The Role of Asia Raya Newspaper as a Japanese Propaganda Instrument, 1942 – 1945

The Japanese occupation of Indonesia from 1942 to 1945 transformed colonial society through the implementation of a wartime economic system designed to sustain Japanese military expansion in the Pacific. Within this context, mass media functioned not merely as channels of information but as strategic instruments of economic propaganda and colonial discourse. This study examines how the newspaper Asia Raya, published in Jakarta, was utilised to build public support for the Japanese war agenda and