Tokyo rising

After introducing the TokyoProgressive website at the International Green Forum (Japan) that was held over two years ago, I was asked by a member of the German IndyMedia collective why Japan had no IndyMedia of its own.

In fact, I could only suggest that she speak with representatives of some of the Internet service providers here which actually host good progressive websites,of which there are actually many. In fact, one such provider is a member of the internationally known Association for Progressive Communications. Happily,they were interested, and they later joined the organising team for the recently established Japan Indymedia collective.

As it turns out, the language barrier is one of the reasons why there is so little independent media here. It is hard to find people who are able to monitor the worldwide explosion of such sites and to make activists outside Japan aware of what is being done by people working for social, political and economic justice. Japan, like most countries, actually has many people working to counter such viruses as militarism, economic exploitation, sexism and racism.

While there are many single-issue sites, there are few that attempt to put things in perspective, and almost none that attempt to counter the deadly silence of both public, semi official media like NHK TV and radio, or the many commercial stations with their familiar sound-byte approach to news/entertainment.

Perhaps another reason why it has been hard to find much alternative media is one that will be familiar to activists anywhere: we tend to be better at talking among ourselves than reaching out to new people. Japan also happens to be plagued by a particularly nasty form of factionalism which makes it hard for people to co-operate, despite the fact that many of the groups and individuals involved in progressive web activities and social change tend to have more in common than they think.

My own site was a more modest attempt to fill the void in Japan, primarily for my English language students. In addition, unlike IndyMedia, TokyoProgressive was less an open publishing experiment than it was a compilation of various news and opinion published else-where on the net. While I have published my own articles from time to time, there is simply no time left in the day to do all I would like to do.

Fortunately, I was able to help kick start Japan IndyMedia by reaching out to others. I was surprised to find that people had actually been talking about it for awhile, and soon I became involved in the project to get Japan IndyMedia started. Now more than two months old, it is well on the way to becoming an important voice for the voiceless, though there is still a long way to go.

Many of the articles that appear are not translated into either Japanese or English,but that should pick up as more people become involved in the collective. Unlike my own website, over which I exercise full control, Japan Indymedia relies on collective decision making, and it has sometimes been a challenge to get people to agree. But we are making progress there too. It is very much a learning process. That is why we do not yet have the layout and look we want, though it may very well be there by the time this article is published.

Conversely, TokyoProgressive has become much more IndyMedia-like, as it evolves, borrowing heavily from the Indy-Media model of self-publishing. At the same time, it continues to serve primarily as a vehicle for my own students, though I am happy to help form a bridge between activists inside and outside Japan, and to help my students find ways that they can actively work for social justice.

Both IndyMedia Japan and TokyoProgressive are always looking to make contact with people around the world who wish to collaborate on issues that affect all of us. TokyoProgressive also offers free space to activists and individuals, primarily in Japan, but also in Asia and even in other places.