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JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 23, 2008

You'd have to be drunk to be fooled by Japan's booze commercials

A few weeks ago the Asahi Shimbun printed a letter from a 59-year-old man who complained about a TV commercial for Kirin's Tanrei, one of those beerlike beverages known as happoshu. In the spot, world-famous alpinist Ken Noguchi is seen climbing a mountain, the Gipsy Kings howling away on the soundtrack....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 1, 2006

Stars strive to be normal guys . . . and you buy it

During the 1980s bubble era it was almost obscene how much money Japanese companies overspent on things they didn't really need. In the media world, this extravagance was manifested in the hiring of foreign celebrities to appear in TV commercials.
JAPAN
Sep 5, 2001

Trains to become moving billboards

Advertisers in Tokyo gained a new medium on Tuesday -- rail cars.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 27, 2022

Google search ad sales beat targets despite global 'uncertainty'

The online search giant has weathered storms better than social media companies, bringing in revenue through a greater variety of functions in the ad market.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jun 28, 2022

'Greenwashing': a new climate misinformation battleground

While many companies have vowed to take action to curb climate change, critics say the gap between slogans and action undermines meaningful efforts to cut emissions.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jul 29, 2021

Under siege, China's private education giants take steps to curb fallout

The regulations marked the culmination of a monthslong campaign to rein in the ad spending wars and cut-throat competition that's come to define the sector.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 24, 2020

Facebook ad boycott gains steam, but small firms can't quit so easily

A number of major apparel brands have promised to pull advertising money from Facebook Inc. as part of a coordinated campaign to pressure the social-media giant to crack down on hate speech and misinformation amid nationwide civil-rights protests and the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. presidential election....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Jan 21, 2020

U.S. has long been a master at meddling in Russia

When the U.S. worries about Russia messing with its internal politics it sounds a lot like psychological projection. Or just desserts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 18, 2017

Ad money makes the news world go round

In a Nov. 8 press release, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center announced that Katsuya Takasu, the most famous plastic surgeon in Japan, was no longer a member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS). Previously, the center had been urging the AACS to expel Takasu because of his public...
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 19, 2017

Uber sues Dentsu's Fetch for $40 million over alleged click fraud on right-wing news site Breitbart

Uber Technologies Inc. is accustomed to getting sued. Now it's doing the suing, and it's partly thanks to Breitbart News.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / Taking the Lead
Sep 3, 2017

Line CEO Takeshi Idezawa hears voices guiding smartphones evolution

Since its messaging app debuted in June 2011, Line Corp. has shaken up the online communications landscape in Japan and morphed into a player in smartphone communications infrastructure.
Japan Times
JAPAN
May 19, 2015

Consumer rights group hits Rizap fitness chain over 'exaggerated' ad

A Kobe-based consumer rights group demands that the fast-growing Rizap fitness training chain remove the '30-day money-back guarantee' from its ads, saying the fine print states that refunds are made only when the company 'approves them.'
BUSINESS / Tech
Jul 25, 2013

Fox loses second ad-skipping battle

A U.S. federal court decision Wednesday gave fresh support to a new technology that helps consumers avoid a basic irritant of television viewing — the commercial.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 9, 2013

'Nutritious' claims need to be taken with a pinch of salt

During a recent visit to the United States, I was impressed by several advertising campaigns. The American Beverage Association (ABA) is running a series of spots that alternatingly complain of what it deems the over-regulation of soft drinks and promote the efforts of member manufacturers to make their...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 22, 2009

State taps taxis for bond-sale campaign

Japan is expanding efforts to attract buyers to the nation's growing debt load, flooding the backs of taxi cabs for the first time with pamphlets in the hopes of getting retirees to invest more money in bonds.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 23, 2008

We're just playing ball

It's an open secret that TV news shows tend to go easy on big advertisers in their reporting. In the many tributes to journalist Tetsuya Chikushi, who died two weeks ago of lung cancer, no one mentioned that he was a heavy smoker. The dangers of cigarettes were never covered on his nightly TBS show,...
Japan Times
LIFE
Nov 25, 2007

Jobs journal reflects social change

Back in 1980 when the weekly job-seekers' magazine Travail was launched, it was a social phenomenon that gave women the information they needed to independently switch jobs and build their careers. People even adopted the magazine's title (which means "work" in French, and is written in hiragana as torabayu)...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 29, 2007

The medical insurance game -- you always pay and they often play

On April 13, 12 different insurance companies apologized for failing to pay benefits for legitimate claims on life and supplemental medical insurance policies. It was the latest chapter in an industry-wide scandal that started with admissions about unpaid benefits for automobile and property insurance....
BUSINESS
Feb 21, 2006

Ad spending up thanks to Net

Spending on advertising came to 5.96 trillion yen in 2005, up 1.8 percent from the previous year for the second consecutive annual growth as the market for Internet ads grew more than 50 percent, Dentsu Inc. said Monday.
COMMENTARY
Jul 21, 2001

Campaign reform illusion deserves to die

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Congress appears to have killed so-called campaign reform. Despite all of the wailing, legislators did the right thing. Campaign reform is an illusion which would only rearrange who has political influence.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY
Jul 8, 2001

In the pink

When Yokohama hosts the final and three other games in the soccer World Cup next June, foreign visitors will be spared a full-frontal view of the city's sleazier side by the waterfront, where a campaign to lessen any shock to their systems has been under way since last year.
EDITORIALS
May 28, 2000

Say it with buses

Some Tokyo residents have been grumbling or sneering (or both) in the past few weeks about the latest head-turning novelty on the capital's streets: those giant moving billboards that used to be just plain old green-and-cream buses.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 18, 2000

You too could be the target market of a new drug

Every time I visit the United States, I am increasingly alarmed at the number of TV commercials for prescription drugs, which is something I never saw when I was a child. As a matter of fact, between 1994 and 1998, drug manufacturers increased their spending on direct-to-consumer advertising in the U.S....
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 9, 2022

ChatGPT could soon be the better way to Google

Answers from the AI-powered chatbot are often more useful than those from the world's biggest search engine. Alphabet should be worried.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 22, 2022

Activists pile pressure on brands after Trump's Twitter account reinstated

Twitter, which lost much of its communications team when Musk slashed the staff shortly after taking over, has not immediately responded to request for comment.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / World
Nov 9, 2022

Big Tech layoffs deflate Musk and Zuckerberg

Twitter and Facebook can't afford their billionaire bosses' obsessions in a new age of austerity.
Japan Times
WORLD
Mar 4, 2022

Putin's propaganda machine undercut by social media blackout

In the five years since Russia meddled in the 2016 U.S. election, Facebook and Twitter have built systems to ensure they wouldn't be blindsided the next time.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 28, 2022

As Russia invades Ukraine, Moscow battles Big Tech to control the narrative

As Russian missiles rained down on Ukrainian cities, another battle to control the narrative took place online and over the airwaves.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Aug 27, 2021

Spies for hire: China’s new breed of hackers blends espionage and entrepreneurship

China's premier spy agency is increasingly reaching beyond its own ranks to recruit from a vast pool of private-sector talent.

Longform

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