[Newspaper Week] Tracking the decision to dissolve the Lower House; a currency turning point approaches; probing the realities behind employment; discerning the truth amid war

This special feature on the role of journalism introduces The Yomiuri Shimbun's approach to providing detailed coverage of upheaval in Japan and abroad, focusing on its exclusive report that Prime Minister Takaichi (高市首相) had decided to dissolve the House of Representatives at the start of the ordinary Diet session. In its print coverage, multiple reports tracked the background to consideration of the dissolution, the timetable, and the moves by the ruling and opposition parties in chronological order, conveying the shift into election mode with immediacy. This made changes in the political situation in Japan and abroad easier for readers to understand. It then introduced the first attempt to use AI to analyse the reality of cognitive warfare, offering a new perspective on developments involving China and Taiwan.

Next, it provided detailed coverage of the course and background of reports on coordinated intervention by Japan and the United States as a major turning point in the foreign-exchange market, examining from multiple perspectives the intervention's effects, the market response, and the outlook for future action. The analysis was organised as material for understanding the interaction between policy decisions by the government and the Bank of Japan and international relations, demonstrating the breadth of the reporters' news-gathering network. Finally, through on-the-ground reporting from disaster sites including those affected by the Kumamoto earthquake and torrential rain in Chiba, it highlighted the practice of field reporting that conveys victims' voices carefully, as well as the commitment to seeing recovery and reconstruction through to completion.