If the Japanese gov't doesn't want
something to make the news, it won't.  Period.

Yes and no.  There are several mechanisms for
control of what the press reports, some of which
work immediately and some long-term, and some of
which work for domestic but not for foreign
reporters, or vice-versa.

Domestic reporters, in general, simply write what the
government tells them to write.  No investigation.
Their bosses, editors and publishers, won't risk losing
access to politicians by printing 'undesirable' stories.
Is this reliable?  For run-of-the-mill stories, yes, but
sufficiently big stories, it might be difficult to be
sure of all of the reporters (if they know the story).
However, again, Japanese reporters are not accustomed
to do investigations, so they will almost never know
a story that they're not told.

Foreign reporters generally will try to probe deeper
and be more investigative than domestic reporters,
but they face difficulties.  Language, obviously.
But even those fluent in Japanese are generally not
privy to inside news:  they're not going to get any
'leaks' from 'inside sources', on purpose.  Would/
will this always hold?  Again, for run-of-the-mill
stories, yes.  For once-in-a-generation scoops, maybe
not.  And if what's going on worries some whistle-
blower enough, he can always leak it to _someone_
(but, given Japanese solidarity, 'what's going on'
would have to be REALLY big and/or nasty, not minor
corruption).

Some of what I've written in my own stories seems
applicable to this general discussion:  I have several of
the Ranma cast employed as government agents, on the
payroll of the Imperial Household Agency.  [Note that this
agency employees over 1000 people, and is notoriously
secretive; it would be easy to hide ninjas here.]  The
government routinely denies that these agents exist,
despite their being captured by live newscameras on multiple
occasions.  No reporters try to figure out who they really
are.  People 'in the know' know that these elite agents
exist, but nobody acknowledges that fact.  Foreign
reporters might be interested, but can't learn anything.

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