Tag - media-mix

 
 

MEDIA MIX

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 22, 2004
A first step to understanding the homeless
The mayor of Kawasaki, Takao Abe, is currently under attack from a group of city residents who don't want a planned homeless shelter put in their neighborhood. Last month, Abe rejected the residents' request for a meeting to hear his explanation of why a disused chemical factory in the Tsutsumine district...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 15, 2004
Politicians score D-minus for education claims
The American media's resurgent interest in U.S. President George Bush's service as a fighter pilot in the Texas Air National Guard in the early '70s might seem opportunistic given its timing. The controversy over whether or not Bush fulfilled his obligation to the Guard -- records show unaccounted for...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 8, 2004
Who needs actors when you've got SMAP?
Last summer's Nippon TV scandal, in which a producer admitted he'd bribed monitor families into watching his program, has compromised the Japanese ratings system, but no matter how skeptically you regard such numbers the ratings performance of the pop group SMAP during the first month of the new year...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 1, 2004
Entertaining the idea of surrogate mums
Last week, the health ministry decided not to recommend revisions to current guidelines regarding fertility treatments. This disappointed the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which has been advocating the legalization of such controversial procedures as the use of surrogate mothers because they say they...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 25, 2004
Japan's culture dictates: Thou shalt eat meat
On Jan. 15, the animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, announced that CBS had refused to accept a 30-second TV spot from the group for the network's Feb. 1 Super Bowl broadcast. CBS explained that its policy is not to accept "advocacy advertisements." PETA, which would...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 18, 2004
'Losing dog' believers are barking up the wrong tree
In last week's column I mentioned that the media now likes to divide people and things into winners and losers (kachigumi, makegumi). This device is mainly used for economic-related matters, but it has trickled down into other social spheres.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 11, 2004
Japan's 'Seabiscuit' shows losers can be winners too
There are few cliches as dubious as "Everybody loves a winner." Does everybody love a winner? The fans of the Hanshin Tigers certainly don't love the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 4, 2004
Jong gets the gong in 2003 media awards
Media person of the year: Kim Jong Il
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 21, 2003
Year's top commercials 'ad' up to great Japanese TV
Anyone who reads this column regularly probably believes that I find Japanese television completely worthless. It's not true; or, at least, not completely true. I think Japanese TV commercials are very good and often more representative of the hopes and dreams of the nation than the programming is.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 14, 2003
Not letting the facts get in the way of a good 'documentary'
In the tributes to the Japanese diplomats who were killed two weeks ago, few people mentioned what they were actually doing in Iraq. Katsuhiko Oku was, among other things, encouraging Iraqis to watch NHK's popular drama series, "Oshin," which is being broadcast on Iraqi TV. The show, originally aired...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 7, 2003
Japan's refusal to embrace sex education fuels spread of AIDS
U.S. President George W. Bush may be the best example of how ignorance can be wielded as a weapon, but most people who take advantage of their ignorance prefer to use it as a shield. Tadao Eguchi, the president of the hotel company that operates the hot-spring resort that canceled the reservations of...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 30, 2003
Japan is not sending the 'right stuff' to Iraq
If ever there was a time to discuss the constitutional legality of Japan's Self-Defense Forces, it's now. The SDF has done peacekeeping work, but it's never been placed in a country like Iraq, which for all intents and purposes is still at war.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 23, 2003
State gambles with the future of 'discarded' kids
Last month there were two news stories about legal complications arising from the conception of children through special medical procedures. In one, a surrogate mother in California gave birth to twins who were the product of a Japanese man's sperm and the egg of a third-party Asian-American woman. In...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 16, 2003
From manifest destiny to voter apathy
The media kept referring to last week's House of Representatives poll as the "manifesto election," because it was the first time Japan's political parties had spelled out their platforms. The inexperience showed. In their printed versions, the manifestos were considered all but incomprehensible, and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 9, 2003
Dancing through the storm in a D-cup
Much of the reporting about the Oct. 29 incident at Northwest University in Xian, China, in which three male Japanese exchange students danced in a university festival wearing brassieres and "fake genitals," gave the impression that the students' faux pas was a matter of cultural differences. What this...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 2, 2003
On TV, what you get is not what you want
Last weekend, former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka, prior to her official announcement to stand as a candidate in the upcoming House of Representatives election, held a press conference; or, more exactly, two press conferences -- one for the national newspapers and one for the TV networks. No magazines...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 26, 2003
JT campaign aims to blunt war on smokers
Several weeks ago this newspaper published letters from non-Japanese readers who complained about a Japan Tobacco advertising campaign that depicts Western men and women with exaggerated noses sniffing cigarette smoke out of wine glasses. Two of the writers were angered by the image itself, saying that...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 19, 2003
Maverick broadcaster Kume shook 'em up
Since Oct. 10, when the House of Representatives was dissolved, bigwigs from Japan's political parties have been making the rounds of the nightly news shows, spelling out their differences and promoting their spiffy new "manifestos" in preparation for the election on Nov. 9. Though they've contained...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 12, 2003
Young Japanese silently reject salaryman lifestyle
Government facilities are depressing places, but none are as depressing as your neighborhood unemployment office. That's why, in Japan, unemployment offices have been given the cheery, infantilized name "Hello Work," a term that conjures up visions of company presidents waiting at the entrance with job...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Oct 5, 2003
Role of victims in court needs careful monitoring
In the past, the press was often accused of bearing down too hard on victims of crimes and their families. In the most extreme cases, the media would camp outside the homes of victims who didn't want to talk to them (the family of the Kobe boy who was beheaded by another boy in 1995) or imply that a...

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