Japan's negative growth rate in 2014

Japan's GDP growth rate in the fiscal year 2014 (April 2014 to March 2015) was -0.9 percent. Although it is not a classified information, only a few people in Japan are aware that the country had a negative growth rate in FY 2014. It is largely because Japanese media almost ignored this information.
Today, I asked the students in a class of the Graduate School of Economics, University of Tokyo about Japan's GDP growth rate in FY 2014. I gave 5 choices for them, namely, -0.9, 0.9, 1.9, 2.9, and 3.9. Only one student selected the correct answer, -0.9%. The mean of their selection was 1.37 percent. Well, that is the average image of Japan's recent growth rate held by the students who are supposed to be the most knowledgeable about Japanese economy!
I am not accusing the students for being ignorant of the figure. I think they are fairly intelligent and hard-working people. The problem is that Japanese media almost said nothing about the negative growth rate, which could have created a shock among Japanese people who were taught by our Prime Minister that "Japan is on the way of economic recovery."
Japan has been ranked 61st in the "World Press Freedom Index" made by the Reporters without Borders. My personal feeling is that freedom of press has markedly deteriorated since Shinzo Abe came into power for the second round. Abe sent his friends to the Executive Board of NHK to control this public broadcasting station. Last year Abe and his allies bitterly criticized Asahi Shimbun for "fabricating" a historical fact on the abduction of sex slaves from Korean peninsula during World War 2, which led to the resignation of its CEO. Recently, some lawmakers of the Liberal Democratic Party and Naoki Hyakuta, Abe's friend, have publicly criticized two local newspapers in Okinawa for their disobedience to LDP's proposal on new security laws, saying that these newspapers should be "crushed." Under these pressures, it is understandable that Japanese media want to appease Abe by not widely covering a fact that may indicate the failure of Abe's economic policy.