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July 16, 2024
 

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MEDIA MIX

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 12, 2009
Entertainment as a fun family soap
Last weekend, actor Shunta Nakamura was arrested for possession of hashish while sitting in a parked car in Suginami Ward, Tokyo. The suspect's father, veteran actor Masatoshi Nakamura, quickly obliged the showbiz media by performing one of those tearful apologies that everyone looks forward to under...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Apr 5, 2009
Dead ends, about turns abound in the politics of roads
About a year ago, the government was all in a lather about extending the gasoline tax. Local governments and the ruling coalition, not to mention interested bureaucracies, wanted to continue the tax because they said the revenues were necessary to build more roads. Opposition parties were against the...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 29, 2009
Make room in the scrapyard of history for those quaint TV sets
When regular television broadcasts in America started in 1939, the intrinsic evils of the medium were already being discussed, and by the '50s the term "idiot box" had been coined.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 22, 2009
The cowardly whisper of politics
A few weeks ago I watched "All The President's Men" for the first time in more than 20 years. Set in the early 1970s, it was a potent blast from the past, but what struck me wasn't the relative youth of Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman or the pre-Internet drudge work that their real-life characters,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 15, 2009
Japan's 'silly couple' reunite despite domestic violence
For the past few weeks, America's showbiz media has lingered over the alleged beating that R&B star Rihanna received at the hands of her boyfriend, the equally popular singer Chris Brown. Below the titillating layer of scandal is the story's more sobering subtext of domestic violence (DV), a social...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 8, 2009
Gay rights in Japan blurred on TV
When Sean Penn won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of slain San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk two weeks ago, he used his acceptance speech to rail against supporters of California's Proposition 8, which last November repealed a State Supreme Court ruling extending marriage rights to same-sex...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Mar 1, 2009
Japan loves wasting food
The Fair Trade Commission's current investigation into whether or not Seven-Eleven Japan Co. bullies its franchise members has been barely covered by commercial TV news, which isn't surprising.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 22, 2009
Be it booze or cheese, LDP loves to court controversy
Was he or wasn't he? That is the question the media wrestled with last week when discussing former Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa's behavior at the Valentine's Day news conference held during the Group of Seven meeting in Rome. By this point everyone seems convinced he was drunk, but the relationship...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 15, 2009
The recession will lead to a downturn in media quality
Every day there is more gloomy news about a major manufacturer or retailer or service company cutting jobs — and not just a few dozen here or there, but thousands, tens of thousands. No one gets out alive, except self-made billionaires and McDonald's, which is doing quite well, apparently. People...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 8, 2009
New law may backfire on victims
In December, a new law went into effect allowing victims of crimes and their families to participate in trial proceedings. Previously, victims were virtually shut out of criminal courts unless they were called on to provide testimony. Under the new law, they may sit next to prosecutors during trials,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Feb 1, 2009
Popularity's dead! Rebellion against brands starts now
Recently I ran into a friend who works at a TV station in Tokyo. The conversation turned to Johnny's Jimusho, the most powerful talent agency in Japan, whose stable of male singers has dominated television for almost two decades. When I asked her if she had run into any of Johnny's stars, she said she...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 25, 2009
Poking fun at the ¥12,000 handout
The opposition parties' objections to the extra fiscal 2008 budget, which was put together to deal with the unexpected seriousness of the economic downturn, center on the ¥2 trillion in cash handouts originally conceived by the LDP's coalition partner, New Komeito, last summer during the final days...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 18, 2009
TV delves deep toward darker depths of dumbness
A fter more than a decade of slipping popularity, NHK's "Kohaku Uta Gassen" ("Red and White Song Contest") roared back to relevancy last New Year's Eve with impressive ratings.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jan 4, 2009
Rounding up 2008's media
Media Figure of the Year: Tomohiro Kato
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 28, 2008
Critics switched off over digital-TV plans
Yukichi Amano is one of Japan's sharpest media critics, so it was disconcerting to see him on NHK several weeks ago pimping for digital TV.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 21, 2008
The Japanese art of useless homes
Last spring, when the effects of the American sub-prime loan disaster were being felt but the world economy was still relatively OK, there was an article in the Asahi Shimbun written by one of the paper's financial reporters who recalled several years earlier a visit from a friend living in the United...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 14, 2008
Aso the donkey plods on
Last week, when poll results showed public support for the current Cabinet at an all-time low, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party tried to move past the bad news by focusing attention on what it believes is really important. Chief Cabinent Secretary Takeo Kawamura told reporters that the LDP shouldn't...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Dec 7, 2008
Graduates' security goes to pot
Last week, a 25-year-old University of Tokyo graduate was arrested for allegedly posting death threats on his blog. The police say that the man, who has been unemployed since graduating from Japan's most prestigious university, had written that he would kill members of the education ministry for misleading...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Nov 30, 2008
Shades of the BBC in NHK's own 'The Office'
Two months ago I heard about a comedy sketch that appeared last May on the American show "Saturday Night Live." Actor Steve Carrell was the host and he and the cast of regulars did a parody of his own show, "The Office," an American version of the famous British sitcom about white-collar workers. SNL...
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,...
Who needs AI when you have Hatsune Miku?
Over the first six months of 2024, a handful of songs using Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku’s voice have enjoyed widespread attention, underlining a global interest in the character and the technology she represents.
Bloodied Trump survives assassination attempt at political rally
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is surrounded and evacuated by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Trump was rushed off stage at the rally after shots rang out.
Shooter came within inches of killing Trump, but left few clues as to why
An aerial view shows the stage where Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump had been standing during an assassination attempt the day before, and the roof of a nearby building where a gunman was shot dead by law enforcement, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Sunday.
Yen’s woes seem too big for even a BOJ hike this month to solve
The Bank of Japan headquarters in Tokyo
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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