7 Electric Power Companies Sit On the Board of Advertising Council Japan

That partly explains why the Japanese media haven't gone totally ballistic on one of them, TEPCO. Yes, they try to be critical, but the articles that are critical of TEPCO's handling of Fukushima I Nuke Plant accident tend to get buried, even shortened. No hard questions at TEPCO's press conferences (that is partly due to the ignorance on the reporters' side).

That also explains why Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency has been not to critical of TEPCO. NISA is an agency under METI, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which "guides" Advertising Council Japan.

Someone posted an interesting link in one of the Japanese message boards.

The link goes to AC Japan, whose membership include the mass media (newspapers, magazines, TV, etc) and corporations that place advertisements in the mass media, ad agencies and ad production companies.

The full name of this organization is Advertising Council Japan. It is a private non-profit organization under the guidance from Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and conducts national, regional, and even international, ad campaigns to educate the populace on a topic that they decide on, usually to promote understanding on activities of non-profit organizations or government agencies.

The person who posted on the message board listed the names of the directors of the board of AC Japan who are the top management of Japan's utility companies.

Of 72 directors and advisers, 10 of them come from utility companies, and of the 10, 7 comes from electric power companies. That is 7 out of 35 non-media companies on the board, or 20%:

Tokyo Gas Company
Osaka Gas Company
Shikoku Electric Power Company
Okinawa Electric Power Company (1 director, 1 honorary adviser)
Tokyo Electric Power Company
Toho Gas Company
Chubu Electric Power Company
Kyushu Electric Power Company
Kansai Electric Power Company

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