Economy | ANALYSIS
Households to take hit from tax hike
by Tomoko Otake
The consumption tax increase will hit every household in Japan hard, with many people’s financial future hanging on whether their wages rise enough to offset the hike's impact.
Media | MEDIA MIX Sep 28, 2013
Casinos bet on success in Tokyo
by Philip Brasor
Most of the Olympics-related news reported since Tokyo won the right to host the 2020 Games is about projected economic benefits and drawbacks. A lot of construction will take place over the next seven years, but not all of it will be directly related ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Sep 21, 2013
After the bid, critics sound off on Olympics
by Philip Brasor
During the week following the announcement in Buenos Aires that Tokyo would host the 2020 Olympic Games, the Japanese media was saturated with news of the capital’s celebratory reaction. NHK, which will broadcast the Games, was particularly enthusiastic, leading every news report with a ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Sep 14, 2013
Travel shows warp true globalization
by Philip Brasor
Now that Tokyo has been given the honor of hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, the city, as well as all of Japan, will spend the next seven years “internationalizing” (kokusai-ka), a term that becomes fashionable again every few years when something like this happens. ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Sep 7, 2013
The message in recent food-garbage films doesn't go to waste
by Philip Brasor
For those who still take in movies at theaters it’s a great season for garbage, and I’m not talking about the usual summer blockbuster fare. Last month, Fatih Akin’s documentary “Garbage in the Garden of Eden” (aka “Polluting Paradise”), about a landfill project in ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Aug 31, 2013
Media must take a stand against trolls
by Philip Brasor
We live in an age of contention, when any comment can spark righteous indignation. Nominally conservative or progressive viewpoints become meaningless when every response is reactionary. This situation supposedly arose along with the Internet, which provides an unmediated outlet for every voice. Traditional media ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Aug 24, 2013
It only takes one 'Barefoot' step to cross the line into censorship
by Philip Brasor
If you want people to pay attention to a point you’re making, try to bring the subject of children into the debate. Right now, the media is discussing a decision made by the board of education of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, to limit student access ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Aug 17, 2013
Stone weighs in on Japanese defense
by Philip Brasor
It’s August, when the Japanese media’s attention turns to peace, or, at least, the absence of war. The anniversaries of the atomic bombings and subsequent surrender occasion print and broadcast discussions of what Japan learned from its bloody mid-century military campaign. For most people ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Aug 10, 2013
Koda's baby gaffe may find different reception now
by Philip Brasor
Five years ago, singer Kumi Koda caused an uproar when she joked on a late-night radio show about how a woman’s amniotic fluid (yōsui) becomes “spoiled” as she gets older. The subtext of the comment was the advantage of having babies at a younger ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Aug 3, 2013
YouTube videos hold a sliver of hope for future elections
by Philip Brasor
During the recent campaign for the Upper House, a YouTube video emerged revealing the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s attitude toward the electorate. A woman attending a rally in Fukushima by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe carried a placard that asked the LDP leader his stance ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Jul 27, 2013
NHK drama dives into the 'idea' of idols in rural Japan
by Philip Brasor
When it was announced last year that entertainment Renaissance man Kankuro Kudo would write the script for NHK’s spring-summer 2013 “TV novel,” a few people probably wondered how the iconoclastic writer-director-actor would respond to the broadcaster’s narrative strictures. In a recent interview with Aera, ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Jul 20, 2013
Ando's joy brings up an old taboo
by Philip Brasor
The morning after TV Asahi’s evening news show “Hodo Station” ran an interview with figure skater Miki Ando on July 1, the media was buzzing over the revelation that Ando had given birth in April. The baby was not the ostensible reason for the ...
Media | MEDIA MIX Jul 13, 2013
Democracy hits the Web, but are the 'real' voters listening?
by Philip Brasor
The Wall Street Journal posted an interesting article on its Japan Real Time blog regarding the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP’s) beef with broadcaster TBS, whom it accused of bias against the ruling party on its “News 11″ program. Reporter Toko Sekiguchi didn’t go into ...