The Japanese Association of Science & Technology Journalists (JASTJ) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization created in 1994 by a group of science journalists working in Japan. The association has 150 members comprised of newspaper, television and magazine science reporters, freelance writers, editors, and public relations officers from research facilities and business.

A handful of newspapers in Japan enjoy circulations of millions. Such newspapers have 20 to 40 science reporters. The JASTJ was first started mainly by such newspaper reporters but now the membership includes museum staff members and natural scientists.

Our goals are to stimulate communication between members and other news sources, improve our roles as journalists and communicators, and deepen our insight and knowledge in the fields of science and technology.

2.How we got started

In November of 1992, UNESCO sponsored the first World Conference of Science Journalists in Tokyo. Although there were no science writer organizations in Japan at the time, several such journalists came together to help make the conference a success. The conference brought with it the realization that Japan needed to organize a group of domestic journalists, and in July 1994 JASTJ was born.

3.Association activities

JASTJ holds meetings between scientists, engineers, manufacturers and politicians throughout the year and organizes trips to research facilities. A general meeting is held once a year. It also organizes public symposiums for non-members with the aim of stimulating interest in the group and publishes a quarterly newsletter. In 2004, JASTJ held a special symposium to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the founding of the association that was attended by more than 250 participants, including 3 Japanese Nobel Prize laureates.

Since 2002, JASTJ has been conducting a six-month training course in science journalism in order to help raise the standards of the next generation of science journalists.

As an association that was born out of a gathering of science journalists from around the world, JASTJ maintains a deep interest in the international solidarity of such writers.

When two of our members participated in the second World Conference of Science Journalists in Budapest, Hungary, in 1999, they supported the decision to create a World Federation of Science Journalists (WFSJ).

In the fall of 2001, several people who hoped to start the WFSJ gathered in Tokyo, thanks to the joint sponsorship of the International Conference of Science & Technology Journalists by an auxiliary organization of the Japanese government - the Japan Science and Technology Corporation - and JASTJ. Here, specific plans were formulated for the creation of the WFSJ.

In the fall of 2002, the constitution of the WFSJ was drawn up at the third World Conference of Science Journalists held in San Jose dos Campos, Brazil, and in the spring of 2003, JASTJ officially joined the WFSJ.