaving the EU would
cause to Britain. A considerable number of “Leave” voters refused to be convinced by these facts.
This is an instance of the type of situation that is referred to as “post-truth.” But surely it can alsoessentially be regarded as indicating the advent of an era of “post-trust,” in which there has been afundamental loss of trust in the establishment. In a society in which people barricade themselves
within a cocoon of information that they want to believe and shield themselves from opinions thatdiffer from their own, from counter-arguments, and even from verification of facts, the foundationsof trust are crumbling away.
The roots of the prevailing distrust go deep. Situations that have negatively affected trust inpolitical elites have come one after another – political “spin without substance,” the invasion of
Iraq against public opposition, which was later discovered to have been executed based on “flawed
intelligence,” “cash for honours,” MPs’ misuse of public funds, and the list goes on. Meanwhile,
despite the banner of the “Inclusive Society” or “One Nation” advocated by its Prime Ministers,
Britain is increasingly divided into “5-75-20:” 5 percent of the secure rich, 75 percent of theinsecure, and 20 percent of the excluded. As if to administer a coup de grace, post-financial crisis
financial austerity directly affected essential daily-life infrastructure, and the unexpressed
dissatisfaction and anxiety of workers who felt themselves to have been “left behind” came to be
directed towards elites (who were seen as estranged from human feelings) and immigrants.
During the campaign for the general election held in June 2017, austerity became the keyword.
The Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, extensively criticized the austerity measures of theConservative government. This strategy was sufficiently successful to enable the party to increase
their seats against expectations. By contrast to Labour, Theresa May’s intention of securing aparliamentary majority proved to be a total miscalculation. The Conservatives suffered anembarrassing defeat and were forced to form a minority government. Arguably, what was atquestion in this election was policy debate more substantial than mere mantras. We could argue
that the voters urged politicians to look at the facts, i.e. the real lives of the public. This can beunderstood as a significant first step toward the rebuilding of trust.
Takako Imai is a professor in comparative welfare politics at Seikei University, specializing in contemporary
British Politics and comparative welfare systems. She holds a Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo. Professor Imai
took her current position in 2012 after serving as an Associate Professor in the Department of Politics, Faculty ofLaw, Seikei University. She has also been a visiting research fellow in the Department of Politics and International
Studies of the University of Cambridge and at the European University Institute’s Robert Schuman Center for
Advanced Studies.
This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese. NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Translated by Michael Faul
Copyright Ⓒ 2017 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

My Vision No.31
2017.9Expert Opinions

The Spurring of Political Divisions by
Partisan Polarization
The phenomenon of politicians telling lies can be observed in
all ages and places. In the US itself, we can point to theWatergate scandal during the Nixon presidency and the
Lewinsky scandal involving former president Bill Clinton,among other examples. However, even by comparison withthese examples, the disregard for facts and willingness to lie
displayed by Donald Trump has overstepped the bounds.
Among President Trump’s lies and exaggerations, there haveRentaro Iida
Project Researcher,
Institute of Business Law andComparative Law & Politics,
Graduate Schools for Law and
Politics, The University of Tokyo

been those with the strategic intention of expanding his
support. However, I do not believe that these actually boosted
his rate of support. Nor was it a denial of inconvenient objective
facts and scientific findings, and impulsive statements made inanger, which expanded his support. What won Trump the
support of his constituency was the appeal to the feelings of theindividual, the fact that he inspired a feeling that the individual was not forgotten. In this sense,
we may consider the phenomenon of “post-truth” and the presidential election to be quite separate.
I believe that the increasing seriousness of the problem of “post-truth” in the US is a result of thepolarization of political parties that formed the background to the presidential election and thestrong media partisanship that reflects this situation. While both the Republican and Democratic
parties were formerly centrist, since the 1970s their ideologies have diverged significantly, making
compromise and cooperation difficult. A strongly partisan mass media has exacerbated thesepolitical divisions.
Renouncing the strongly partisan reportage of the 19th century, the US media was extremely
aware of the necessity for fair and neutral reportage from the beginning of the 20th century to the1970s. Since then, however, the spread of cable television and the dramatic increase in the numberof channels has seen the appearance of media that make extreme claims in order to distinguishtheir channels from competitors. In response, there has been a progressive decline in trust in the
media, to the extent that survey results have shown that the majority of Republican voters trust
Donald Trump more than the news media.
It will be extremely difficult to break out of this situation, but the role of the media in doing so
will naturally be a significant one. The media must fulfill its role of monitoring and correcting theadministration. The key will be whether or not the conservative media in particular can be made toplay its role of criticizing and controlling the orientation of the administration.

Dr. Iida is a young and talented researcher specializing in the field of contemporary American politics. He studies
the transformation of party politics in the contemporary US and related social movements. Following graduationfrom Keio University’s Faculty of Policy Management, Dr. Iida completed coursework in the doctoral program of
The University of Tokyo’s Graduate Schools for Law and Politics without taking a degree, prior to becoming adoctoral candidate at Georgetown University in the US. He has held his present position since 2014.

This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese. NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Translated by Michael Faul
Copyright Ⓒ 2017 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

My Vision No.31
2017.9Expert Opinions

Strengthening Party Structures andEnhancing Journalism
In Japan, public opinion reacts immediately to exaggerated news in
the media or on the Internet, and the political arena comes under attack.
Up to the present, numerous prime ministers and politicians have been
compelled to resign, unable to resist the power of the media.
In the sense of politics being influenced by the media, Japan has led
the US and the UK, the springboards of the phenomenon of “post-truth,”and we can point to Japan as being in the midst of a crisis of democratic
politics.

Iwao Osaka
Associate Professor,
Faculty of Law,
Komazawa University

The significant expansion of media influence in Japan came about as
the result of a dramatic change in election results with a growth in thenumber of non-affiliated voters against the background of a weakening ofpolitical party structures. Given the possibility that the support of non-affiliated voters could change administrations, it was only natural that politicians would consider
attempting to control the media, which was able to influence those non-affiliated voters.
At the same time, in recent years on the journalistic side we have seen a sense of distance fromadministrations and differences of emphasis reflected not only in editorials but also in articles andreportage, at the level of entire media enterprises. The political significance of journalism is tomonitor the political environment and the exercise of political power on behalf of the constituency,
and to report on its findings. It is not the job of journalism to topple or create administrations, or to
realize political assertions or goals. What is necessary is for journalism to become able to confront
political authority by means of fully corroborated scoops.
At the same time, change is also necessary on the political side. If politics is to gain the power toresist the media, it will be necessary to strengthen party structures and ensure that grassroots
movements are solid and on course. Observing President Obama’s campaign activities in the US, I
saw that it was ultimately door-to-door canvassing that enabled candidates to obtain information
about their constituents. We should lift the prohibition on door-to-door canvassing during election
periods in Japan, and enable politicians to hold direct dialogues with their constituents at precisely
the period during which the public is thinking most often about politics and political discussion ismost vigorous.
Incorrect or unbalanced information distorts politics. Japan experienced this during the 1930s
and 1940s. Today, when the Internet and smartphones make it possible for anyone to be involved injournalism, we must exercise ingenuity to ensure that every member of the public considers theimportance of information and that we do not repeat the same mistakes again.
Specializing in contemporary Japanese politics and political communication, Associate Professor Osaka conducts
research in areas including the relationship between politics and the media in contemporary Japan and thecommunication strategies of political parties and politicians. He has also served on numerous occasions as acoordinator for public forums held by candidates during elections. Following graduation from The University ofTokyo’s Faculty of Law, Associate Professor Iwao entered the doctoral program in the university’s Graduate Schools
for Law and Politics, and completed coursework without taking a degree. He holds a Master’s Degree in law.
Associate Professor Iwao took up his present position in 2017, after holding positions including teaching assistantat The University of Tokyo and Assistant Professor in Rikkyo University’s College of Sociology.
This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese. NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Translated by Michael Faul
Copyright Ⓒ 2017 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

My Vision No.31
2017.9Expert Opinions

Increase Trust in Facts through Fact-checking
and Verification of the Validity of Reportage
The spread of SNS has sparked an information revolution, allowing
individuals to have their voices heard by society. One side of this is thatpeople tend to choose information that matches their specific preferences,and opinion is becoming divided between the extremes of left and right.
While the media may attempt to offer neutral and objective reportage, thisappears to people on both poles to be slanted, and criticism of the media is
growing stronger. This situation has generated distrust in theconventional media.

Koji Sonoda
Political Reporter,
The Asahi Shimbun

The US boasts an enormous SNS arena, and this phenomenon istherefore very strongly marked in the nation, to the extent that during
the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders both
exploited distrust of the conventional media to expand their support.

This may be referred to as “post-truth,” but attacking the media while making use of it is also a
trademark of populist politics. As the use of SNS spreads further in Japan in future, there is every
possibility that the tendencies observed in the US will become more pronounced in Japan also.
One of the major innate roles of journalism is to monitor the exercise of public authority toensure that it does not overstep boundaries. If the public loses trust in the media, it becomesunable to fulfill its role as social watchdog. What should we do to win back trust in the media? The
key is fact-checking and steady and sober verification of the validity of reportage.
Fact-checking was pioneered in the US as a means of checking whether statements made bypoliticians accorded with actual facts. The Asahi Shimbun commenced fact-checking in October
2016. We have received a significant response, but we are still at the stage of trial and error. But
this is also an era in which the orientation of reportage is news in itself. Even if our intention has
been to engage in objective reportage, it remains important to verify whether the orientation ofthat reportage was appropriate. It will be necessary for us to recognize that the media itself is aform of power, and to constantly and honestly check and monitor the use of that power.
When monitoring of political power by the media becomes ineffective, democracy enters a state ofcrisis. Today, when people are concerned about “fake news,” what is demanded of the traditional
media is to devote itself exclusively to a return to its fundamentals – the presentation of facts thathave been carefully researched by professional journalists – while also incorporating fact-checking
and other new methods.

Mr. Sonoda is a journalist covering topics including the Prime Minister’s Office, the Liberal Democratic Party and
The Ministry of Defense for The Asahi Shimbun. He started a fact-checking section in the newspaper in 2016,
calling for reader feedback. Mr. Sonoda graduated from Waseda University’s First Faculty of Letters, and joined
The Asahi Shimbun in 2000, taking his present position in 2007 following terms in the newspaper’s Fukui andNagano Bureaus and Seibu Reporting Center. Mr. Sonoda is a former Associate of the Program on U.S-Japan
Relations at Harvard University for the academic year 2015-2016.

This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese. NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Translated by Michael Faul
Copyright Ⓒ 2017 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement

My Vision No.31
2017.9Expert Opinions

The Internet: Dividing and Connecting
Society
There have always been arguments that are not based on facts.
Today, this has gone beyond the limit – it is the era of “post-truth.”
The Internet is the origin of this. Anyone is able to send and receive
information; the Internet connects people. The benefits of this areenormous, but it also means that the information that flies about is a
mixture of the good and bad, and that people connect exclusively withthose who hold opinions similar to their own.
Photo: Jun Tsuboike/BuzzFeed

Daisuke Furuta
Founding Editor,
BuzzFeed JapanThe algorithms employed by Google and Facebook, which collect dataon user preferences, accelerate this tendency. They create “filter bubbles.”People become surrounded by an invisible bubble, and before they knowit, only selected information passes through the skin of that bubble.
People who only take in opinions that are similar to their own become

politically biased.
The Internet, which was expected to connect people, has divided society. The 2016 US presidential
election was the prime example of this. If you wrote articles cheering Trump and criticizing Clinton,
they would be enthusiastically shared by Trump supporters, even if they were lies. This enabled thepeople who wrote the articles to earn Internet advertising revenue. The motivation was pecuniary.
The fact that this type of information has a significant effect on public opinion is dangerous. In asituation like this, the role that should be fulfilled by the media is verification of information.
President Trump is able to bypass the media and make statements directly to several hundred
million people via Twitter. In such an era, simply reporting politicians’ statements may mean
reporting lies. What we need are media that check whether these statements are based on fact, andinterpret their meaning.
At BuzzFeed, we are putting effort into “debunking” – investigating suspicious information andreporting on the results of our investigation. BuzzFeed’s watchword is to have a positive effect on
peoples’ lives via reliable news and enjoyable content.
For humans, information is like food that nourishes intellectual and spiritual health. Unceasing
efforts to increase the reliability of information are demanded of content providers that create
articles (content) and the platforms that distribute them.
As indicated at the outset, arguments that are not based on fact have always existed. The same istrue of social divisions. The Internet has made these more apparent. We can expect that attempts toovercome these divisions will also be born from the Internet.
BuzzFeed Japan is a digital media company launched in January 2016 as a partnership between BuzzFeed (US)and Yahoo Japan. The site offers a diverse range of content, including entertainment. The BuzzFeed organization
works to verify news around the globe. In 2016, the BuzzFeed Japan site was instrumental in the early discovery of
inaccuracies in certain Japanese curated content websites. After graduating from Waseda University’s School of
Political Science and Economics, Mr. Furuta joined The Asahi Shimbun. Following a career including experience insocial reporting, the Asia Office, the digital editions team and as the Bureau Chief of the company’s Singapore
office, Mr. Furuta left the newspaper in 2015, and in the same year became the Founding Editor of BuzzFeed
Japan.
This is a translation of a paper originally published in Japanese. NIRA bears full responsibility for the translation presented here.
Translated by Michael Faul
Copyright Ⓒ 2017 by Nippon Institute for Research Advancement