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Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Dec 20, 2012

'Fans' fawn over 'Pingping'

Are vocal online fans of Communist Party leader Xi Jinping the real thing, or part of an elaborate and complex Potemkin village
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 16, 2012

An aging country learning to adapt

Occasionally in this space I refer to a financial writer called "Gucci-san" who contributes a weekly column to Aera. Apparently, he works for an investment consulting firm that does a lot of work in mergers and acquisitions. In a recent piece he said that some of his clients are involved in importing...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 21, 2012

Enka scandal keeps star in the news

The conflict between Japan and South Korea over Takeshima/Dokdo has spilled over into the entertainment realm. Some Korean actors and K-pop stars have stated publicly that the group of islets belongs to Korea, causing Masayuki Matsumoto, the president of NHK, to express concern. Last month he hinted...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 7, 2012

Gruff Ochiai needs to change if return is in cards

The Pacific League's Orix Buffaloes announced on Sept. 25 manager Akinobu Okada will not return to run the club next season, and speculation about his replacement indicates Japanese baseball Hall of Famer and former Chunichi Dragons skipper Hiromitsu Ochiai is one of the candidates who might be appointed...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 30, 2012

Senkaku issue falls hard from the shelf

Tanaage, which means to put something on the shelf, is a term that pops up often in the coverage of the current imbroglio over the islands that Japan calls the Senkakus. There is disagreement over when China, which calls the islands Diaoyu, started insisting they were its territory, but in any case the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Sep 18, 2012

Shilling for our side over the Senkakus

Akihiro Suzuki does not think war will come, but if it does, he believes Japan will prevail.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Jul 8, 2012

Keeping an eye on TV news coverage of the nuke crisis

In the week immediately after March 11, 2011 — when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku and crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant — most Japanese were closely watching TV news programs — amazed that a nuclear crisis was now threatening their lives.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE ZEIT GIST
Jun 12, 2012

'Flyjin' feel vindicated, worry for those left in Japan

Although more than a year has passed since the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami struck Tohoku on March 11, 2011, Ivan Stout's memory of the moment when the Shinmarunouchi building in Tokyo's Chou Ward began to tremble is as vivid as ever.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jun 2, 2012

Japan's great outdoors becomes Oregonian's office-cum-playground

Gliding through powder across Mount Hakkoda in Aomori Prefecture or scanning the surfers at Shonan Beach in Kanagawa Prefecture, Gardner Robinson's life and work merge so completely that on the clock and on the slopes are one and the same.
COMMENTARY
May 17, 2012

Beijing tightens the screws on foreign journalists

In 2001, when it made a successful bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing promised there would be complete freedom for the foreign media to report in China. While this did not occur, more liberal rules were introduced, such as not requiring official permission before conducting interviews.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / WHO'S WHO
May 15, 2012

Olympus fiasco was 'lost opportunity'

Waku Miller, a resident of Tokyo for over 30 years and a veteran translator who recently served as a spokesman for Michael C. Woodford — former president and CEO of Olympus Corp. — said he found it odd how indifferent major Japanese shareholders were even after a massive loss coverup by the camera...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 13, 2012

Road-death stats hide the truth

The media likes to report on victims of accidents, disasters and crimes, and while it's natural to feel sympathy for unfortunate individuals, the only imaginable benefit this sort of coverage provides to viewers and readers is catharsis, which is better served by the popular arts.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 11, 2012

Public wary of official optimism

Ambition can sometimes be measured by the amount of deference paid to the established order, so the recently published book "Genpatsu Kiki to Todai Waho," which irreverently analyzes the "parlance of the University of Tokyo" as it was utilized during the early days of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Mar 11, 2012

Young hopes bloom eternal

The first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake is a time to commemorate the victims of that terrible tragedy. But it is also an opportunity to look to the future.
COMMENTARY / World
Mar 2, 2012

Hungary needs voice of Radio Free Europe

In recent weeks, the Hungarian government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban has frequently attacked Western media outlets but none more than CNN for its reports on the sorry state of Hungarian democracy. Hungarians can still watch CNN, but since January, the network is no longer part of the package...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 15, 2012

Rigged online food reviews should come as no surprise

NHK has a regular travel series called "Quiz de Go," which sends TV personalities to far-flung corners of Japan and then asks them questions about the area's local qualities. Several weeks ago, three celebrities were exploring Miyazu, Kyoto Prefecture, and were turned on to a local delicacy called Curry-yaki....
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 1, 2012

Japan's troubled royals put up a brave front

Bungei Shunju ("literary spring and autumn") is arguably Japan's most prestigious monthly magazine. Emblazoned in celebratory red across the cover of its New Year's edition is the rather ominous headline, "The Day the Heisei (Era) Ends."
JAPAN
Nov 1, 2011

Hashimoto bows out amid controversy

Toru Hashimoto finished his term Monday as Osaka governor, resigning three months early to run for mayor of the city of Osaka on Nov. 27.
COMMENTARY / COUNTERPOINT
Oct 9, 2011

Conditions are ripe for the volcano of Japan's betrayed to erupt again

Second of two parts
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 2, 2011

Press miss the point at antinuke demo

Three weeks after Japan's biggest antinuclear demonstration, there is still some dispute over how many people actually attended. The organizers estimate 60,000 and the police say about 30,000. Except for the Yomiuri and Sankei newspapers, which accept the police figure, the mainstream vernacular media...
COMMUNITY / Our Lives / CLOSE-UP
Oct 2, 2011

Satoshi Kamata: Rebel spirit writ large

Monday, Sept. 19, was Respect for the Aged Day in Japan. But on that sweltering national holiday, it wasn't the heat that that drew tens of thousands of people to Meiji Park in central Tokyo, but their concerns for all the nation's citizens, and others, who may face a threat from nuclear power.
Japan Times
JAPAN / POWERING THE FUTURE
Sep 23, 2011

Current nuclear debate to set nation's course for decades

First in a six-part series about major sources of renewable energy in Japan and the prospects for their future use and development
Japan Times
CULTURE / Stage
Sep 9, 2011

Festival/Tokyo rewrites its script after quake

Chiaki Soma, the program director at Festival/Tokyo (F/T), needed to figure out how to proceed with the country's biggest theater festival following the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11. She closed her office for 10 days and asked the staff to carefully consider the meaning of the festival in...
COMMENTARY / World
Sep 1, 2011

Libya's next fight: the West

At a press conference in Tripoli on Aug. 26, a statement read aloud by top Libyan rebel commander Abdel Hakim Belhadj was reassuring. Just a few months ago, disorganized and leaderless rebel fighters seemed to have little chance at ousting Libyan dictator Moammar Ghadhafi and his unruly sons.
BASKETBALL / HOOP SCOOP
Aug 14, 2011

Time for bj-league to make serious push for recognition

In nearly two months, the bj-league will begin its seventh season. The fact that the league still exists is, well, an accomplishment; many upstart circuits don't survive this long.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 7, 2011

Fabricated public opinion is the norm

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry's energy agency recently contracted with an outside advertising company to monitor "inaccurate" online information regarding nuclear energy. In response, the media cried "censorship," but as pointed out in last week's issue of Aera, the agency has employed...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / JUST BE CAUSE
May 3, 2011

Better to be branded a 'flyjin' than a man of the 'sheeple'

The past two months have been uncomfortable for Japan, and for the country's foreign residents. Non-Japanese (NJ) have been bashed in the media, unreservedly and undeservedly, as deserters in the face of disaster.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2011

With the world looking in, Japan needs to speak out

Japan is known as having some the world's most developed earthquake- and tsunami-detection systems. However, the destruction caused on March 11 amply illustrated what can happen even when it is well prepared for crises.
Reader Mail
Mar 24, 2011

Instances of under-reporting, too

I agree that some foreign media outlets have sensationalized this story, but at the same time, I agree with those members of the Western media who say the Japanese media have under-reported and, in many cases, merely spewed numbers and reports provided to them by the government.
LIFE / Digital
Mar 23, 2011

Volunteers translate quake data into visuals

Over the past week we've seen a stark contrast in how the Fukushima nuclear disaster has been reported. "Panic" read the New York Daily News. "Get out of Tokyo Now" said The Sun. One expects that of tabloids, yet more credible media also described an "exodus" from Tokyo, neglecting to mention that it...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’