Why the Sony hack isn’t big news in Japan

While American journalists have extensively covered the fallout from the unprecedented Sony hacking attack, it hasn’t exactly been massive news in Japan. Overall, it has received relatively modest attention, mostly in short stories on the inside pages of Japan’s major newspapers. While Sony Pictures is technically part of the Sony empire, it has long been run as an entirely separate U.S. company. So far, the Japanese media seems to view the hack as an American problem rather than a domestic one. For Japan, the movie’s demise hardly matters. Sony Pictures never planned to show the film there.

This is seen mainly as an attack on Hollywood. I feel they want to clean it up as fast they can and just get on with life.

Damian Thong, a senior analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities in Tokyo

Another reason why the story hasn’t gotten major play in Japan’s mainstream media is because it has been a newsy December in Japan, especially with national elections last weekend. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party locked up a solid majority in the lower house and reaffirmed his hold on power for up to four more years. In addition to politics, the national chatter was focused on a big blizzard that hit the northern island of Hokkaido this week, dumping heavy snow, derailing trains and killing several people.

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