Japan Ranks 62nd in Press Freedom

(Typo in 4th para corrected) Tokyo, May 1 (Jiji Press)–Japan ranked 62nd among 180 countries in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index, released on Thursday by Reporters Without Borders, or RSF. The ranking was four notches higher than the previous year. But RSF pointed out that in the East Asian democracy “state secrets legislation continues to undermine journalists’ work, especially as the safeguards for protecting source confidentiality and editorial independence are inadequate.” The United States slipped from 57th to 64th due to growing political pressure after Donald Trump’s return to the presidency in 2025. Meanwhile, South Korea leaped from 61st to 47th. RSF said the average score of all countries and territories in the rankings is the worst in the 25-year survey history, with more than half of them falling into the “difficult” or “very serious” categories for press freedom for the first time. “Since 2001, the expansion of increasingly restrictive legal arsenals–particularly those linked to national security policies–has been steadily eroding the right to information, even in democratic countries,” it alerted. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]