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May 16, 2024
 

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MEDIA MIX

Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 24, 2018
Variety show's fabrication scandal offers a glimpse into the nature of TV content
Earlier this month, weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun ran several articles on Nippon Television Network Corp.'s Sunday night variety show, "Sekai no Hate Made Itte Q," claiming that the program had fabricated "festivals" in foreign countries and presented them in one of its semiregular segments as real local events. Allegations of yarase (faking it) are not uncommon in Japanese television, especially when it comes to variety show programming, with its focus on reporting that tests a viewer's capacity for incredulity. The Bunshun pieces betrayed a tone that implied an even greater level of incredulity: Did Nippon TV really think anyone would believe this stuff?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 17, 2018
Keidanren faces flak for falling behind the times despite change in leadership
The Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) published an article on June 17 that was critical of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), a lobbying organization made up of more than 1,300 of the country's biggest companies. The Nikkei has always been in Keidanren’s corner, so it was something of a shock to read a story suggesting that the organization appears to be incapable of changing with the times.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 10, 2018
Japan's news outlets weigh in on Jumpei Yasuda's culpability in Syria kidnapping
Freelance reporter Jumpei Yasuda gave a three-hour news conference at the Japan National Press Club on Nov. 2 about his hostage ordeal, describing in detail how he was kidnapped after entering Syria in 2015 and then held for more than three years. He also discussed the situation in the Middle East and why it was important for Japan to know about what was happening in the region.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 3, 2018
Testing times for students' English-language ability in Japan
The education ministry last year announced it would change the common testing system for universities, starting in 2020. A major change is expected to be made to the English-language component of the exam. Applicants will be asked to take English tests developed by commercial testing companies for the preliminary evaluation. The main reason for the change is that the ministry wants to emphasize interactive communication, specifically speaking and writing, in the evaluation of students’ English skills. The current English test concentrates on listening and reading.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 27, 2018
Proposed reform to Japan's immigration law causes concern
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe receives a lot of grief from left-leaning pundits who consider his policies and outlook regressive, but right-leaning commentators aren't always enamored of the country’s leader either. They voice frustration at his refusal to visit the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and find it humiliating that he gives in to U.S. President Donald Trump on matters they see as being vital to Japan's interests, especially those having to do with trade.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 20, 2018
Spotlight falls on Japan's female TV presenters
On Sept. 4, the new presenters for Nippon TV's nightly news show, "News Zero," were introduced at a press conference in Tokyo. It's not unusual for TV stations to revamp current affairs shows, but the new version of "News Zero," which premiered Oct. 1, has attracted more than the usual measure of attention because of its new anchorperson.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 13, 2018
Can female surgeons dismantle stereotypes in Japan?
The long-running American TV series "Grey's Anatomy" is popular because of the way it mixes standard medical drama with mushy romantic intrigue, but another part of its appeal is the makeup of its characters. The drama takes place in the surgical department of a Seattle hospital, and half the doctors are women. About half are also African-Americans, with other minorities thrown in, as well as some LGBT characters.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 6, 2018
Repatriation program reveals Koreans' plight in Japan
In August, five North Korean defectors residing in Japan filed a lawsuit in Tokyo District Court charging Pyongyang with human rights abuses. The plaintiffs were described in the Mainichi Shimbun as "second-generation ethnic Koreans" who grew up in Japan but moved to North Korea during the mobilization of Koreans between 1959 and 1984, which was supported by the governments of both North Korea and Japan. During this period, about 93,000 people were "repatriated" to a country very few really knew and none had ever lived in. They bought the propaganda sold by Pyongyang and its political arm in Japan, the General Association of Korean Residents of Japan, or Chongryon, which presented North Korea as "a paradise on Earth." The plaintiffs described widespread starvation and brutal political persecution after they arrived. Eventually, they escaped to South Korea and made their way back to Japan.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 29, 2018
Media appear to be ignoring maglev woes
Earlier this month, two different Tokyo District Court sessions associated with the maglev bullet train line now under construction were convened. In one, major contractor Obayashi Corp. was prosecuted for rigging bids for work on the project. In the other, a citizens' network was suing the government to halt it because of the damage it will allegedly cause to the environment and the lives of people who live along the route. The first trial was covered by the mainstream media. The second was virtually ignored by them.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 22, 2018
The problem with padding employment records in Japan
In August, it was reported that central government ministries and agencies, not to mention national legislative offices and local governments, have for years been fulfilling their legal responsibility to hire certain numbers of people with disabilities by fudging criteria for determining what qualifies as a disability. The media's position on the matter has mainly been to point out that the public sector is getting away with murder while the private sector struggles in an honest fashion to reach similar quotas. The government is supposed to set an example for companies when it comes to social change, so its intentional neglect in doing so is doubly appalling.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 15, 2018
Japanese athletes under fire after Asian Games scandal
When four members of Japan's national basketball team were sent home from the Asian Games last month for patronizing prostitutes, the resulting scandal capped almost a year's worth of bad publicity for sports in Japan. Over this time we've had allegations of "power harassment" raised against the Japan Wrestling Federation, the premeditated dangerous tackle by a member of the Nihon University American football team, accusations of misuse of funds by the Japan Amateur Boxing Federation, and charges of physical abuse and harassment in gymnastics.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 8, 2018
Variety shows seek insights into people's lives
One of the better Japanese reality shows in the first decade of the new millennium was TV Tokyo's "Inaka ni Tomaro" ("Let's Visit the Countryside"), which premiered in 2003. Ostensibly a travelogue, it featured second-tier celebrities who were dispatched to rural areas where they had to secure a night's lodging in private homes. Supposedly, there were no setups. The celebrity had to approach strangers on the street and ask if they could stay the night. Normally, the people they met recognized the celebrity, but, depending on when that person's heyday was and the age of the interlocutor, sometimes they didn't. And even if they did know the celebrity, it didn't always mean they wanted them in their house, so the negotiations were always awkward. I remember one show where it took the guest 10 tries before he secured a bed.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 1, 2018
Tabloids in Japan unafraid to question Imperial scandals
The domestic press is more deferential to Japan's Imperial family than the British press is to its royal family. To secure access, Japan's mainstream media must play by the rules of the Imperial Household Agency, which controls said access and watches the resulting coverage closely.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 25, 2018
Japanese media begins to break war orphan taboo
Japan typically reviews the tragedy of World War II in August, focusing almost exclusively on the Japanese who died in the conflict.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 18, 2018
Japan's bears are widely vilified and little understood
On Aug. 6, the BBC aired a story about four Ussuri brown bears being successfully transported from a museum in Hokkaido to a wildlife park in England. In the story, a British organization called Wild Welfare said it had become "concerned" about the animals' living situation at the Ainu Museum, where they had been kept in old, cramped cages for most of their lives, which one member said is "sadly reflective of the conditions that many captive bears in Japan are in."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 11, 2018
Hoarding in Japan isn't as dark as NHK makes it out to be
Thanks to Marie Kondo, everyone knows about the Japanese art of katazuke, or "tidying up." Kondo's books on organizing your things and deciding what items you should throw away have been translated into numerous languages and she's been interviewed by myriad international media outlets.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 4, 2018
Japan's rigid koseki system keeps it all in the family
Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Mio Sugita is being criticized for comments she made about how LGBT individuals should not receive government “support” because, biologically speaking, they can’t have children and are thus “unproductive” as members of society. Although the media have covered her remarks and the backlash, they’ve avoided the elephant in the room — the fact that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Sugita’s mentor, has no offspring himself. It’s nobody’s business why Abe and his wife are childless but, as political science professor Jiro Yamaguchi asked in a July 29 Tokyo Shimbun column, can Sugita say to Abe’s face that his administration should withhold support for childless citizens?
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 28, 2018
Aum executions fail to end debate over cult's motives
The execution of 13 members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo in two rounds on July 6 and 26, including the group’s 63-year-old leader, Shoko Asahara (whose real name was Chizuo Matsumoto), for the 1995 subway sarin attack and other crimes, was hardly a shock. Several months ago, after exhausting their appeals, some of the Aum members on death row were moved, thus suggesting that executions were imminent.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 21, 2018
News outlets in Japan question belated flood response
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe probably regrets attending a drinking party thrown by some Liberal Democratic Party colleagues on July 5. Even if he didn’t suffer a hangover, as some reports implied, he was forced to dodge media brickbats over his colleagues’ seeming inability to “read the air,” as the Japanese say.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 14, 2018
Dementia is pushing cancer out of the medical spotlight
 The media love cancer — what causes it, how to prevent it, who has it. Cancer is something that potentially touches everybody in a dramatic way, and therefore public interest is keen.
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.
New Taiwan president to set tone for ties with China at inauguration
Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te arrives at the CyberSec 2024 Exhibition in Taipei on Wednesday.
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.
In a rare event, the Northern Lights show up in Hokkaido
The Northern Lights in Nayoro, Hokkaido, on Saturday
Is black the new green for Japan’s flagging tea farmers?
George Guttridge-Smith brews tea at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture, where he serves as head of international development.

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