International News Reporting and the "Jiji Shinpo"

2018/03/01

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak on such a special day for Keio University. I am very moved. First, since today's talk deals with historical issues, I would like to state in advance that I will refer to Yukichi Fukuzawa without honorifics.

Now, what I want to talk about today is the role played by the "Jiji Shinpo," considered one of Yukichi Fukuzawa's three major enterprises, in international reporting, international news, and international information. Furthermore, I want to discuss the environment surrounding Japan's international information and news, particularly during the period when Fukuzawa was alive. I believe that without understanding this, the nature of the journalism and international reporting activities of Fukuzawa and the "Jiji Shinpo" will not fully come to light.

It is well known that the "Jiji Shinpo," based on Fukuzawa's ideas, put more effort into international reporting and news than other newspapers. However, this was not necessarily a smooth path and was characterized by very harsh conditions.

First, I would like to talk about what international reporting and information were like at the end of the 19th century. In "Transition of People's Way of Thinking," Yukichi Fukuzawa says the following:

The civilization and enlightenment of Western nations lie not in moral education, nor in literature, nor in theory. Where, then, should we seek it? Looking at it from my perspective, I cannot help but say it lies in the convenience of public communication.

This is quite a profound insight. The term "public communication" (jinmin kotsu) is not used much today, and the word "jinmin" (people/public) is often used with a political connotation, but what Fukuzawa is saying here is that social communication—communication between people—is precisely what brings about the enlightenment of human society. How was the civilization and enlightenment of European countries achieved? There is morality, and certainly theory. However, he is saying it is not just that, but a matter of communication, or "public communication." This was an excellent opinion regarding what Japanese people at the time should learn from Europe. Today, when we talk about communication, various things like the Internet and IT are frequently discussed. However, in the early Meiji period or the end of the Edo period, there were truly very few people who saw the importance of communication.

Regarding public communication in the West, Fukuzawa states, "The rapid progress made in these paths of communication through the invention and ingenuity of steamships, steam locomotives, telegraphs, postal services, and printing can be called a single movement that overturns human society." Among these, the telegraph was particularly important at the time. The telegraph is hardly used now, but it was a revolutionary technology. Since the beginning of human history, the speed of human communication was the same as the speed of human movement. A person had to carry a document. A person had to deliver it on horseback. It did not rise above the speed of human travel. Of course, as a means of communication that did not require human movement, things like signal fires were considered, but they could not become a stable means of communication. However, the telegraph allowed information to be transmitted at high speed without humans moving. Some point out that the invention of the telegraph had more significance in human history than the Internet. Indeed, the telegraph was a landmark communication technology.

Fukuzawa saw through to that point, but this was not a simple matter. While telegraph technology is certainly important, another equally important factor was the social organization that creates the information that travels through the telegraph lines. Without this, the telegraph is just a wire. This social organization would be what we call mass media companies today, but at that time, it was newspapers and news agencies. Developing human resources with experience and insight, having those people produce information, and transmitting it via telegraph lines—only with both these hardware and software aspects can a revolution in information, or what Fukuzawa calls "public communication," be realized.

Telegraph technology born in Europe initially connected various parts of Europe via land lines. However, connecting land alone was insufficient; seas and rivers also had to be crossed. Where there is water, special telegraph lines are required. Thus, submarine telegraph cables were invented in Europe. The Internet we use today is also connected by submarine telegraph cables (undersea cables), and these undersea cables were primarily developed in Britain. Britain considered how to utilize these undersea cables. The first thought, naturally, was to connect with America. That is, they wanted to lay a submarine telegraph cable across the Atlantic. However, this was a very difficult technology. Even on the seabed, there are ocean currents. They didn't know where to drop the cable. They also had to provide insulation for waterproofing. Because of these issues, things did not go well, and they failed many times. Once, they thought they had succeeded and the President of the United States and the Queen of England exchanged congratulatory telegrams, but the connection was soon severed.

At that time, another American company thought that if an Atlantic undersea cable was too difficult, they should connect by another method. In other words, change direction. While they had been thinking of laying a cable westward from Britain, they decided to try going eastward instead. Since land lines could be laid across the Siberian continent, they could cross the continent endlessly and reach the Bering Strait. Since the Bering Strait is narrow, they could connect there. Then they would cross to Alaska, go to Canada, and connect to the telegraph lines of the American continent. This was quite a bold and flexible way of thinking.

However, this was also a difficult construction project. Moreover, unfortunately for them, while that telegraph company was working hard to lay lines across the Siberian continent, the laying of the transatlantic submarine cable succeeded in 1866, and Britain and America were connected by undersea cable. Consequently, the telegraph lines being constructed across the Siberian continent became a white elephant. While such things seem to have nothing to do with Japan, and nothing to do with Fukuzawa or the "Jiji Shinpo," they actually held great significance.

At the same time Britain connected the undersea cable with America, it also laid undersea cables through the Mediterranean to Egypt and India. Needless to say, this was related to British colonial rule. Going through Egypt, India, crossing the Indian Ocean to Singapore, and then to Hong Kong. Or laying another line to Australia and New Zealand. This was an endlessly long submarine telegraph network. The company that realized this was Britain's Eastern Telegraph Company. In Japan, it was called the "Toho Denshin Kaisha." This company's telegraph lines started from London, reached Hong Kong and then Shanghai, thereby linking the Chinese market with British industry.

At this time, a company headquartered in Denmark called The Great Northern Telegraph Company (translated in Japan as "Dai-hoku Denshin Kaisha") thought of laying a new telegraph line to compete with Britain's southern-route submarine telegraph. At that point, they remembered the abandoned Siberian telegraph lines. Since they were partially completed, they thought they could extend them south to Vladivostok, and then connect to Shanghai through the Sea of Japan. They aimed to link Europe and the Chinese market with both northern and southern routes. At the time, Korea was closed to the outside world, so they couldn't enter. Therefore, they planned to go from Vladivostok through the Sea of Japan, place a relay station in Nagasaki, and head to Shanghai.

Thus, they requested the landing of the submarine telegraph from the Tokugawa regime at the end of the Edo period. The Tokugawa Shogunate did not understand at all what this meant or what results it would bring on a world map, but they thought it might be convenient. However, the Tokugawa Shogunate soon collapsed, and this proposal was inherited by the Meiji government. The Meiji government also did not understand at all that this was a grand vision within a global economic strategy, but they thought it would be convenient if a submarine telegraph were established and permitted the landing in Nagasaki. As a result, Japan was incorporated into a global information network in the early Meiji period.

This line from Nagasaki to Vladivostok and the line connecting Nagasaki and Shanghai became the information lifeline for Japan. Japan had no other means of communicating with the Chinese mainland or Europe. This is, of course, something realized later. Since wireless communication had not reached the stage of practical use at the time, this became the only line connecting Japan and the world. Later, Japan granted exclusive rights to Great Northern Telegraph. This became a serious shackle for Japan. The Japanese government of the time did not understand this either, but they made a promise not to allow any telegraph lines connecting the Japanese archipelago and the Chinese mainland other than those of Great Northern Telegraph. Why? Because Japan wanted to lay a submarine telegraph line between Busan and Nagasaki in the Korean Peninsula.

In order for Japan to exert great diplomatic, political, and economic power in the Korean Peninsula or the Chinese mainland, a submarine telegraph line was necessary. However, Japan had neither the funds, the technology, nor the military power. Yet, they had no choice but to lay a submarine telegraph line. So they asked Great Northern Telegraph, but Great Northern Telegraph was not a kind-hearted company. In exchange for laying the submarine telegraph between Busan and Nagasaki on Japan's behalf, they demanded exclusive rights. Japan granted these exclusive rights. Consequently, even when Japan later acquired the technology, economic power, and military power to lay submarine telegraph lines, they were unable to do so freely. Once the treaty was signed, Japan was helplessly bound.

What is necessary for information is the hardware of the submarine telegraph line and, additionally, the information that flows through that line. The organizations responsible for this information were what were called international news agencies. There was a phrase sometimes used even now: "Follow the Cable." This meant that if a cable was laid, international news agencies would move in. The one that moved into Japan was Britain's Reuters. As you know, Reuters remains one of the world's leading news agencies. While its base has mostly moved to the United States now, at that time it was a news agency integrated with Britain. Moreover, since a news agency's role is to collect news from around the world and distribute it to various media, it is integrated with international economic and political power. Japan had no such capability. At the time, no matter how much Japan trained human resources, there were no people who could go to Europe and conduct reporting. They couldn't speak the languages, and they didn't have sufficient knowledge of European politics and economics. Even if such people were dispatched, they couldn't possibly collect news. At that time, only three countries—Britain, France, and Germany—could do that.

Britain had Reuters. France had Agence Havas at the time, which is now AFP. Germany had a news agency called Wolffs Telegraphisches Bureau. Each of the three world powers had its own international news agency, collecting and distributing information. The three companies initially competed fiercely, but they stopped competing midway and drew lines on the world map to designate the territory of the British agency, the German agency, and the French agency. Japan knew nothing of this, but Japan became the exclusive territory of Reuters. Reuters held exclusive rights basically everywhere east of India.

The hardware part of information, the submarine telegraph, belonged to Great Northern Telegraph. Great Northern Telegraph was a Danish company, but Britain was behind it. The other southern route was precisely a British line. And the software, the production of information, was handled by Reuters. In other words, Japan had completely entered into British information hegemony. There was no other means to collect international news, nor any means to transmit it. To convey Japan's claims to the world, there was no choice but to transmit them through Reuters, and to know about the world, one had to rely on Reuters news. It was in this context that the "Jiji Shinpo" was launched and attempted to focus on international reporting. For both hardware and software, there was no choice but to rely on Britain.

While this was a global political and economic issue, from the perspective of a newspaper company, there were also management issues. First, telegram rates were high. Since Great Northern Telegraph had a monopoly, they could set rates as they pleased. Also, because Reuters monopolized the news and there was no competition, information fees were also very high. Newspaper companies had to bear a heavy economic burden in both hardware and software aspects to collect international news.

Not only was the economic burden large, but these were basically British-made news. Certainly, one could learn about Britain, and it was undoubtedly convenient, but news from Korea and the Qing Dynasty, which were important from the perspective of Japan's international relations at the time, did not easily reach Japan.

Various news from Britain would come in. If you look at newspapers from that time, you can see, for example, news about which side won a rugby match between Oxford and Cambridge, though this was a bit later. While some people might have been interested in this, there must have been other international information that Japan needed to know more. But even if they thought so, they couldn't collect news themselves. In this environment, Fukuzawa's "Jiji Shinpo" had to struggle. This was not a problem that could be solved by a single newspaper company or a single person. It was something already determined within the framework of international relations at the time; while there was a need to break through, it was quite difficult for the time being.

What was the state of international news at that time? The "Jiji Shinpo" was founded in 1882, but looking at the pages from that time, a Reuters telegram sent from London on March 17 appears on April 1. It took half a month for the telegram to be published. Compared to other newspapers, it was fast, but it was news delayed by half a month. This was because Reuters telegrams were too expensive to buy, so they were reprinted from foreign-language newspapers in the Yokohama settlement. Now, did those foreign-language newspapers in the Yokohama settlement obtain Reuters telegrams directly? No, Reuters telegrams appeared in British newspapers in Shanghai, Tianjin, or Singapore, and those newspapers were carried by ship, and then the Yokohama foreign-language newspapers reprinted them. Japanese newspapers then translated them further into Japanese. Japan was at the very end of the British international news chain, and could finally report international news with a half-month delay, or sometimes a one-month delay. For news obtained particularly quickly, they went so far as to write that they heard it from Sir Parkes, who was the British Minister at the time. They couldn't get news otherwise. This was a very troubling problem.

However, as I have repeatedly mentioned, even within that context, the "Jiji Shinpo" put great effort into international reporting and tried to collect various news. Examining domestic and foreign telegrams published in the pages of influential newspapers in January 1893, just before the First Sino-Japanese War, the "Jiji Shinpo" had the most with 226 items. Also, compared to other newspapers, it began placing reporters overseas early on. They had reporters in Shanghai, Beijing, and Seoul, but since there was no means to send news, it was by mail. Reporters would write news every month, half-month, or week, put it on a ship, and deliver it by mail. Therefore, there was no breaking news. In terms of breaking news, they were no match for Reuters telegrams.

As an example, in the March 3, 1897 issue of the "Jiji Shinpo," it says, "According to a London telegram sent on the 27th." This was a telegram sent from Reuters' London headquarters on February 27, and they specifically noted that. It says, "Shanghai, March 1, 2:36 PM, sent by Special Correspondent Matsuo; received March 2, 3:17 AM," meaning Correspondent Matsuo of the "Jiji Shinpo" in Shanghai obtained the February 27 London telegram on March 1, sent it the next day on the 2nd, and it reached the "Jiji Shinpo" in Tokyo on March 2. They specifically wrote such things in the news. From today's perspective, one can only say it was slow for news from the 27th to arrive on the 2nd of the following month, but this was the fastest news.

What was the "Jiji Shinpo" reporter in Shanghai doing? While other Japanese newspaper companies were waiting for Shanghai newspapers to be carried by ship, the "Jiji Shinpo" obtained the Reuters telegram from London first in Shanghai and sent it to Tokyo. This was the fastest way. One could even call it a tearful effort. The important job of the reporter dispatched to Shanghai was to obtain Reuters news. Even so, since they couldn't obtain Reuters news directly, it was a difficult situation.

Other Japanese newspaper companies and news agencies also wanted to contract directly with Reuters. Ideally, they would have liked to contract with other news agencies, but agencies other than Reuters did not enter East Asia. Of course, French and German reporters were active, but they only sent news to their home countries and did not provide that news to Japan. There was the American AP, but at the time, the United States held a lower position than Britain in international politics, and AP was in a relationship effectively like a subsidiary of Reuters. Therefore, although Japan had international relations with America, they could not directly exchange news with each other.

As an aside, Japan wanted to lay a trans-Pacific submarine cable, but ultimately could not. The trans-Pacific submarine cable was laid by the United States from the West Coast via Hawaii and various islands to the Philippines when it colonized the Philippines. Japan took advantage of this by laying a telegraph line from the Japanese archipelago to Ogasawara and connecting that line with the Philippine line from the American West Coast. Even at the start of the Pacific War, that was the only submarine cable for direct exchange of telegrams between America and Japan. However, by the time World War II began, wireless communication existed, so there were means of communication other than submarine cables.

The first to contract with Reuters in Japan was the Japanese government, but afterwards, various Japanese newspaper companies wanted to contract with the news agency. In 1897 (Meiji 30), the "Jiji Shinpo" became the first to sign a direct contract with Reuters. This allowed the "Jiji Shinpo" to obtain Reuters telegrams quickly. A company announcement in the "Jiji Shinpo" at the time stated, "Newspapers in our country have not obtained direct telegrams from abroad, merely reprinting Reuters telegrams that reach Yokohama to fulfill their duty, but because the price of Reuters is high, even the European-language newspapers in Yokohama could not continue their contracts and finally ceased them." However, since international relations were becoming important, it wrote, "Our company has finally made up its mind to spend a huge sum of money to obtain Reuters telegrams." By saying "spend a huge sum of money," they were declaring to readers that they had made a quite bold investment for the time to obtain Reuters telegrams. The "Jiji Shinpo" contracted with Reuters with that much enthusiasm. This alone gave the "Jiji Shinpo" an overwhelming advantage in international reporting among Tokyo newspaper companies.

Until then, there had been no competition regarding international reporting among Japanese newspaper companies. Since Reuters monopolized the news, it was enough to translate it from the English-language newspapers in Yokohama. However, the "Jiji Shinpo" made up its mind and contracted with Reuters, and other newspaper companies had no means to counter this. So, what happened?

In a company announcement on May 1, 1898, the "Jiji Shinpo" set forth "Sanctions on the Publication of Telegrams," and prohibited other newspaper companies from publishing Reuters telegrams or telegrams from Beijing obtained by the "Jiji Shinpo." Consequently, other newspaper companies had no choice but to either reprint news from the "Jiji Shinpo" or somehow manipulate the telegraph office to steal it midway. The "Jiji Shinpo" felt that if they had made up their minds and invested a large amount of money to contract, only to have it reprinted by other newspaper companies, it would be pointless. They said they would not permit such "immorality," would impose sanctions, and would resort to legal means. However, they stated that after 24 hours had passed since the publication of the "Jiji Shinpo," it was acceptable to publish it provided it was clearly stated as a reprint from the "Jiji Shinpo."

But this was too humiliating from the perspective of other newspaper companies. Not only would they be publishing news a day late, but they would have to clearly state that it was reprinted from the "Jiji Shinpo." In the 1890s, this event became a major conflict throughout the entire Tokyo newspaper world. The "Jiji Shinpo" had gained too overwhelming an advantage. Other newspaper companies were driven into a corner with no means to compete.

At the time, there were many other newspaper companies in Tokyo besides the "Jiji Shinpo," so it reached a point where other newspaper companies launched a simultaneous attack on the "Jiji Shinpo." The "Yorozu Choho," an influential newspaper at the time, wrote, "Those who know that it has become the sole source for supplying overseas reports must not create tyrannical conditions such as buying up this source and rejecting other subscribers," but this is flawed logic. While it is true that Reuters was the only news source, even if they were accused of buying it up, it was just a direct contract between two parties, so I think it is different from buying it up. But from the perspective of other newspaper companies, it was seen as tyrannical and violent. They argued it was strange for the "Jiji Shinpo," which "considers itself a leader in the newspaper world," to do such a thing. It's like saying to someone who put in effort and money, "It's outrageous that you put in effort and obtained it first," while those who didn't put in the effort complain. This is flawed logic, but it became a major conflict.

At the time, a person named Katsunan Kuga was publishing an influential newspaper called "Nippon." "Nippon" also carried international reports, but wrote that they were obtained from the "Osaka Asahi." The "Osaka Asahi" also contracted with Reuters, but did they really obtain this news from the "Osaka Asahi"? It's suspicious, but it had become a situation where they couldn't provide international reporting unless they did so. Other newspaper companies wrote, "It is inconvenient to monopolize the public reports of the world, so they should be made open," but by "public reports," they did not mean government bulletins. They were claiming that the news from a single news agency, Reuters, was a public report, a public good.

Since this major conflict was a struggle between the majority and a single company, the "Jiji Shinpo" had no choice but to compromise. In 1899, a compromise was reached in the Tokyo newspaper world, and the arrangement was changed so that ten newspaper companies, including the "Jiji Shinpo," jointly contributed money to contract for Reuters news. They formed a kind of syndicate. The "Jiji Shinpo" was forced to give up the advantage it had gained. Being advanced actually became ammunition for attacks from other newspapers, and they were forced to compromise.

The formal contract documents of the Japanese newspaper companies, including the "Jiji Shinpo" from that time, still remain in the Reuters archives in London today. Looking at them, the ten newspaper companies were set up to share and pay the fees fairly, but the contract terms were very unequal and overwhelmingly favorable to Reuters.

Generally, contracts for Japanese newspaper companies involved paying high fees and were subject to various restrictions. In some cases, news would only be sent within a certain monetary limit. Reuters would send news from Shanghai, but if, for example, the monthly contract was capped at 10,000 yen, Reuters would only send 10,000 yen worth of news. There were cases where they had to accept restrictions such as not receiving other important news even if it existed.

This was brought about by the monopoly of submarine cables and international news agencies at a time in the early Meiji period when Japan did not fully recognize the flow of international information, and it was a very severe constraint on Japan's international information and communication. Unless this was overcome, Japanese news agencies could not engage in free activities. However, I think it is very important that within that, the "Jiji Shinpo" was the most advanced in its efforts to collect international information and news and invested large sums of money.

Just by looking at the pages, one can see that the "Jiji Shinpo" was superior in international news, but what did that superiority mean? Also, what conditions did the "Jiji Shinpo" overcome to realize the transmission of daily news? They were placed under completely different conditions than today's media, which dispatch correspondents to foreign countries to send news. I believe the meaning of that is significant.

Japan was able to overcome the monopoly of Great Northern Telegraph's submarine telegraph lines in 1943, in the midst of World War II. At that point, ironically, Denmark, where Great Northern Telegraph's headquarters was located, was occupied by Nazi Germany and did not exist as a state. However, the monopoly rights for the submarine cables had remained alive until then.

Also, the Reuters news monopoly was broken in 1933. At that time, a news agency called Shimbun Rengo-sha, the predecessor of today's Kyodo News, outmaneuvered Reuters and signed a direct contract with AP. This was just before World War II, but it brought about a great revolution in international information. British information hegemony in East Asia began to crumble. Since World War II was also a kind of information war, this is a major premise for considering that. This direct contract is a commemorative event for both today's Kyodo News and AP.

In this way, the monopoly in international reporting was only broken in the 1930s and 40s. During Yukichi Fukuzawa's lifetime, when the "Jiji Shinpo" was rising to become a leading newspaper in Tokyo, and particularly during the period when it was trying to maintain an overwhelmingly advantageous position over other newspapers in news reporting, Japan's international reporting was severely restricted by both hardware and software treaties signed in the early Meiji period. Within those constraints, newspaper companies and individual reporters made efforts, and through that, international reporting and communication were finally realized.

However, because British superiority still existed, a lot of British-made news came in, and Japanese people at the time inevitably received news from a British perspective, leading to a bias where they thought that was the world. Rather than whether individual commentators had biased opinions, or how Yukichi Fukuzawa or the "Jiji Shinpo" reporters were, I think it is necessary to consider this as a problem of a system.

Since I started with roundabout topics, there may have been some points that were difficult to understand, but the era in which Yukichi Fukuzawa and the "Jiji Shinpo" were active was one where information hardware and software were under severe constraints, and various activities were defined by them. I think you may find various discoveries if you look at the news of the "Jiji Shinpo" while keeping such things in mind. I apologize for my poor talk, but I would be happy if it serves as even a small aid to understanding the activities of the "Jiji Shinpo." Thank you for your attention.

(This article is based on a lecture given at the 183rd Anniversary Meeting of Yukichi Fukuzawa's Birthday held on January 10, 2018. For citations of Fukuzawa's works, the "Collected Works of Yukichi Fukuzawa" was used.)