Tansa - Tansa

About

Tansa is an independent, nonprofit, investigative newsroom based in Tokyo.

Our investigations reveal — and aim thereby to end — wrongdoing by the powerful, such as government bodies and corporations. We approach our work by considering what needs to change in order to achieve redress for injustice and ensure that others are not harmed by similar wrongdoing in the future.

In 2023, Japan ranked 68th in Reporters Without Borders’ World Press Freedom Index. The country’s major media organizations, prioritizing their own business interests, often fail to sufficiently monitor power or to speak up for the victims of its abuses. We believe independent, investigative journalism is essential for the Japanese public.

In order to maintain our editorial independence, Tansa does not run ads. And we don’t have a paywall, so our stories are available to everyone. Our funding comes mainly from reader donations, grants from foundations, and proceeds from our online journalism course. If you believe in Tansa’s mission, please consider supporting our work.

As governments, corporations, and criminals increasingly work across borders, so too must the journalists who investigate them. In 2018, Tansa became Japan’s first official member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), which as of November 2024 is comprised of 251 independent, nonprofit media organizations in 95 countries. Since beginning publication, we have participated in numerous cross-border investigations together with journalists from over a dozen countries.

Tansa’s promises to our readers

1. Unflagging investigations

Tansa aims for our work to have concrete impact by ending abuses of power. We choose the subjects of our investigations with an eye to finding solutions to problems affecting society. When we select a reporting topic, we commit to following the story in the long term.
2. Time and effort

Investigative journalism requires significant time and effort. Through extensive research, interviews, and discussion with sources, we obtain and report on information that would otherwise not have come to light.
3. World-class skill

Through learning from and partnering with other investigative journalists around the world, we will continue to hone our skills in order to produce world-class journalism.
4. Uncensored reporting

We will always act based on journalistic ethics. Our investigations and reporting won’t hold back, no matter who or what their subject may be.
5. Training the next generation

Through our online journalism course, Tansa offers young and aspiring journalists across Japan the skills they need to work at a high professional level. We aim to raise the overall standard of journalism in Japan.

Impact and reports

We began publication in February 2017 under our previous name, Waseda Chronicle, as a project of the Waseda University Institute for Journalism. As a media organization incubated in a university, we aimed to both produce investigative works and train journalists. In February 2018, one year after we began publication, we left Waseda University and became an independent nonprofit in order to clarify the editorial responsibility for our work. With the same original aim of training journalists, in November 2020 we launched Tansa School, an online journalism course. In March 2021, we changed our name from Waseda Chronicle to Tokyo Investigative Newsroom Tansa.

Awards

2023

- 2022 Media Ambitious Grand Prize Excellence Award in Print Category from Media Ambitious
- Media Ambitious Grand Prize 2022 [print category] Award of Excellence
- Journalism X Award from the Journalism Citizen Support Fund

2022

- The Society of Publishers in Asia Awards 2022
- PEP Journalism Awards 2022 from Asia Pacific Initiative
- Journalism X Award from the Journalism Citizen Support Fund

2020

- Open and Big Data Award from VLED
- Journalism X Award from the Journalism Citizen Support Fund

2019

Linked Open Data Excellence Award in the application field from the LOD Challenge

2018

Poverty Journalism Grand Prize from the Anti-Poverty Network

2017

Supporter of the Free Press Award from the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan

Meet the team

Makoto Watanabe

Editor-in-chief

Makoto began his journalism career at the national paper "Asahi Shimbun" in 2000. At the Asahi Shimbun, he was in charge of investigative reporting, publishing a series of reports called "Prometheus's Trap" that examined issues surrounding the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. He quit the Asahi Shimbun in 2016 and founded “Waseda Chronicle”(now renamed “Tokyo Investigative Newsroom Tansa”). The Foreign Correspondents Club's Freedom of the Press Committee honored him with the 2017 Supporter of the Free Press Award.
Mariko Tsuji

Reporter

In 2016, Mariko joined Tansa as a student intern. From 2019 to 2022, she also worked at an economic magazine called “TOYO KEIZAI”. She created a database and, together with her team, became transparent on payment between doctors and pharmaceutical companies. In 2022, she created a database on the usage of covid subsidies and checked the waste of taxpayers' money. She recently reported digital sexual exploitation caused by smartphone Apps and Tech giants, reviewing App operators who use shadow companies. She mainly focuses on children's rights, gender-based violence, and illegal fishing and overfishing.
Nanami Nakagawa

Reporter

Nanami has worked for “Ashoka”, the world's largest and oldest social entrepreneurs’ network, for seven years since she was a college student. She then became an investigative journalist at Tansa in 2020. Her works include: chemical pollution, bullying-related suicides of children, police and prosecutors busting labor unions, suppression of whistleblowers in companies, and deaths of patients left behind around the Fukushima nuclear power plants. She is the author of “Endless PFOA Pollution in a Country with a Pollution Preserving System”.
Kotaro Chigira

Videographer, Media Designer

Kotaro first joined Tansa as an intern during his university years and later started his career at The Mainichi Newspapers. After covering incidents such as the Utoro arson case at the Kyoto bureau and working in digital editing at the Tokyo headquarters, he left the company and returned to Tansa. Kotaro’s role is to enhance the journalism experience of Tansa’s readership through video production and design while helping Tansa grow as a sustainable news organization.
Makoto Sano

Staff

Makoto supports Tansa with his administrative expatriates. He identifies with Tansa's policy that tries to end abuses of power. First, he had been making monthly donations to Tansa since 2017, in the early days of Tansa's establishment. Then in 2020, after ending his corporate career, he joined Tansa as a volunteer through a friend’s introduction. He loves Frank Capra’s films, such as “Mr.Deeds Goes to Town”.
Kohane Ogawa

Youth Reporter

Kohane joined Tansa as a student intern when she was a high school student. She was impressed by the stance of Tansa, who opposed authority and took the side of the victims, and decided to become an investigative journalist. She become a university student in spring 2025, majoring in Humanities. She would like to pursue what she is interested in without forgetting her original intention of not becoming an adult who is obedient to authority.
Hiroko Sasaki

Youth Reporter

Hiroko is a junior at a Japanese liberal arts university, majoring in history. She has been interning at Tansa since July 2024. She aims to ask the interviewees until she achieves understanding of the hidden facts in order to elevate the voices of victims. She is interested in the issues facing the Immigration Bureau of Japan and in the concerns expressed by young caregivers. She will be studying abroad in the United Kingdom for a year beginning in the summer of 2025 to learn journalism.

International Advisory Board

・Steven Butler, Asia Program Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journalists (United States)
・Tatsuro Hanada, Sociologist (Japan)
・Gerd Kopper, Professor Emeritus, TU University Dortmund (Germany)
・I-Hsuan Lin, Professor of Sociology, Rikkyo University (Japan)
・Kaori Matsui, Representative Director, Japan Innovation & Succession Fund; Representative Director, Japan Innovation & Succession Inc. (Japan)
・Robert J. Rosenthal, Former Executive Director, Center for Investigative Reporting (United States)
・Hiroaki Yabe, Executive Director, Sokoage; Professor, Tohoku University of Art and Design (Japan)
・Nick Kondo, Representative Director, Japan Innovation & Succession Fund; Representative Director, Japan Innovation & Succession Inc. (Japan)

Click here for board members’ profiles.
Copyright and responsibility for content

Copyright for the material published on this website belongs to Tansa. The editor-in-chief is responsible for all facts and opinions therein.
Privacy and cookie policies

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Newsletter

Tansa’s English-language newsletter introduces our latest work and offers readers a peek behind the scenes in our newsroom. You don’t have to be a donating member to subscribe; simply enter your email and name below. And you’re always welcome to hit reply!
　

See our Japanese page if you want to subscribe to Tansa’s Japanese newsletter as well.

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