Though last Sunday's Tokyo assembly elections garnered the most media attention, another contest came in a close second, even if only two people were involved. Fourteen-year-old Sota Fujii's record-setting winning streak of 29 games of shogi was finally broken on July 2 when he lost a match to 22-year-old Yuki Sasaki.

Fujii has turned into a media superstar in the past year because of his youth and exceptional ability in a game that non-enthusiasts may find too cerebral to appreciate. The speed of Fujii's ascension to headline status has been purposely accelerated by the media, which treats him as not just a prodigy, but as the vanguard figure of a pastime in which the media has a stake.

Press photos of Fujii's matches show enormous assemblies of reporters, video crews and photographers hovering over the kneeling opponents. Such attention may seem ridiculous to some people owing to the solemnity surrounding shogi, which is played much like chess, but if Fujii succeeds in attracting new fans, then the media is all for it.