[Training Column] A Reporter's Perspective: Why do they ask for your 'Date of Birth' at an emergency press conference? [Updated 20251102]

I am your instructor, Takagi.
Drawing on my experience as a former radio announcer and news reporter, I conduct 'Crisis Management/Media Relations Training' and 'Communication Skills Improvement Training' for local governments and public institutions across the country.
Our theme this time is as follows.

Our theme this time is as follows.
'A Reporter's Perspective: Why do they ask for your 'Date of Birth' at an emergency press conference?'

During my time as a news reporter for Ibaraki Broadcasting, I was a member of the press clubs at the Ibaraki Prefectural Government, the Ibaraki Prefectural Police, Mito City, and Hitachi City, where I covered numerous emergency press conferences and apology conferences.

Based on that field experience, I would like to explain the key points of this topic in a quiz format.

Q: At emergency press conferences, reporters often ask the person holding the conference for their 'date of birth.' Why do reporters ask for the date of birth (birthday) of the person holding the conference? What is the reason?

Does everyone know the answer? Here is the answer.

A: To verify their age.

Here is the explanation for the quiz.

It is mainly reporters from newspapers and news agencies who ask for a date of birth (birthday) at a press conference. If you read newspaper articles carefully, you will understand the reason well.

Have you noticed that when the 'name' of the person holding the conference is introduced in an article, their 'age' is written immediately after the name, such as (53)? (The age notation is just an example.)

Regarding this age notation of (53), reporters from newspapers and news agencies are required to be
'accurate'.

For example, let's say there is a person in their 50s holding a conference whose 'date of birth is May 11th,' and this person holds the press conference on May 10th, the day before their birthday.

- Interview date: May 10th. At this time, they are 52 years old.
- Morning edition publication date: May 11th morning. On this day, it is their birthday and they are 53 years old.

And so on.

Therefore, if the age is not written as (53) in the morning edition, it would be'misreporting'.In other words,
'the question about the date of birth'is one of the questions that will always be asked at important press conferences.

Let's explain with an example. ...

[Continue/Read the full text here]

*Note
To avoid being treated as duplicate content on the web, we have included a link to 'Continue here.' We appreciate your understanding.