National / Media | MEDIA MIX Jun 13, 2020
Prosecutor gambling scandal lifts veil on press access in Japan
by Philip Brasor
Will the incident prompt any major media outlet to change its ways when socializing with sources?
Commentary / Japan Jun 10, 2020
Media collaborators threaten press freedom in Japan
by Richard Solomon
Japan has too few good journalists because mainstream media reporters unconsciously begin their stories from the point of view of prized informants.
National May 29, 2020
Asahi Shimbun employee embroiled in prosecutor gambling scandal suspended for a month
The mahjong sessions with top Tokyo prosecutor Hiromu Kurokawa took place four times at a Sankei Shimbun reporter's home in April and May.
National / Media | MEDIA MIX Mar 21, 2020
Dramatizing the reality of a nuclear meltdown
by Philip Brasor
As with many feature films based on real-life incidents, "Fukushima 50," which opened nationwide March 6 and depicts the actions of the men who struggled to contain the disaster at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant following the Great East Japan Earthquake of ...
National / Crime & Legal Jan 2, 2020
The usually staid Japanese media lambasted the "cowardly" Carlos Ghosn on Wednesday, after the tycoon jumped bail and fled to Lebanon to avoid trial in Japan. "Running away is a cowardly act that mocks Japan's justice system," said the Yomiuri Shimbun, with Ghosn facing multiple ...
National Jun 27, 2019
Tokyo court admits Asahi reporter was defamed but denies damages over 'comfort women' articles
The Tokyo District Court recognized Wednesday that a former Asahi Shimbun newspaper reporter was defamed in connection with his 1991 articles on "comfort women," but it rejected his claim for damages against a major publisher and a scholar. The term comfort women is a euphemism ...
National May 14, 2019
Ex-top Trump aide McMaster says accepting North Korea nukes would push Japan to debate own deterrent
by Jesse Johnson
Former U.S. national security adviser H.R. McMaster has said that the United States accepting North Korea as a de facto nuclear power would prompt Japan to debate whether or not it needed its own nuclear weapons, a claim that comes amid rekindled tensions on ...
National May 3, 2018
Asahi Shimbun remembers 29-year-old reporter killed in 1987 ultra-rightist attack
The Asahi Shimbun daily and local residents on Thursday paid tribute to a 29-year-old reporter killed in a 1987 shooting at its western Japan bureau, in an attack claimed by ultra-rightists angered by the newspaper's "anti-national" reporting. Company officials also renewed their pledge to defend ...
National / Media | MEDIA MIX Apr 7, 2018
In Japan no one wants to talk about sex education
by Philip Brasor
The English "penis" — which rhymes with "Venice" in katakana — is the preferred technical term when discussing male genitalia in Japan, but even that seems to be taboo in broadcast situations.
National Jan 20, 2018
Japanese newspaper reporter wounded in unsolved '87 shooting at Hanshin bureau dies
Hyoe Inukai, a former Asahi Shimbun reporter severely wounded by a shotgun during the unsolved 1987 attack on the daily's Hanshin bureau, has died, it was learned Friday. He was 73. Inukai died Tuesday at a hospital in Kagawa Prefecture. The cause of death is ...
National / Media | MEDIA MIX Dec 30, 2017
Japanese media's hits and misses of 2017
by Philip Brasor
The term "fake news" was used in so many different situations this year that it no longer describes an agreed upon concept but rather anything you don't agree with. This is why the U.S. press has had a difficult time making sense of its ...
National / Media | BIG IN JAPAN Dec 23, 2017
Men still making houses as women try to leave home
by Michael Hoffman
Dogen Ogata's name is known worldwide before he knows it himself. He's 8 months old. One day last month, in all innocence, cradled in his mother's arms, he attended a session of the Kumamoto municipal assembly. Yuka Ogata, 42, is a member of the assembly. ...