“Reportage Trump Kingdom: The Trip to See the Other America”
“Reportage Trump Kingdom 2: The Revisit to Rust Belt”(Iwanami Shinsho, 2018 2019)

Ryuichi Kanari(Reporter for economic news section)

I am greatly honored to receive the 36th Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize. I deeply appreciate the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation, the Board of Directors, and the Selection Committee. I would also like to thank the Asahi Shimbun for sending me to the United States of America as a correspondent, Iwanami Shoten for publishing both “Reportage Trump Kingdom: The Trip to See the Other America” and “Reportage Trump Kingdom 2: The Revisit to Rust Belt.” Both books are report of continuous interviews with everyday American who ended up voting for outsider candidates, namely president Donald Trump and senator Bernie Sanders. These interviews were conducted from 2015-2019. “What the hell is Japanese reporter doing here, in the middle of nowhere?” “You’ve gotta be kidding, you drove here all the way from Manhattan?” “Do you want me to tell what I have done since high school graduation?” “Do you want me to explain why I support Trump? Do you want ME to explain?!” These are the typical reactions from them at the beginning. Most of them welcomed my sudden visit to their town. As I start recording the interview, putting my notebook on table, they finally realize I was serious about interviewing them. They shared personal histories and views on America with me. Because it is the first time for them to be interviewed, it sometime took more than one hour to finish. There is not much benefit for them to take interviews from oversea media, as my piece comes out in Japanese, regardless, they kindly took time with me. Most of the interviews were conducted at diners, bars and campaign rallies in so called “Rust Belt” and the Appalachia region. Some of them used the word “flyover states” to explain where they live. 20 years has just passed since I started my career as a reporter in 2000. I have kept interviewing everyday people in my spare time anywhere I was assigned to. In Shizuoka, I repeatedly interviewed workers from Latin America with Japanese descent. In Osaka, I interviewed long distance truck drivers, girls who spent a lot of money and time at “host clubs (ホストクラブ),” self-paced learners who use Massive Open Online Courses and parent of middle-aged hikikomori (recluses). I continued with the same approach in the US. These are not the works I was asked to do by my boss. I just like to do this type of reportages by setting my own long-term theme and interviewing people on the ground a little by little. It is a great encouragement for me to receive the prize to these works. I will keep doing it for the rest of my career.

Profile
Born in 1976. B.A. of Political Science from Keio University in 2000. Became a reporter for the Asahi Shimbun in 2000. Since then moved to Kobe (2000-03), Shizuoka (2003-05), Osaka (2005-09), Cambridge MA (as a researcher at Harvard Univ. 2009-10), Tokyo (2010-11), Osaka (2011-14), New York (2014-19) and Tokyo (2019-present). Published books titled “Reportage MOOC Kakumei” (2013), “Reportage Trump Kingdom: The Trip to See the Other America” (2017), “Reportage Rust Belt ni sumu” (2018) and “Reportage Trump Kingdom 2: The Revisit to Rust Belt” (2019). Awarded 2013 Sakata Memorial Journalistic Prize for his coverage of Open Education and awarded 2018 Vaughn-Uyeda Memorial International Journalistic Prize for his coverage of the United States presidential election.