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May 16, 2024
 

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MEDIA MIX

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 14, 2001
The truth about the 'enemies of the people'
For the past month there's been a lot of talk about how much our sense of the world has changed since the events of Sept. 11. Actually, it's mainly changed for Americans, but as someone once said: When America sneezes, the rest of the world catches a cold.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 7, 2001
What Lara can tell us about Afghanistan
Angelina Jolie's new movie, "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," might not be up to much, but I have a lot of respect for Jolie herself. On Sept. 10, at a Tokyo press conference to promote the film, the actress mentioned her new job as special ambassador for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. She spent almost a year in Europe making "Tomb Raider" and found "that the news you get there is different from the news you get in the United States. There was a lot I didn't know about the world, and when I got back, I called up the United Nations to find out more."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 30, 2001
Finding redemption under the surgeon's knife
One of the less memorable show biz scandals of 1998 involved the 48-year-old actress Ayako Sawada and her 36-year-old manager/husband Yukihide Matsuno. The pair had been married only a few years, but Sawada wanted out. She accused the dour Matsuno of physical and mental abuse, not only of herself but of her daughter, the product of an earlier nonmarital liaison.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 23, 2001
'Comfort' education at expense of standards?
Earlier this year, the Education Ministry announced a set of guidelines for public schools that go into effect next April. These changes include reduction of the school week to five days, a 30 percent cut in "academic content" and the development of "general studies," the gist of which remains vague but that will nevertheless amount to between 70 and 130 hours a year. In addition, the ministry has directed each local board of education to expand "optional" subjects, which have been interpreted as community volunteer activities and the like.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 16, 2001
Documenting an unprecedented disaster
Crises, it is often said, bring out the best and the worst in people. In the case of the terrorist attacks that took place in the United States on Tuesday, the best was illustrated by citizens waiting five hours to donate blood, while the worst was exemplified by service stations gouging customers for gasoline and those customers threatening violence in return.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 9, 2001
Making space to swing a cat in a rabbit hutch
Blame for the consumer spending slump is usually pinned on widespread anxiety over an uncertain future. But another reason, one that isn't discussed as much, is that most citizens already have everything they want.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 2, 2001
They say breaking up in public is hard to do
Pop culture has given us many marriage archetypes. At one extreme, there was "Thin Man" Nick Charles and his wife Nora, who epitomized a partnership based on privileged cynicism: witty, alcoholic, rich and inseparable. At the opposite end are "The Honeymooners," Ralph and Alice Kramden: the short-tempered, blue-collar blockhead and his harridan wife, who, though constantly fighting, couldn't live without each other.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 26, 2001
Intimidation, deception -- and that's just the cops
Earlier this summer, when an American serviceman was accused of raping a Japanese woman on Okinawa, the U.S. military authorities were put in a difficult position.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 19, 2001
Family drama of Koizumi's forgotten son
To: Fuji TV Attn: Programming Department, production division From: Izawa Office Talent Agency Re: Proposal for drama series
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 12, 2001
'Model' family vs. maternal love: a nation judges
Last week, the Japan Office of the Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine announced that a 60-year-old Japanese woman gave birth to a healthy baby at Jikei University Hospital in Tokyo. Though the woman's identity and the child's gender were not revealed, the mother released a statement through the Japanese representative of the center. The statement was notable more for its tone than its content; it read in part, "It is wrong if [a couple] cannot have a child simply because the woman is older."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 5, 2001
'It's a complicated story,' pleads a battered press
The press has taken quite a beating over its coverage of the murders at Ikeda Elementary School. Even before the funerals, letters to the editor columns were filled with missives from enraged readers lam basting the media's lack of either common decency or common sense. Most complaints concerned interviews with children as they were leaving the school after the murders. "As a parent, I was speechless," one correspondent wrote to the Asahi Shimbun, "I never imagined the press could be so cruel."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 29, 2001
Talking about the weather is no longer so boring
We tend to take weather forecasts with a grain of salt. Some people leave their umbrellas at home unless the probability of precipitation is over, say, 40 percent, while others keep a collapsible in their bag at all times because they don't know what to believe. We know it's raining because we are getting wet, and we know it's hot because we are sweating, but almost everything else about the weather is up for grabs.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 22, 2001
It's not always easy to see yourself as others do
On the face of it, the current controversy over Japanese history textbooks is just one more example of Japan not facing up to its militaristic past. On a deeper level, however, Korea's decision to forgo further liberalization of Japanese cultural imports until the offending texts are revised underscores the unique emotional relationship that exists between the two countries.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 15, 2001
A spoonful of Koizumi helps the medicine go down
The continuance of Junichiro Koizumi's administration beyond the summer seems like a sure bet: Support for his Cabinet is over 80 percent, his e-mail magazine is being read by hundreds of thousands of subscribers, and every time the opposition questions one of his pronouncements, they are deluged with calls from angry citizens.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 8, 2001
Money for nothing, but only if you spend it first
Television is often blamed for conditioning its audience in undesirable ways: We want things faster, easier, in bite-size pieces that don't require a lot of chewing. And everything must have a kicker, a dramatic endpoint that will justify our time in front of the box.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 1, 2001
Innovative strategies that get the message across
The pointlessness of election campaigns in Japan is dramatically exemplified by the sound trucks screaming the names of their respective candidates over and over. The stupidity of election campaigns in Japan is audaciously exemplified by something that happened in my own neighborhood last week prior to the Tokyo assembly vote. One candidate, whose name happened to be same as that of the ward in which I live, kept screeching, "You write your address all the time, so just write it again when you go to vote."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 24, 2001
Natural urban chaos in the worst-case scenario
Last Sunday night I settled down to watch one of my favorite TV shows, "Tokumei Research 200X" (NTV, 7:58 p.m.), quite unprepared for what I was about to learn. If you've never seen this particular information program, it is built around the fictional Far East Research Center, a shiny mission control for designer-suited computer nerds who conduct in-depth research into any subject the TV audience requests through a special Web site set up by the producer.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 17, 2001
Take me out to the big league
As U.S. President George W. Bush makes the rounds in Europe, taking flak and talking trash, it seems like a good opportunity to address what his father would refer to as the "cultural hegemony thing." South Korea and France deal with it by subsidizing their movie industries. China screens everything entering the country that doesn't look like Mickey Mouse. Scandinavia invents death metal.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 10, 2001
There's a fine line between parody and larceny
There is an unspoken belief among music critics that had George Harrison not been a Beatle, he wouldn't have lasted more than a minute in the pop business. This belief has nothing to do with Harrison's talent and everything to do with his professional judgment. First, he released all his good songs on one three-record set right off the bat, thus rendering him an immediate has-been as a solo artist. Second, when he was sued for ripping off the melody of the Chiffons' 1963 hit "He's So Fine" for his 1970 hit "My Sweet Lord," he professed that he had done so "unknowingly." Perhaps the judge was a closet Stones fan, but in any case he didn't gently weep over the ex-Moptop's naivete but forced him to hand over the royalties.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 3, 2001
It's all about manners (cough, gasp), not health
It's not surprising that the local media glossed over the World Health Organization's 14th annual World No Tobacco Day last Thursday. The government, a member in good standing of the United Nations and a conscientious contributor to its causes, didn't start preparing a seminar to mark the occasion until May 15.
Japanese stripper bids to have her porn movies taken off internet
Plaintiff Miyuki Ariga (left) speaks at a news conference along with her lawyer, Yoshitomo Morohashi, after filing a lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court on Monday.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.
Kishida defends planned rule to revoke foreigners' residency
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a meeting of the Lower House Judicial Affairs Committee on Wednesday.
Japan concerned over U.S. officials' remarks on atomic bombings
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks to reporters during a news conference in Washington on Thursday.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Japanese rap creates its mecca in Pop Yours
Tokyo-based artist Jumadiba says he forgoes the label of simply “rap” for his music because the Japanese rap scene isn’t confined to a particular sound. 
Who’s toughest on China? Biden’s tariff tactic ups ante as election looms.
U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about new actions to protect American workers and businesses from China's "unfair" trade practices, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Tuesday.
Was Onosato's defeat of Terunofuji an era-defining bout?
Onosato (right) defeats Terunofuji at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo on May 12. While nothing in sumo is guaranteed, it seems almost inevitable that Onosato is destined for the top of the sport's pyramid.
Ishin struggles to set itself apart from other parties
Nippon Ishin no Kai Secretary-General Fumitake Fujita (right) speaks beside Yui Kanazawa, the party's candidate in the Tokyo 15th district by-election on April 28. Nippon Ishin lost in this by-election as well as another in Nagasaki held on the same day.
In Japan, 68,000 people over 65 projected to die alone at home this year
As Japan grapples with its population's rapid aging, supporting people who live and age alone is looming larger on the policy agenda.

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