Tag - media-mix

 
 

MEDIA MIX

Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 20, 2012
TV: no longer the drug of the people
Last week, Japan's fifth largest discount electronics retailer, Bic Camera, announced it would soon obtain a 50 percent share of Japan's sixth-largest discount electronics retailer, Kojima, thus making the combined companies Japan's second-largest electronics retailer. Bic operates 34 stores in large...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 13, 2012
Road-death stats hide the truth
The media likes to report on victims of accidents, disasters and crimes, and while it's natural to feel sympathy for unfortunate individuals, the only imaginable benefit this sort of coverage provides to viewers and readers is catharsis, which is better served by the popular arts.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 6, 2012
'Hidden children' of politicians no hurdle to success
Democratic Party of Japan kingpin Ichiro Ozawa was acquitted last week of conspiring to file false financial reports for his political group. He can now return full-time to the job he was elected to do, but the sense you get from the mainstream media is that he's through as a politician. The press has...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 29, 2012
Death sentences prove difficult for lay judges
However one feels about the death penalty, it's difficult to argue that its application in Japan isn't arbitrary. Last week, former Justice Minister Hideo Hiraoka publicly denounced his successor Toshio Ogawa's decision to have three death row inmates hanged on March 29, saying that the government needs...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 22, 2012
TV 'wide shows' question decision to restart Oi reactor
When it comes to public relations, the Japanese government tends toward imprecision. Many say the Japanese language is already built for vagueness, but that doesn't mean Japanese people can't see through the haze.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 15, 2012
An idol 'graduating' should not be front-page news
Following Atsuko Maeda's March 25 announcement that she was leaving the all-girl idol collective AKB48, a rumor circulated on Twitter that a male University of Tokyo student had committed suicide in response. The rumor was quickly exposed as a hoax, but the point had been made. People were taking the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 8, 2012
Mainstream media toes the line on sales tax
A bill to increase the consumption tax has finally been submitted to the Diet. Approval is by no means assured, owing partly to the fact that the substance of the issue has changed since the idea of a consumption tax was originally formulated. The Liberal Democratic Party saw it as a source of funding...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 1, 2012
Yomiuri vs. Asahi in war over Giants' broken paycap agreement 'scoop'
On March 15, the Asahi Shimbun reported that the Yomiuri Giants baseball team paid huge amounts of money in contract-signing bonuses to several rookies, in violation of an agreement signed by all 12 Japan Professional Baseball teams. The payouts took place from 1997 to 2004, and involved six players...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 25, 2012
Media's gender roles push LGBT groups into corners
Last week, NHK aired all 22 episodes of the second season of "Glee" over seven consecutive nights. "Glee" is an American TV series centered on a high school glee club whose members are considered outcasts because of their love of singing. One member is a gay youth named Kurt. In the first episode of...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 18, 2012
Quake insurance is but a token offering
As the government continues to push for an increase in the consumption tax, a question related to last year's disaster is still being debated: How much of the burden for rebuilding should be shouldered by taxpayers? We live in a resolutely capitalist country that stresses personal responsibility, and...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 11, 2012
Public wary of official optimism
Ambition can sometimes be measured by the amount of deference paid to the established order, so the recently published book "Genpatsu Kiki to Todai Waho," which irreverently analyzes the "parlance of the University of Tokyo" as it was utilized during the early days of the nuclear crisis in Fukushima,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 4, 2012
Japan's lonely people: Where do they all belong?
In recent weeks, three cases of kodokushi, or "lonely deaths," have been covered extensively in the news. One involved a Saitama Prefecture family of three whose bodies were found in their apartment several months after the electricity and gas were turned off for nonpayment. Police assumed they had starved....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 26, 2012
Job-seeking comedy avoids real issues
In 2004, novelist Ryu Murakami published "13-sai no Hello Work," a job guide for 13-year-olds, though most of the copies were bought by adults. The book did not offer practical advice, but rather job descriptions in all lines of work, from engineer to prostitute, in order to give readers an idea of what...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 19, 2012
Feeding tube politics an awkward subject
On Feb. 6, Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, recounted on a BS Asahi talk show a visit he recently made to a medical facility where patients were hooked up to gastric feeding tubes, or irō. He said it reminded him of the 1979 science fiction-horror movie "Alien,"...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 12, 2012
Swindlers continue to scam the elderly out of their savings
Recently, my partner renewed her drivers license and was waiting in line to pay her fee. The clerk asked the elderly man waiting in front of her if he wanted to join the Japan Traffic Safety Association for an additional fee. She rattled off a memorized spiel, and after the intimidated old man assented...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 5, 2012
Todai calls for change, but will others follow?
Spring approaches, and the thoughts of the media, which like nothing better than the warm comfort of a predictable news cycle, turn to education. Students are wrapping up the scholastic year and some are taking tests that will determine their lives. Last year, reporters got a bonus; That story about...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 29, 2012
Disaster adds tension to year-in-the-life TV
Fuji TV's Sunday afternoon documentary series "The Non-Fiction" usually covers individuals over long periods of time. "The Old Man and Radiation," aired in two parts on Jan. 15 and 22, was about Toshihiko Kawamoto, an 80-year-old former carpenter who moved from Tokyo to the wilds of Fukushima Prefecture...
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 22, 2012
Can showbiz really sever yakuza ties?
Last August, comedian and TV emcee Shinsuke Shimada retired from show business following allegations that he'd been palling around with an underworld figure. His withdrawal came on the eve of the implementation of a well-publicized police crackdown on organizations that work with antisocial elements,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 15, 2012
Rigged online food reviews should come as no surprise
NHK has a regular travel series called "Quiz de Go," which sends TV personalities to far-flung corners of Japan and then asks them questions about the area's local qualities. Several weeks ago, three celebrities were exploring Miyazu, Kyoto Prefecture, and were turned on to a local delicacy called Curry-yaki....
Japan Times
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 8, 2012
Oops! Pregnant celebs dancing down the aisle
J-pop diva Kumi Koda recently announced her engagement to Kenji03 of the rock band Back-On, and revealed that the pair had met earlier in the year when they collaborated on a song. She didn't mention that Kenji03 had previously dated Koda's sister, TV baka (silly) personality Misono, but that qualifying...

Longform

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