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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 21, 2020

Japanese media weigh in on the U.S. election

'Biden may have been elected, but it won't be easy to repair the rifts that have widened over the past four years.'
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 15, 2020

The popularity of jeans in Japan begins to fray

According to industry data, total sales of jeans of all types reached 78 million pairs in 2002. The current annual figure is believed to have fallen below 40 million.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 18, 2020

Overindulging at home and playing the online ratings game amid a pandemic

One man reportedly left as many as 18 empty wine bottles and four large empty sake bottles out to be recycled each week during the pandemic.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 20, 2020

An aging sumo wrestler, food poisoning risks and safeguarding pets from COVID-19

Warning: A portion of this contribution deals with suicide, which some readers may find distressing.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 16, 2020

Disasters like COVID-19 bring us together — if we let them

Communities might have rallied behind each other in the face of the calamitous earthquakes in 1995 and 2011, but the new coronavirus pandemic has spurred a response that is more about self-preservation than helping others in need.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 11, 2020

Counting the cost of postponing the Tokyo Olympics

Nearly a month before the decision was announced to postpone the 2020 Olympics, the media was already speculating over their fate. On Feb. 24, the headline in Nikkan Gendai read, “Relinquishing of the Tokyo Olympics would mean ¥20 trillion in economic losses.”
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 16, 2019

News outlets are uncertain about the nation's future

The BBC in October published a glowing encomium to Japanese cleanliness. "How," it asks, "does Japan stay so clean?"
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 9, 2019

2020 races move north to Sapporo as cooler heads prevail

"It's like you're submerged underwater, but the water is boiling, and you're kind of halfway cooked" — that's how one distance runner described conditions at the women's marathon at the 2019 World Athletics Championship in Doha on Sept. 27-28.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 17, 2019

Dissecting the benefits of medical intervention in Japan

"Lies!" "Nonsense!"
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 20, 2019

New era aside, Showa nostalgia continues to keep rolling along

The new Reiwa Era is now into its third month and histories are starting to appear about the Heisei Era that preceded it. In late June, the publishing arm of the Mainichi Shimbun released a 384-page softcover book titled "Heisei-shi Zenkiroku" ("Chronicle 1989-2019"). The same week, the Nikkei Shimbun...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 11, 2019

Tabloids press pause as nation celebrates dawn of the Reiwa Era

Welcome one and all to Big in Japan, the Reiwa version. During the just-ended 10-day Golden Week holiday, only one general weekly magazine — Aera (May 13) — went to press, giving it the distinction of being the first publication out of the starting gates in the new era. Aera's coverage of imperial...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 15, 2018

Carlos Ghosn's arrest spurs debate on executive salaries in Japan

On Dec. 10, Masaaki Tanaka, former vice president of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, told a news conference he would step down as president and CEO of Japan Investment Corp., an entity set up by the government in September to develop new industries through capital investment.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 2, 2018

Dirty football tackle creates a perfect storm for news outlets to exploit

Former Nihon University football head coach Masato Uchida's alleged order on a player to "crush" an opposing team's quarterback in a May 6 game between Japan's traditional rivals for supremacy in American football has dominated sports and tabloid headlines for most of the second half of May.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 26, 2018

You can't plan for bad luck in the long winter of life

Wisdom is age and age is wisdom. Confucius, summing up his life, said, "At 70 I followed my heart's desire without overstepping the line." It's as good a definition of wisdom as any.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Aug 5, 2017

Speed bump won't stop Kiyomiya, Japanese baseball's teen powerhouse

So far, 2017 has been a banner year for sports prodigies in Japan, from table tennis and shogi to baseball.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 22, 2017

Could Japan become a future cultural melting pot?

Why not welcome 10 million immigrants to Japan by 2050? That's Hidenori Sakanaka's pitch, but it's a hard sell.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 12, 2016

South Sudan and Japan: a tale of love and civil war

If you can call South Sudan "stable," you can call anything stable. You can call anything anything.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 22, 2016

Rape allegation casts harsh light on university club

Bright and vivacious young women are in great demand as TV announcers. For many in Japan, the stepping stone to a career in broadcast news has been the annual Miss Keio contest, held during the autumn festival at the nation's most prestigious private university: Keio, in Tokyo's Minato Ward.
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 1, 2016

Who advises Japan's business leaders?

Take a wild guess: Who's the second most influential management guru in Japan, after — it almost goes without saying — Peter Drucker?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 9, 2016

Cracks are appearing in Japan's 'healthy' image

Few people snack on baby carrots. Most prefer the sweet, fat, high-calorie fare colloquially known as junk food.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 18, 2016

How Trump fares in Japan's tabloids

If Japan's weekly magazines appear to be devoting an inordinate amount of space to coverage of U.S. politics this election year, it's thanks largely to the flamboyant antics of Donald Trump, who can be counted on for verbal outbursts and surprises.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 6, 2016

Does sumo commentary need to stress the foreignness of the wrestlers?

Let's scroll 10 years back to 2006, when a wrestler named Tochiazuma emerged victorious in the January Grand Sumo tournament. That win, by a native Japanese grappler, was already a rare occasion, as Mongolian yokozuna (grand champion) Asashoryu almost completely dominated the sport and another Mongolian,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 26, 2015

Can democracy survive the rise of the right?

"What," demanded a protesting student at the height of the summer of protests just past, "is to become of democracy?"
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 5, 2015

Hunter and hunted: Where are they now?

The mutilations are frightful — dog, cat, rabbit and pigeon corpses missing heads, tails, limbs, ears. Weekly Playboy magazine reports nearly 40 sightings in the past four months in the Kanto region alone. Who's out there doing these things? With what thoughts in mind?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 28, 2015

Japan's children face a dementia boom

Confucius said it's not enough merely to provide for our parents. We must revere them. To fail in filial reverence, he said, is to be no better than the animals.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 31, 2015

U.S. sea patrols fuel war of words in print

As this column went to press, the Japanese media had their collective attention focused on a potential hot-spot in the disputed South China Sea, where the destroyer USS Lassen, in a modern-day show of "gunboat diplomacy," took an in-your-face drive-by (or sail-by if you prefer) past Chinese encamped...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 24, 2015

Media vultures circle over battered SEALDs

That's it? It's over?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 26, 2015

Working the politics of an idol marriage

Last week the media obsessed over that story about the 17-year-old girl who was sued by a talent agency for violating the terms of her contract, which stipulated that while she worked for them as a member of an idol singing group she could not be involved in any romantic relationships.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 20, 2015

Tabloids revel in South Korea's MERS misery

Schadenfreude, a word of German derivation, is defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as "a feeling of enjoyment that comes from seeing or hearing about the troubles of other people." A more succinct definition would be "malicious glee."
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jun 13, 2015

Ojika's residents beat the rat race by abandoning it, bucking a national trend in the process

If only there was an island somewhere ...

Longform

Eme-Ima Kitchen is one of over 10,000 kodomo shokudō in Japan. A term first used in 2012 to describe makeshift eateries offering free or cheap meals to disadvantaged kids, it now refers to a diverse range of individuals, groups and organizations working to provide not only food but a sense of belonging to both children and adults.
Japan’s ‘children’s cafeterias’ are booming — but is that a good thing?