http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20130117a7.html
Major newspapers had continuously advocated the necessity of consumption tax hike before the legislation in the Diet last year.
Now they seem enthusiastic about pursuing the goal of being exempted from it.
As the above article says, it's true some European countries have no tax policy on newspapers.
But in terms of circulation, Wikipedia says Yomiuri ranks top and Asahi the second in the world, with about 10 and 8 million daily circulations respectively.
Moreover, they've been enjoying preferential treatments such as resale price maintenance system or exclusive press club.
Do we really need another protection for such a big industry?
After 3.11, many people(including me) got disappointed with major newspapers because they just blindly repeated what the government and power industry announced. Therefore, this kind of assertion may only result in further loss of trust in them.
