International Youth Forum

by George Wang

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Some high school students of HIS attended the International Youth Forum at the Sapporo Plaza Hotel on November 15th, 2024. This event, held once a year, connects English-speaking students from around the Sapporo region. 

The International Youth Forum starts with a presentation about an influential topic. Then, based on the topic, students in table groups discuss the presentation. This year, Eric Johnston, a senior news correspondent from the Japan Times, gave a presentation about news media from the Hokkaido perspective. 

The first thing about the presentation that interested me was Hokkaido's lack of media interest. Johnston says when he proposes an article about Hokkaido to his Tokyo colleagues, they often reply with something similar to “nobody cares.” It is not because the news from Hokkaido is not attractive but because the general public is too focused on the stories happening in the major cities of Japan, like Tokyo and Kyoto. The reality is that Japan is a country centralised in just a few places. With Tokyo being the largest urban center in the world, many other cities are not deemed as important. This is why places like Hokkaido only get reports on minor topics like the snow season, not major ones like politics or economics. But since I have been in Hokkaido, I have found the place very relaxing, and although Hokkaido might not get media attention, we all know there is much to love about this island in northernmost Japan. 

Another statement that Eric Johnston made in his presentation was how the news industry has changed over the years. As a news reporter, he has to know many different forms of media, including print media (newspapers and magazines), broadcast media (television and radio), and online media (websites, social media, blogs). All these different forms of media have different content focuses. For example, broadcast media is real-time and limited within the region, while online media is not real-time, encourages engagement, and spreads quickly. All these mediums have different skill requirements, complicating a reporter's job. One more difficulty in a journalist's job is being the first to report on something. Journalists must be constantly on the watch, sometimes even 24/7, for eye-catching topics to report on. It is also challenging for foreign journalists like Mr Johnston to interview official sources due to Japan’s culture of official communication, which means foreign correspondents often cannot get hold of government officials willing to speak on the record. 

Mr Johnston’s presentation concluded with a prediction of the future of news media. He stated that future journalists will need to deal with people from distinct cultures and backgrounds, and the impact of technology on journalism means bilingual and bicultural journalists will be better journalists than others. 

After Mr Johnston’s presentation, students in table groups were required to discuss the presentation. Some of the questions they discussed were: What’s your opinion of the news media? What feelings or experiences do you have in common with the speaker’s experience and presentation?

After discussing and eating lunch, each table group concluded their discussions in a few words. Although each conclusion had some differences, many answers to questions were similar. People thought the news media was quite biased and could only be used as a referencing tool and not be taken seriously. Many say these days, because of how easily news can be received, information is not of high quality and mostly doesn’t have official evidence backing it up. Some also expressed similar experiences with the speaker about many Japanese citizens outside Tokyo or Osaka not knowing English, making it difficult for them to connect with the outside world. 

At Hokkaido International School, we have an excellent class called Publications. Three of our students from this class participated in this discussion of news media. We found it very helpful to listen to an experienced individual talk about what we do daily—publishing different mediums on various platforms to inform the wider community. We also experienced many difficulties Mr. Johnston discusses in his presentation, like diverse media forms requiring different skill sets and being the first to report on some exciting topics at our school. Despite these challenges, we, like Mr Johnston, continue to love our work and keep our spirits high because of our passion for the school and continuous improvement — the passion for Kaizen.