Tag - media-mix

 
 

MEDIA MIX

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 17, 2010
SMAP put on the spot
The most recent edition of NHK's New Year's eve song contest, "Kohaku Uta Gassen," received more attention than usual owing to a number of production coups.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 10, 2010
Fast fashion is not what's ailing Japan's economy
Last fall outspoken economist Noriko Hama caused a fuss with an essay about deflation in the magazine Bungei Shunju. She said that the trend of yasuuri kyoso (low price competition) was "destroying society," and not just in Japan. However, in Japan she singled out the clothing retailer Uniqlo as the...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 3, 2010
Bad boys take a beating in TV ads
When discussing Tiger Woods' fall from grace following revelations of extramarital hanky-panky, the American media make a point of distinguishing his talent from his newly soiled image. Whatever his sins, these media say, they can't take away from his accomplishments on the golf links. However, the damage...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 27, 2009
Hatoyama and sex changes? Time for our media awards
Media person of the year: Noriko Sakai
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 20, 2009
Those same old jokes aren't funny anymore
In October, a Colorado couple fooled the American media into believing that their 6-year-old son had possibly taken off in a homemade helium balloon, setting off a police search that received nationwide coverage. By the time the little boy was "discovered" hiding in the couple's attic, a Japanese TV...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 13, 2009
A mother's love — Hatoyama's — boosts tax coffers
Nothing says "socialism" better than the redistribution of wealth. In fact, redistributing wealth is what taxes are all about, and no tax redistributes wealth more honestly than inheritance taxes.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 6, 2009
Eco cars go up in smoke
Preadolescent tarento (TV celebrities) tend to provoke my gag reflex. I can only tolerate preternatural cuteness if it's presented without irony or intensification. Ten-year-old Nozomi Ohashi, who's famous for singing the theme song to the animated movie "Ponyo," has, according to her Wikipedia entry,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 29, 2009
Cute kittens out to kill you
Cats are easy targets, which is why Shukan Asahi took such a cheap shot at them in the banner headline of its print ads for the Dec. 4 issue: "New-type influenza being spread by cats!?" In the subhead, cat cafes were cited as "hotbeds of infection."
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 22, 2009
Obsessed with 'ugly' women
When I read the news item in early November about the three men in Tottori Prefecture whose mysterious deaths were linked to a woman already under arrest for fraud, I associated them with the similarly mysterious deaths of several other men linked to a Tokyo woman who was under arrest for swindling....
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 15, 2009
Movie JAL doesn't want you to see snubbed by media
Big-budget movies need all the help they can get recovering their production and promotional costs at the box office, so advertisements stating that the 3 1/2-hour epic "Shizumanu Taiyo" ("The Sun That Doesn't Set") is a "big hit" should be taken with a grain of salt. First of all, every movie released...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 8, 2009
Japan's roundabout road issue
One of the most contentious components of the Democratic Party of Japan's manifesto is the pledge to make all expressways free. In media survey after media survey, the portion of respondents who don't support the proposal has been consistently between 60 and 65 percent. The Liberal Democratic Party has...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 1, 2009
Japanese food-safety label protects business foremost, and not people
It's wise to take any advertisement claim with a grain of salt, and some products invite not just skepticism but downright disbelief. Commercials for hair restoration aids may not actually state they will return your bald pate to a state of hirsute lushness, but they nevertheless get your hopes up toward...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 25, 2009
Ishihara was ignorant of fact Olympics bid never had a hope — and we must pay price
Ever since Tokyo lost out on hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics the local media has been discussing what the Japan Olympic Committee (JOC) did wrong. In particular, they analyzed the presentations given by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara and a group of former and future Olympians before the International...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 18, 2009
Professor, schoolgirl share victim status in grope case
Last April, the Supreme Court reversed a Tokyo High Court decision that found Masahiro Nakura, a professor of medicine at the Self-Defense Forces University, guilty of being a chikan (groper) after he was charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old high school girl on the Odakyu train line in 2006....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 11, 2009
Japan's No. 1 playboy hardly a lady- killer
Talk-show host David Letterman obviously did the right thing when during a recent monologue he confessed to having had sex with some of his female staff. He made the admission to pre-empt news that he had been blackmailed for his indiscretions, but whatever the revelation said about Letterman's lack...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 4, 2009
Cheers to women drinking on their own terms
On July 31, an organization called Shufu Rengo, along with a conference of groups that address alcohol-related issues, sent a letter to liquor-industry associations containing a "request" to enforce "self-regulation" of television commercials targeting women.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 27, 2009
Denied bear necessities of life
About a week ago, while browsing the Internet, I came across a headline at the BBC Web site that made me pause: "Bear injures 9 at bus terminal." The first thought that crossed my mind was, "Why was a bear waiting for a bus?"
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 20, 2009
The forgotten DPJ promise on women's rights
In the weeks since the Democratic Party of Japan secured a majority in the Lower House, the new DPJ members of that institution have apparently been told to keep their mouths shut when they're around the media.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 13, 2009
ANA looks to sky as JAL hangs head
In a TV commercial aired all last summer, airline passengers are shown relaxing when the pilot comes on the PA to make the usual announcement about travel times and weather. Nobody seems alarmed when they learn that the skipper is teen golf sensation Ryo Ishikawa, who isn't old enough to drive a car...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 6, 2009
Media plays down landmark rent ruling
On July 23, the Kyoto District Court reached a verdict in a landlord-tenant dispute that found contract renewal fees common in rental agreements to be illegal. Kyodo News called it "a landmark ruling" with far-reaching implications.

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