Reconstitution of “Freedom of Broadcasting” in Japan's Constitutional Law

This paper attempts to reconstitute the structure and legal benefits of “freedom of broadcasting”in Japan's Constitutional Law．This freedom has been debated from a variety of perspectives to justify broadcasting regulation．However, it appears that traditional academic theories have numerous difficulties in the face of structural changes to the mass media as a result of technological innovations and developments of market mechanisms in the broadcasting arena. Examples include the progress of multichannel services, the Internet, and the convergence between communications and broadcasting．Therefore, it is important to focus on intrinsic aspects of broadcasting such as the nature of the onesided transmission of information to the general public（principally as a business），rather than the transformative aspects of broadcasting such as its historical or social functions．From this perspective, freedom of broadcasting includes a norm to ensure smooth transmission of information and a certain degree of order about what is transmitted as a part of freedom of communications．The resulting freedom of business for broadcasters helps to retain stability and diversity of information supply． Hence freedom of broadcasting can be distinguished from the freedoms held by other media; freedom of newspapers and freedom of the Internet, even though they perhaps should be treated equally in light of freedom of expression．Therefore, it would be fair to note that the current severe regulations on broadcasting under existing legislation are constitutional despite their asymmetrical features compared with other media such as newspapers.杉原敏夫教授定年退職記念号In Honour of Prof. Toshio Sugihar