Differet attitudes in Criticizing the government between America and Japan: Part1

At Yale, I live in a suite of 7 people. My suitemates and I often hang out in the common room. One time, one of my suitemates from Texas, who claims that he watches the Daily Show and Colbert Report every night, (although I think he is usually asleep taking a nap during the show) and I watched the two shows together in the common room.
Before I came to Yale, I had never seen either the Daily Show or Colbert Report. Naturally, When I first saw them, I didn’t fully understand what these shows were about. But I gradually figured out the content of these programs is basically parody, comedy and satire regarding recent news and political or authoritative figures. The episode I saw with my suitemates contained a parody of speeches by Sarah Palin, McCain, and Obama, and the topic ranged from the healthcare bill to Iraq War. When I watched it, I just laughed at the hilarious parody performance, but after some time, I came to a striking realization. I had never seen such a direct satirical depiction of political figures. Or at least, I do not remember any TV programs or newspapers parodying political figures so explicitly and in such an obvious manner. Japanese media in general seems very shy and reserved in making parodies.
Does this mean that Japanese people do not criticize the government, then? Surely no. As can be seen in every kind of mass media -- in newspapers, TV programs and online, Japanese people today are very cynical about what the government does, especially in this economic downturn and decrease in political initiative in solving the problem. People seem more distrustful than ever about what the Prime Minister or other Cabinet members announce, and (try to) implement. Japanese people do, in my opinion, criticize government.
Then what does this difference in attitudes of TV programs criticizing political figures indicate? Let’s consider this question further in the next post.