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''Japan Echo'' was an English-language periodical on Japanese issues which was initially published in print form by Japan Echo Inc. between 1974 and 2010. Consisting mainly of translations into English of magazine and news articles originally published in Japanese, ''Japan Echo'' was launched with the support of Japan's Foreign Affairs Ministry "to enable people abroad to learn what the Japanese themselves are thinking and writing about the issues of the day."〔Takeshi Mochida, "Japan Echo: A Journal of Opinion to Bridge the Communication Gap," ''The Japan Foundation Newsletter'', August–September 1978, 28.〕 Though independently published, the Japanese government provided most of ''Japan Echos funding for the duration of its existence. In 2010 budget cuts compelled the magazine to rebrand itself as ''Japan Echo Web'', a purely online magazine published on a website operated by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. However, two years later the Japanese government shut it down and replaced it with a similar project called the ''Japan Foreign Policy Forum''. ==Origin and content== ''Japan Echo'' was the brainchild of Kazutoshi Hasegawa, an employee at the Overseas Public Relations Division of the Japanese Foreign Affairs Ministry, who was disturbed by what he perceived to be misinformation and misunderstandings about Japan printed in the foreign press.〔Kazutoshi Hasegawa, "In Memoriam: Seki Yoshihiko," ''Japan Echo'', October 2006, 59-60.〕 Hasegawa recruited Yoshihiko Seki, a social scientist teaching at Tokyo Metropolitan University, to be the first editor of the new journal, which was to be published independently by a new company called Japan Echo Inc. founded in June 1974 by Jiji Press reporter Takeshi Mochida.〔Joji Harano, "From the Publisher: The Final Issue of Japan Echo," ''Japan Echo'', April 2010, 68.〕 Most of ''Japan Echos contents were translations, sometimes abridged, of Japanese language essays.〔Bill Katz and Linda Sternberg Katz, ''Magazines For Libraries: For the General Reader and School, Junior College, College, University and Public Libraries'' (New Providence, New Jersey: Bowker, 1997), 178.〕 For each issue the journal's editors selected what they considered the best articles published in major Japanese magazines on topics which were of Japanese or international significance at that time. For instance the first issue of November 1974 included eighteen articles from periodicals including ''Chūōkōron'', ''Shokun!'', ''Jiyū'', ''Shūkan Gendai'', ''Bungeishunjū'', and ''Seiron'' grouped into topics like the oil crisis, the Solzhenitsyn case, Japanese relations with southeast Asia where Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's state visits had been greeted by mass protests, and the case of Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda.〔"Contents," ''Japan Echo'', November 1974, 3.〕 The editors of ''Japan Echo'' said that they desired to "faithfully reflect a spectrum of responsible and informed Japanese opinion",〔 though most of its editors were considered to be politically right-of-center.〔Hiroshi Fujita, "English-Language Periodicals In Japan," ''Japan Quarterly'', July–September 1994, 302-304.〕 ''Japan Echo'' was at first released on a quarterly basis, but switched to a bimonthly format from 1997 and onward.〔Takashi Shiraishi, "From the Editor," ''Japan Echo'', April 2010, 2-4.〕 It also had a French language edition which existed from 1979 and 2009 and a Spanish language edition from 1988 to 2009. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Japan Echo」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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