The author at work

How time flies! In November 2021 we have celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the People’s Daily Overseas Edition Japan Monthly. As the editor-in-chief, looking at the thick bound volumes of the magazine in the past nine years, I can’t help but be a bit emotional.

In the 1980s, after graduating from the Department of History at Beijing Normal University, I taught in a middle school in Beijing for 10 months, before joining China Youth, a magazine hosted by the Communist Youth League of China. It was the six years’ experience there that helped sharpen my basic journalism skills and prepared me for the next 40 years working in the media. I once joked that China Youth was akin to the Huangpu Military Academy for my career.

Recalling my working days in China Youth, the most memorable interview was with General Secretary Xi Jinping in November 1984, who was serving as the Party chief of Zhengding county in Hebei province. In a series of interviews that lasted for 13 days, I spoke to various people in the daytime and had long talks with General Secretary Xi in his simple office after 9 o’clock at night each day. In January 1985, China Youth published my 8,000-words feature story — “He is working hard in the fields of Zhengding”. What delighted me more was that the story was also included in a collection of speeches he made while working in Zhengding, published by Hebei People’s Publishing House in December 2015.

The author shakes hands with Kazuo Inamori, a renowned Japanese entrepreneur

I started my study abroad in Japan in August 1988. Although tens of thousands of Chinese students went to Japan at the time, there was no Chinese newspaper available. To this day, I can still remember the loneliness and the desolation in a foreign land.

At the end of 1988, a Chinese monthly newspaper called Liuxuesheng Xinwen or News for International Students was founded. When I first called to see if I could join, the reply was that “many professional journalists from China’s state media are on the waiting list”. That didn’t deter me: I wrote story after story for the publication, first getting a part-time role there and landing a fulltime job after my graduation from Kyushu University. Later, when I became the deputy editor-in-chief of News for International Students, I jumped ship again. First, I turned the monthly Dongfang or East into a weekly, rebranding it Dongfang Shibao or Eastern Times, which helped me accumulate rich practical experience in running a Chinese newspaper in Japan. Then I left Eastern Times and founded the Chinese publication Japan New Overseas Chinese Newspaper; before long, it grew into a leading local Chinese newspaper.

Perhaps for my experiences both at China Youth and in operating Chinese publications in Japan, in early 2011, I was invited for a meeting in Beijing by the man in charge of People’s Daily Overseas Edition. Later, on the establishment of the People’s Daily Overseas Edition Japanese Monthly, I had 17 conversations with those in charge at all levels from the newspaper. To use an official term, this is called “vetting”.

In Japan, the plan was met with lukewarm responses at best. One elderly Japanese gentleman, who had been working on promoting China-Japan relations for a long time, told me that the publication wouldn’t last three issues. Another Japanese friend reminded me that in the 1950s, people were arrested for holding a copy of People’s Daily on the street of Tokyo, and that after its publication, Japanese rightwing activists would pester my company with their loudspeakers. However, I dismissed all the concerns as “Cold War mentality”. What the Chinese and Japanese people truly needed were more channels and bridges to connect and understand each other.

The author takes a group photo with winners of the 2018 Chinese Speech Contest for the Children of Overseas Chinese in Japan

Now, among so many publications of a similar genre in Japan, the People’s Daily Overseas Edition Japan Monthly is the only one that has been in publication for a decade. As the editor-in-chief of the magazine, I have experienced various difficulties. Here I would like to share a few thoughts.

First, we make the content targeted. We have focused on reporting economic and social topics that the Japanese readers, especially the economists and businessmen, are most interested in. In particular, we publish stories in response to the biased reporting of China by Japanese media. It has been well received.

Second, we insist on “influencing the influential people”. We have devoted a certain amount of our coverage to Japanese parliamentarians, politicians and prominent figures in Japan’s economic and business circles. When the interview article is published in the magazine, they recommend it to other people.

Third, we seek support from influential persons or organizations. To that end, we have set up a board for the Japan Monthly and won lots of support from them in terms of finance, manpower, information, which have greatly aided our editing and circulation.

Fourth, we work hard on circulation. Outside Tokyo, we have set up regional distribution offices, and co-organized, among other things, lectures, learning and cultural exchange activities, to keep the circulation of the magazine at about 50,000.

Fifth, we find ways to achieve financial self-sufficiency. My experience was that a publication cannot always rely on financial support. We have bundled the stories of cover figures, publicity stories, advertising and Chinese promotion into a package, which is quite popular with Japanese companies. Now, those who would like to feature on the cover have to wait for over six months. They all consider it an honor to be the cover figure of the Japan Monthly.

Sixth, we apply for patents. When a magazine becomes popular, it is inevitable that imitation will follow. Patent protection helps legally maintain its uniqueness and sustainable development.

Now, I am more than willing to share my experience in the hope that China’s stories can be truly heard in the world and that local readers can truly listen to China telling its stories. Over the past decade, more than 160 of the 700-odd members in both houses of the Japanese Parliament have received interviews from the People’s Daily Overseas Edition Japan Monthly. This number is perhaps the best proof of our success.  

Editor:Huang Yan