Koho/PR ron (Theory and Practice of Public Relations - Revised Edition)

The first comprehensive Japanese textbook on Public Relations theory written collaboratively from an academic perspective.
 
Given the myriad issues facing today’s society, it is essential for companies, administrations, NPOs, and other organizations to be able to establish and maintain relationships with society while communicating with various stakeholders. The discipline in which such relationships are investigated is known as “Public Relations.” Public Relations plays an important practical role in organizations and corporations and is an essential element of the media industry that serves as an intermediary between organizations and society. That said, while practice in this field has forged ahead, theory has lagged behind and remains largely unorganized. Although examples of research in this area exist, efforts to study Public Relations have not been systematic. Furthermore, few books have attempted to systematically investigate Public Relations in the context of a specific country.
 
This book, written with the above understanding of current Public Relations research, focuses on organizations and corporations in present-day Japan with the goal of enabling beginning students encountering Public Relations for the first time to understand basic Public Relations concepts, encouraging interested Public Relations practitioners to deepen their systematic and academic understanding of Public Relations, and helping researchers in related fields to understand the relationship between their fields and Public Relations research.
 
The most important characteristic of this book is that it focuses on the specific challenges faced by organizations and corporations in today’s Japan. The concept of Public Relations has largely developed in the United States. However, Public Relations is more broadly defined as the establishment and maintenance of relationships between organizations and society. In other words, the issues that Public Relations must resolve differ depending on the specific circumstances faced by organizations, corporation, or societies. Accordingly, the book presents Public Relations theory and concepts tailored to Japanese circumstances and provides Japanese examples and historical context whenever possible. In addition, the book is written with the intent of providing information that will be applicable to not only corporations but also administrations, NPOs, and other organizations.
 
Specifically, the book discusses challenges facing organizations and corporations in Japan today: reputation and crisis management in response to scandals, the changing media environment including social media, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and companies’ social contribution activities, Public Relations in the case of administrations and NPOs, and disaster response. These issues do not simply reflect the authors’ interests but, rather, are essential issues facing companies, administrations, and organizations that are central to Public Relations work in the Japanese context.
 

(Written by SEKIYA Naoya, Project Associate Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies / 2018)