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Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / Japan Pulse
Jan 27, 2018

Shukan Bunshun shoots itself in the foot with Komuro scandal

Another month, another celebrity controversy in Japan. This time, however, the commotion over J-pop producer Tetsuya Komuro’s alleged affair and subsequent retirement might mark the moment that netizens rejected the country’s obsession with scandals. It also allowed those who might fall under the...
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2019

Japan's Shukan Post apologizes after being blasted for discrimination toward South Koreans

A weekly magazine's editorial department has apologized for what has been widely slammed as discriminatory coverage of South Koreans, with the magazine having branded them as pathologically quick-tempered and insisted that Tokyo cut ties with Seoul because the neighbor is "troublesome."
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Feb 20, 2016

Deja vu as Shukan Shincho turns back the clock

The title of the Japanese government's White Paper on the Economy for the 31st year of Showa (1956) was "The 'postwar' era is over." That same year, a delegation from the World Bank headed by Alfred Watkins spent five months studying the feasibility of extending a loan for an expressway linking the cities...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
May 27, 2017

Magazine snares rival 'scoop thief' red-handed

In its May 25 issue, Shukan Shincho set pens a-pushing and tongues a-wagging throughout the nation by accusing rival weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun of engaging in sneaky schemes to steal its thunder.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 21, 2017

Magazines hold their own against TV's 'iron chefs'

Prior to Japan's switch-over to full digital TV broadcasting in 2011, a number of industry insiders were already voicing concerns about how the new technology would affect their bottom line. With expanded bandwidth and additional channels, what — aside from reruns of old programs — could the networks...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 15, 2017

Fundraising loopholes, a political norm

The Liberal Democratic Party lost a large number of seats to Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's upstart Tomin First Party in the Tokyo assembly election. Media surveys reveal that the public is dismayed by recent scandals involving the LDP, in particular the one surrounding educational company Kake Gakuen, which...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Apr 29, 2017

Donald Trump's 'first 100 days' is down for the count

In American newspapers, wire services, cable TV and blogs, U.S. President Donald Trump is beset by a host of recurring brickbats, from complaints over his refusal to make public his income tax returns and alleged Russian connections, to his reputation as a male chauvinist and propensity to cite conspiracy...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 6, 2018

2018: Year of the 800-pound Gorilla

Four topics dominated Japan's non-Twitter news cycle for the last quarter of 2017. Two involved sports: the signing of 23-year-old baseball superstar Shohei Otani to play for the Los Angeles Angels of the American League; and the resignation of sumo grand champion Harumafuji after assaulting a younger...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 16, 2017

Showa's not giving up without a fight

The government has decided that the 31st year of Heisei will end with the abdication of Emperor Akihito 120 days into 2019, on April 30. Then on May 1, Crown Prince Naruhito will become emperor and a new nengō (name of the period of reign) will be announced.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jul 1, 2017

Keep your eyes and ears open, and hands inside your pockets

It's a fake world. Alternatively: All the world's a stage.
JAPAN
Mar 20, 2004

Injunction upheld against latest issue of Shukan Bunshun

The Tokyo District Court on Friday upheld a temporary injunction banning publication of the latest edition of the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun, judging that one of its stories violates the privacy of former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka's daughter.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 20, 2021

Did Japan's press drop the ball on the wining-and-dining scandal?

Why did mainstream media outlets take so long to probe the scandals involving the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications that were first uncovered by weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun?
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 5, 2020

Competing interests of labor unions laid bare at TV Asahi

When a company's workforce contains both journalists and news program workers, conflict can arise.
JAPAN / Politics
Apr 9, 2013

Hashimoto to sue Asahi for story on family past

Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) chief Toru Hashimoto plans to sue the weekly Shukan Asahi and daily Asahi Shimbun, claiming they violated his human rights when the magazine ran an article six months ago touching on his family background.
EDITORIALS
Apr 21, 2009

Shukan Shincho's responsibility

Shukan Shincho weekly magazine, in its Feb. 5 issue, carried the first of a four-part series of accounts by a man who claimed to be responsible for a May 3, 1987, attack on the Asahi Shimbun newspaper's Hanshin bureau in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, that killed one reporter and injured another. But...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Oct 26, 2019

The mysterious case of Japan's vanishing bookstores

Decades of writing a column about the country's media industry has imparted me with a strong sense of familiarity with media personalities, companies, publications and sales channels. When they expire, it often hits me hard.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Jan 19, 2019

Tolerant attitudes make Japan a drinker's paradise

If any doubts existed that Japanese people are exceptionally tolerant toward the imbibing of alcohol, those were erased in 2014, when the Pew Center, as part of its Global Attitudes Project, surveyed people's views on drinking in 40 countries.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Nov 11, 2017

On the quest for the holy grail for as long as we live

Is death inevitable? True, everyone born before Aug. 4, 1900, has proved mortal (the world's oldest-known living person, a Japanese woman named Nabi Tajima, was born on that date). But the past is only an imperfect guide to the future, as the effervescent present is ceaselessly teaching us.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media
Mar 15, 2014

Japan's future may be stunted by its past

Is time carrying us forward, or backward?
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Dec 30, 2017

Who can we trust during these new wars of the world?

Swords into ploughshares. Spears into pruning hooks. Three thousand-odd years ago, when civilization was rough and passions raw, an extraordinary visionary saw peace dawning. His words, recorded in the Biblical book of Isaiah, transcend religious denomination and national affiliation. They belong to...
JAPAN / Media / BIG IN JAPAN
Sep 2, 2017

The naivete of youth can be a costly problem

From Aug. 15, the Yukan Fuji ran a three-part series by investigative reporter Fumiaki Tada about the "dangerous summer" that confronts Japan's young people, including the possibility of falling victim to fraud or robbery.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 29, 2017

Spare a thought for the secretaries

Few recent scandals have been as entertaining as Lower House lawmaker Mayuko Toyota's verbal and physical attack on her secretary as revealed in a recording leaked to the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho. With the recording coming to light in the week before the Tokyo assembly elections, Toyota decided...
Hitoshi Matsumoto
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Mar 28, 2024

Comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto's defamation trial kicks off

Identities of two women accusing the comedian of forcing them into having sex, as reported by Shukan Bunshun, becomes the focus on Day 1.
JAPAN
Aug 1, 2023

Kishida aide Kihara sidesteps reporters after wife in the spotlight

Weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun reported that Kihara's wife had been questioned by Tokyo Metro Police on a voluntary basis.
According to Hitoshi Matsumoto’s lawyer, he is suing Bungei Shunju, the publisher of the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine over an article that was published in the magazine and online on Dec. 27.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jan 23, 2024

Comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto sues publisher over sexual assault article

The Downtown member is suing Bungei Shunju, the publisher of the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine, for defamation.
JAPAN / Society
Aug 30, 2023

Media respond to report on sexual abuse at Johnny and Associates

The committee said Japan's mainstream media chose to ignore Kitagawa’s sexual abuse in order to maintain access to Johnny & Associates' talent pool.
Hitoshi Matsumoto (left) and his Downtown comedy partner, Masatoshi Hamada, at an event in 2014
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Dec 27, 2023

Popular Japanese comedian denies sexual assault allegations

The talent agency of Hitoshi Matsumoto, one half of the duo Downtown, said it is considering legal action over the report.
Karolina Shiino (center), winner of Miss Japan 2024, poses with other prize winners at the contest in Tokyo on Jan. 22.
JAPAN / Society
Feb 6, 2024

Ukraine-born Miss Japan relinquishes crown following affair

Karolina Shiino's decision, the first time a Miss Japan winner has relinquished their title, follows a report that she was dating a married man.
The headquarters of Bungeishunju, Shukan Bunshun's publisher, in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 8, 2024

Comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto to withdraw Bungeishunju defamation suit

The lawsuit was filed over a Shukan Bunshun article that detailed sexual assault allegations made by two women.

Longform

Visitors to Kyoto walk along a street near Kiyomizu Temple in April. A popular tourist spot, Kyoto has seen what locals feel to be an overwhelming amount of tourists in 2024.
Is Japan ready for 60 million tourists?