The Public Opinion Control Function of Media Events in the GHQ Occupation Period : News Reports on the One Hundred Sight-seeing Spots Selection of New Japan

In the GHQ Occupation (GHQO) Period, under the impact of the Cold War, the U.S.A. occupation policy toward Japan changed gradually from the democratization reforming to the economic revival. Subsequently, to support the economic recovery, the Tourism revitalization was developed by the government as a national policy and the Sight-seeing Spots Selection event was relaunched. Currently, main research interests of post-war studies on the public opinion control function of media (POCFM) are its impact on review system during the GHQO period, rather the POCFM “continuity” inherited from the pre-war. Considering that the media event lasts since pre-war, GHQ Occupation time, till nowadays, it’s a typical study object for “continuity” issue. Hence, based on a typical media event, the One Hundred Sight-seeing Spots Selection of New Japan, held by the Mainichi during GHQO period, this study analyzes the features of reports of this event in different stages and focuses on POCFM to explore its “continuity”. Finally, POCFM “continuity” is confirmed to last from the pre-war to post-war periods and the important meaning of POCFM for the GHQO period and its impact to post-war Japanese society cognition of sightseeing are further revealed