Pros
Headquarters has excellent location in media center in Shiodome, Tokyo. Modern office with views of Mt. Fuji in winter. Flexible hours and easygoing staff, low-pressure atmosphere and almost no work demands outside the expected workload. Supervisors very flexible with scheduling and time off. Staff outings to villas in the Japan Alps and Izu coast are always fun perks, and seasonal bonuses tend to be generous. All in all a good employer for steady news editorial jobs in Japan with a focus on international news and Japanese news sent to subscribers around the world. The firm name enjoys strong prestige domestically.
Cons
Only Japanese are offered lifetime employment status despite the many non-Japanese that work at Kyodo News. Some managers insist this is not the case but the only non-Japanese with this status (according to my knowledge) was one half-Japanese editor. The company is extremely slow to change in incorporating new media technologies and maintains an essentially lapdog reportorial posture toward the establishment, though some investigative and human rights reportage is conducted. Kyodo is very good at reporting breaking news about Japan (and occasionally the rest of Asia) to the rest of the world but quite poor at providing meaningful context to what news in Japan means to Japanese and the outside world.