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November 21, 2024
 

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Philip Brasor
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...
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 / YEN FOR LIVING
Aug 10, 2018
Pricey family graves a fading tradition in aging Japan
Last month, a man was arrested by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police for leaving human remains at a garbage collection station near his residence in Adachi Ward. The remains had been cremated and were mixed in with shards of funerary urns, and according to a report on NHK News, the man admitted to dumping...
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...
Japan Times
JAPAN / History / Defining the Heisei Era
Jul 28, 2018
Defining the Heisei Era: Japan embraces insularity
The third installment of a monthly 12-part series that looks back at the leading issues of the past three decades.
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...
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...
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.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jul 13, 2018
Poverty in Japan: Underclass struggles to achieve upward mobility
Last month, Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai said during an LDP gathering in Tokyo that people who opt not to have children are "selfish" given the country's demographic crisis.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 7, 2018
Rose-tinted views of elderly workers' plight
The media has been conscientious in its coverage of the need for foreign workers in Japan. A May 20 NHK Special was particularly thorough in its portrayal of Mimasaka, Okayama Prefecture, which is encouraging Vietnamese laborers to move to the city. Several news outlets have covered Mimasaka's statue...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 30, 2018
Shinzo Abe's Kake Gakuen scandal refuses to lie down and die
Most people believe politicians lie, though the reflexive skepticism with which the current U.S. president’s pronouncements are met is probably exceptional. The secret to successful lying is to never admit to it in the slightest way.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 23, 2018
Public remains ignorant of the hazards associated with smoking
“Secondhand smoke” describes the fumes in the air that result from someone smoking tobacco. “Sidestream smoke” (fukuryūen) comes off the tip of the cigarette itself rather than out of the mouth of the person smoking it. Since sidestream smoke is estimated to make up about 85 percent of environmental...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 16, 2018
Should the elderly be stopped from driving?
On June 10, a car crashed into a supermarket in Shibukawa, Gunma Prefecture, injuring 14 people. At first the incident sounded like yet another elderly person losing control of a vehicle and causing destruction, but then it transpires that the driver was a 55-year-old man.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 9, 2018
Undocumented workers in Japan in a constant state of uncertainty
People who live in a state of daily desperation sometimes react to their circumstances with violence against others or themselves and, while such actions are a manifestation of frustration, they can also alert the larger world to that frustration, even if it wasn't intended.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Jun 8, 2018
Days are numbered for ATMs in Japan's banking system
On May 2, Shinsei Bank announced that starting from October it will impose fees for automatic teller machine (ATM) transactions. Shinsei's main sales point has always been its lack of ATM fees, but the bank will start charging ¥108 per ATM withdrawal unless the customer's account satisfies certain conditions....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 2, 2018
Market forces in Japan failing to tackle growing plastics problem
Last month, news outlets all over the world reported on the discovery of a plastic shopping bag at the bottom of the Mariana Trench near the Philippines, the deepest point in the Earth’s oceans. The discovery was made by a group of Japanese researchers studying images from deep-sea exploration projects,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 26, 2018
Commenting on the debate over hate speech on government websites
On May 2, the Cabinet Office removed the posts on its Government Monitor System (GMS) website, a place where citizens offered comments on government policy. The system was established in 1962 to solicit opinions from the public about government policy, but until 2012 it was a snail mail operation. Thereafter,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 19, 2018
Japan's courts are being asked to define the role of the SDF
As discussed in Media Mix last week, news organizations are on the lookout for signs of whether the country’s Self-Defense Forces are becoming politically active. There have been indications the SDF wants to be the conventional military that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party has in mind, but that...
Ishiba delays meeting with Trump, citing legal restrictions
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba waves upon arrival for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, in Callao, Peru, on Friday.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Rising sex tourism exposes loopholes in Japan's anti-prostitution law
While financial misfortunes during the COVID-19 pandemic may have driven some women to work the streets, others simply want more money to spend — or want to pay off their debts — at host clubs.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
Ruling coalition and DPP strike last-minute deal over economic policy
DPP policy chief Makoto Mahaguchi speaks at the party's policy gathering in Tokyo on Wednesday.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.
Japanese expats in Asia find community through rugby
The Taiwan Fivewoods celebrate their victory at the 2023 Asian Japanese Rugby Cup in December of last year.
In Fukushima, a weekend of prose, poetry and translation
Aomori-based writer JJ Carter presented on tabletop gaming as creative inspiration for building characters and narratives.
For Dr. Nakamats, aging is just experience in action
Though he didn't win the recent gubernatorial election in Tokyo, the 96-year-old Dr. Nakamats' run was seen as inspirational in Japan's aging society.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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