News Japan ranks lowest among G7 nations in 2025 Press Freedom Index

Japan ranked lowest among the Group of Seven nations in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, as government pressure on media organisations has reportedly become routine, according to a media watchdog on Friday. Of 180 countries and territories assessed, Japan rose four positions from the previous year to 66th. The United States, where Donald Trump secured re-election, slipped two spots to 57th, placing it just above Japan among G7 nations.

Media freedom is "generally respected" in Japan, but "traditional and business interests, political pressure and gender inequalities often prevent journalists from completely fulfilling their role as watchdogs," Reporters Without Borders said. As in the previous year, the organization criticized Japan's "press club" system, which it says only grants key media outlets access to news conferences and senior officials, encouraging self-censorship and discriminating against foreign journalists.

Click to expand...

Their report is always worth a read. Here's the interactive map from the original report.
I suspect that Japan's press freedom will continue to slowly improve: the media may have learned that the sky doesn't fall in if they dare to criticise the establishment, as highlighted in this recent article on their role in the recent Fuji Television/Masahiro Nakai scandal. The figure for the US was probably calculated for the events of 2024, so the US will almost certainly have the lowest press freedom among the G7 countries in next year's report.

Depends on how they measure press freedom. We still have strong press freedoms on paper. In reality maybe getting weaker by the day.

mdchachi said:

Depends on how they measure press freedom. We still have strong press freedoms on paper. In reality maybe getting weaker by the day.

Click to expand...

They consider five aspects of press freedom, and certainly note contradictions between freedoms that appear on paper (legislative freedoms) and political pressure that undermines them (political freedoms). For example, for Japan, they write "Japan is a parliamentary democracy where the principles of media freedom and pluralism are generally respected. However, traditional and business interests, political pressure and gender inequalities often prevent journalists from completely fulfilling their role as watchdogs."