Tag - media-mix

 
 

MEDIA MIX

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 24, 2010
Some recent adventures in intellectual property
Much has been made in the Japanese press about the commercial ramifications of the research in palladium- catalyzed cross couplings in organic systems that won Eiichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki the Nobel Prize in chemistry this year. The long-term studies by the pair and an American colleague, Richard...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 17, 2010
Aeon 'digging grave' for temple funerals
Last year, a friend who lives in Tokyo received a letter from the Buddhist temple where her family grave is located. The temple is in a town in Gunma Prefecture, and while none of her relatives live there any more, they visit the grave for the proper seasonal observances.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 10, 2010
Rising racket hoodwinks the have-nots
The gap between the haves and the have-nots continues to widen in Japan, and one attendant development is the rise of hinkon bijinesu (poverty businesses), enterprises that are blatant attempts to take advantage of people who are already poor.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 3, 2010
Media racism: How unsportsmanlike
Local favoritism is built into organized sports. At the macro level you have whole countries rooting for national teams at the Olympics or the World Cup. At the micro level you have fans cheering a hometown boy who plays for a team far away. By the same token, nationalistic fans denigrate opposing countries'...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 26, 2010
Home truths: To buy or not to buy?
During a recent sojourn in the United States, I talked with friends and relatives about the housing situation, specifically the value of their homes in the wake of the subprime fiasco of 2007-08. Those who bought high just before the bubble burst are feeling queasy now that property values have descended...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 19, 2010
Domestic media hangs on Chiba's every comment
In July, Justice Minister Keiko Chiba signed execution orders for two death row inmates and then attended their hangings. Many people were puzzled because Chiba, an attorney, had been opposed to the death penalty. She said that she was under no pressure to sign the orders and that there weren't any political...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 12, 2010
Could public polls sway DPJ vote?
According to major media opinion polls, if the choice of who will lead the country was up to the populace, Prime Minister Naoto Kan would retain his position against fellow Democratic Party of Japan member Ichiro Ozawa's challenge to the party presidency and the premiership.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 5, 2010
Fertility issue pregnant with discord
In 2004, Diet lawmaker Seiko Noda wrote a book titled "Watashi wa Umitai" ("I Want to Give Birth"), which chronicled her years of infertility treatments and the subsequent pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. Two years later she ended her six-year relationship with fellow politician Yosuke Tsuruho, who...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 29, 2010
Racy pop distracts from lip service
In April, China's Culture Ministry fined two young women 50,000 yuan (¥625,000) each for lip-syncing during performances in the city of Chengdu last year. The authorities characterize this edict against "fake singing" as a kind of truth-in-advertising rule, but most people think it was an overreaction...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 22, 2010
Families dictate Japan's economic fate
Though everybody saw it coming, the announcement last week that China's economy supplanted Japan's as the second largest in the world shocked many people. It matters little that China's sheer size makes its dominance inevitable. What matters is that Japan's 42-year run as the world's No. 2 is over, and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 15, 2010
Missing seniors unravel family ties
The Japanese media are currently obsessed with the notion of old people disappearing from the face of the Earth without anyone knowing about it, including loved ones.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 8, 2010
A warm embrace for ruff justice
Some years ago, a Belgian woman named An van Dienderen wondered why so many Japanese tourists visited her hometown of Antwerp, and particularly its cathedral. She learned that they wanted to see the place where the boy Nello and his faithful dog Patrasche died in the story "A Dog of Flanders." This thin...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 1, 2010
TV examines the morals of the story
The new Hollywood spy thriller "Salt" has received good reviews, even if a sizable portion of them admit that the plot is preposterous. What critics appreciate is the protagonist's uncertain nature as a hero. Angelina Jolie is a CIA operative outed by a Russian defector as a sleeper agent. The question...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 25, 2010
A bailout by any other name
The gap between rich and poor seems to be widening worldwide, the result of government deregulation and the dominance of market-led economic policies. As businesses are given freer rein to do whatever they want, wages at the lower end of the pay scale drop. Government revenues consequently shrink, thus...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 18, 2010
Japan's media laps up poll parade
One of the funniest images to emerge from last week's Upper House election was the row of Liberal Democratic Party bigwigs pointing their forefingers to the sky in unison and flashing big stupid grins. The big stupid grins were a reaction to the party's supposed comeback, since they had just won more...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 11, 2010
SMAP bled for rotten tomatoes
Last week, the Asahi Shimbun published an article about the suicide of actor-singer Park Yong Ha. The pieceanalyzed South Korean show business to ascertain why so many stars have killed themselves in recent years, and concluded that their relationships with management agencies grind them down. Park has...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 4, 2010
Playing spot the political difference
The central dynamic in politics is the tug-of-war between conservatism and liberalism, and while it's always been that way, the conflict is particularly contentious these days owing to a global media culture that sees nothing wrong with taking sides. Differences are starker and less rational. In America,...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 27, 2010
The guy just needs a home
It's difficult to decide which spelling to use. In Japan, the name of North Korea's striker at the World Cup in South Africa is usually rendered as Chong Tese. North Korea spells it Jong Tae Se, but in those instances where South Korea reports on the 26-year-old soccer player, it's Jeong Dae Se or Jung...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 20, 2010
Government policy of cash gifts to journalists rolls on
In late April, about a month before Naoto Kan took over as prime minister from Yukio Hatoyama, a hand-written note was taped to the intercom outside Kan's home in the Kichijoji district of Tokyo. It read, "No press meetings," and was signed "Kan," but it wasn't written by the current Democratic Party...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 13, 2010
Few TV surfers ride 'Korean wave' series 'Iris'
Two weeks ago, cast members of the South Korean TV drama series "Iris" appeared in concerts at Osaka Castle Hall and Saitama Super Arena. Some 60,000 fans of the star Lee Byung Hun bought tickets, but 1,400 at one of the Saitama events found themselves shut out after the organizers decided that the stage...

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