Yoshio Sugimoto was born in Japan and was formerly a joumalist in Japan. Her graduated from Kyoto University with a BA in Political Science/Law, 1964 and from the University of Pittsburgh with a PhD Sociology, 1973. He is Emeritus Professor, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia (2007 – present), Director, Trans Pacific Press (1999 – present) and was Professor of Sociology, La Trobe University 1988 – 2006 (see: https://theconversation.edu.au/profiles/yoshio-sugimoto-291 ).
Professor Yoshio Sugimoto commenting on press censorship via the “reporters' clubs” in Japan (1997): “ Japan 's mass media tend to be docile because of the way in which information-gathering units are based on government and business-establishments. Government ministries, prefectural and municipal governments, police headquarters, and business and union organizations all provide reporters of major print and electronic media with office space called kisha kurabu (reporters' clubs). These clubrooms are normally equipped with telephones and other communications machines, service personnel, and other facilities. Media organizations use them free of charge. In almost all cases, club membership is restricted to the reporters of major news organizations and is not open to journalists from minor presses or to foreign journalists. …By constantly feeding information to reporters in this environment, representatives of the institutions which provide club facilities can obliquely control the way in which it is reported to the public. Reporters cannot risk being excluded from their club because they would then lose access to this regular flow of information.” [1].
[1]. Yoshio Sugimoto “An Introduction to Japanese Society”, Cambridge University Press, 1997; pp211-215.