While Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has emerged as the strongest Japanese leader in a decade, the dark underside of his administration has been widespread accusations of heavy-handed intimidation of the press. Especially in the last year, there have been numerous high-profile cases in which major media organizations have appeared to capitulate to such pressure, often engaging in a preemptive self-censorship known in Japan as jishuku, or “self-restraint.” A close examination of some of these cases reveals that the Abe administration has indeed engaged in an aggressive effort to shape press coverage using both the carrot of access, and the stick of political pressure and unbridled nationalist intimidation. However, much of the blame also belongs in the media organizations themselves, which have appeared unable, at least initially, to resist the administration’s pressure tactics. Indeed, the Abe government has appeared adept at exploiting weaknesses in Japan’s major media that include a competitive obsession with scoops, a heavy dependence on government sources seen in the so-called press club system and the lack of a shared sense of professional ethics and identity. The collapse of political opposition parties, and the strengthening of state secrecy laws during the second Abe administration also play roles. Deeper historical trends will also be considered, including weak notions of civil society and a moral centrality of the state that has its roots in the crash nation-building of the Meiji period.

Martin Fackler is currently Journalist-in-Residence at the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation, a Tokyo-based think tank. From 2009 to 2015, he covered Japan and the Korean peninsula as Tokyo bureau chief for the New York Times. In 2012, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in international reporting for his and his colleagues' investigative stories on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown that the prize committee said offered a "powerful exploration of serious mistakes concealed by authorities in Japan." Martin is also the author (in Japanese) of the bestseller “Credibility Lost: The Crisis in Japanese Newspaper Journalism after Fukushima,” a critical look at Japanese media coverage of the 2011 earthquake and nuclear disaster. In total, he spent a decade in the Tokyo bureau of the New York Times, where he also served as economics correspondent. Before joining the Times in 2005, he worked in Tokyo for the Wall Street Journal, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Associated Press and Bloomberg News, and in Beijing and Shanghai for AP. He has Masters degrees in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana and in East Asian history from the University of California, Berkeley.

The United States faces a formidable set of international challenges, from emboldened terrorist organizations, weakening democratic norms, and continued uncertainty within the global financial system. However, there is some light coming out of South Asia.  The deepening ties between the United States and India can have a profound and positive impact on global security and prosperity. The relationship is developing in the context of a growing global debate on the ability of constitutional democracies to address 21st century security and development challenges—maritime security, territorial disputes, economic inclusivity, and climate change. And it is developing in the context of an Indian debate about whether and how India will assume its natural place as a leading power in the world. A successful U.S.-India strategic partnership can deliver a decisive response to these questions. If two countries with very different economic, cultural, and geographic situations can achieve a level of strategic collaboration that safeguards prosperity, peace, and stability both within and beyond their own borders, it will demonstrate that principles of participatory governance remain relevant and vital to the global good.

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Richard Verma serves as the 25th United States Ambassador to India. He was nominated by President Obama on September 18th, 2014, and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in by Secretary of State John Kerry in December 2014. Ambassador Verma oversees one of the largest U.S. Missions in the world, including four consulates across India and nearly every agency of the U.S. government.

As a former Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs in the Obama Administration, he led the State Department’s efforts on Capitol Hill and served as a senior member of Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton’s team.

Ambassador Verma previously worked in the Senate as the Senior National Security Advisor to the Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid. He also worked in the House of Representatives for longtime Chairman of the Defense Appropriations Committee, Jack Murtha. He is veteran of the U.S. Air Force, where he served on active duty as a Judge Advocate. Rich was also a country director for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in Eastern Europe.