Cultural insensitivity no laughing matter

| Jan 30, 2011

Cultural insensitivity no laughing matter

by Philip Brasor

The tempest in a teapot whipped up by a segment on the British quiz-cum-comedy show “QI” has prompted debate on cross-cultural sensitivity. The BBC has apologized for the segment, which, contrary to a statement issued by Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara, did not make fun ...

| Jan 16, 2011

Japan's tribe of lonely people continues to grow

by Philip Brasor

Results from Japan’s national census last year are dribbling in and the reaction in the media often focuses on one pair of statistics: The number of households is increasing while population is declining, which means that there are a lot more single-person households than ...

| Jan 9, 2011

Cheater exposed by tweeting ex

by Philip Brasor

The micro-blogging service Twitter is an effective PR instrument, but one fraught with risk for celebrities who want to juice their notoriety by connecting directly and on their own terms with the public. Forgoing the filtering function of publicists, they may endear themselves to ...

| Dec 26, 2010

A clean slate for this year's media awards

by Philip Brasor

Media persons of the year: Toshikazu Sugaya and Atsuko Muraki Toshikazu Sugaya’s 1992 conviction for the murder of a little girl in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, was reviewed by judges in 2009 after years of pleading by his defense team, which claimed the DNA evidence ...

| Nov 28, 2010

Journalist wants Ashikaga murder case reopened

by Philip Brasor

In June 2009, this column mentioned a TBS news report about the DNA testing method that resulted in the 1992 conviction of Toshikazu Sugaya for the 1990 murder of 4-year-old Mami Matsuda in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture. Sugaya was sentenced to an indefinite prison term ...

| Nov 21, 2010

'Freeter' drama reflects Japan's income gap

by Philip Brasor

The American media keeps wondering whether or not the United States will have to endure a “lost decade” of sluggish growth and stagnant employment like the one Japan suffered through after the real-estate bubble burst in the early 1990s. It seems unlikely. The American ...

| Nov 14, 2010

Media sheepish over island disputes

by Philip Brasor

Last Tuesday, when Tokyo prosecutors raided the offices of YouTube in order to find the person who leaked those videos of a Chinese fishing boat ramming a Japan Coast Guard vessel near the Senkaku Islands, the Asahi Shimbun published a letter from a man ...

| Nov 7, 2010

The darker side of motherhood

by Philip Brasor

In the first edition of the famous book of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm, published in 1812, the story that has become known as “Snow White” had a different villain than the one we all know and hate. Snow White’s original nemesis was ...

| Oct 31, 2010

Japan's Afghanistan news blackout in the spotlight

by Philip Brasor

Veteran freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka was finally freed last month by kidnappers after five months of captivity in Afghanistan. Though the Japanese media reported the kidnapping when it happened last April, and then Tsuneoka’s release on Sept. 6, any details about his confinement or ...