On Sept. 2, a controversial newspaper advertisement placed by Takarajima-sha, a mid-tier publisher, went viral on Japanese blogs and Web news sites.
The two-page ad — widely described as nazo no kōkoku (a mystifying advertisement) — appeared in six nationally circulated newspapers: Asahi, Mainichi, Nihon Keizai, Nikkan Gendai, Sankei and Yomiuri, which means it may have been viewed by close to one-quarter of Japan's population.
The Takarajima-sha ad carried the tag line, Ii kuni tsukurō, nando demo, which translates roughly as, "Let's build a good country, as many times as it takes."