Tag - media-mix

 
 

MEDIA MIX

JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 25, 2005
Help the disabled, but don't deny them
Several years ago, the government discussed state-sponsored care for people with disabilities. The idea was to assist mentally and physically disabled people in leaving publicly-funded facilities and entering society; or, at least, that was how it was presented.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 18, 2005
Trying to keep the train-groping perverts out of touch
Earlier this year when some Japanese train lines inaugurated women-only cars the Western media picked the story up as yet another example of Weird Japan, a place, they implied, where sexual deviancy was so culturally grounded that the only thing railway companies could do to protect female passengers...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 11, 2005
Desperate drones are content to be 'conned' into buying a condo
As long as I've lived in Tokyo I've received phone calls from condominium salespeople. In the past, these solicitations seemed accidental, as if the salespeople had dialed my number at random. But in the last five years the calls have been more deliberate. The salespeople know where I live -- not just...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Sep 4, 2005
The aged better off heading for the hills on their limited pensions
The main opposition parties claim that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's attempt to make the upcoming Lower House election a referendum on postal reform is simply a scheme to deflect public attention away from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's fiscal failures under his leadership. Consequently,...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 28, 2005
Postal reform gets stamp of approval from celeb politicians
Opponents of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's postal reform plans have a number of complaints, but the point they tend to harp on about, presumably because it's the only one the average citizen can appreciate, is the downsizing of post offices in far-flung regions.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 21, 2005
'Pacifist' Japan always ready to back a bit of conflict
"I don't care to belong to any club that will accept me as a member." -- Groucho Marx
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 14, 2005
He hops onto a shuttle, jumps off to a media shuffle
Last Tuesday's landing of the Space Shuttle Discovery in the deserts of California capped a tense two weeks in which the safety of the vehicle and the seven astronauts it contained was never 100 percent assured. The loss of foam insulation during liftoff was eerily reminiscent of the last shuttle mission...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Aug 7, 2005
No turning back the clock when the walls come tumbling down
Because earthquakes are unpredictable, people who live with them are fatalistic: There's nothing you can do except hope you're in a place that doesn't fall down on top of you. This attitude only covers naked survival, which to most people means everything, but experts predict that in a worst case scenario...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 24, 2005
It's the black comedy of Japan: 'Don't mention the war . . .'
A point that tends to be overlooked in the debate over textbooks that whitewash Japan's actions during World War II is that Japanese junior high school history classes rarely make it past the Meiji Restoration. Whether or not "comfort women" or the Rape of Nanking is mentioned in textbooks becomes an...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 17, 2005
How gei can one get? 'Pretend gay' is as far as it gets
"Talent," or tarento, is the cushiest job in Japan -- maybe in the whole world. Though you are expected to have some kind of skill (gei), once you achieve a level of regularity as a TV variety show guest, the work is self-perpetuating, though it's by no means guaranteed forever. And rarely do successful...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 10, 2005
Author asks Japanese courts, 'Where is your mind?'
Sensational crimes are defined by the media since sensations fuel the media engine. Murder has the greatest potential for sensationalism, but some murders attract more attention than others. Through a certain confluence of motive, money, and methodology some hog headlines for weeks while others never...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jul 3, 2005
This is Japan and yes, it's easy to net a pet to enjoy a dog-day life
Ten years ago I was in San Francisco and dropped by the local SPCA's pet-adoption facility in the Mission District to make a donation. When I was living in the city years before, I had adopted a cat there that was still living with me, and I wanted to express my appreciation.
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 26, 2005
Japan gets a life and finally drags its heels into Live 8
There used to be a common expression that money used to send men to the moon could better be spent on feeding people down here on Earth. As if in response, funding for space exploration was eventually cut and more money was channeled into so-called development aid, the ultimate aim of which, we were...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 19, 2005
Takanohana vs. Wakanohana: The final faceoff
The battle between former sumo grand champion siblings Wakanohana and Takanohana over the legacy of their father, sumo elder Futagoyama, started well before his death from mouth cancer on May 30 at the age of 55. The press, however, didn't dive into the melee until after Futogayama's body was placed...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 12, 2005
Japan's leaders try to be 'cool' to take heat off themselves
Some people are hard to please. Though he was a member of the committee that chose the term "Cool Biz" for the campaign launched last week to bring government dress more in line with seasonal realities, fashion designer and critic Don Konishi is very disappointed with the sartorial choices made by Diet...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
Jun 5, 2005
Misfits stand up, look to the stars -- or for some grub
The media and the popular arts thrive on synergy: Broadcasters and publishers play footsy with movie companies, record labels and talent agencies to keep the public drooling over whatever product or personality they're all selling at this particular moment. Synergy takes work, but sometimes it just happens...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 29, 2005
Anger, not pity, is best response to poverty
In his new book, "Planet of Slums," the American urban historian Mike Davis paints a bleak picture of a world in which the poorest have become so marginalized that they have dropped off the economic radar. Over the past 20 years or so, globalization and the neoliberal policies of the International Monetary...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 22, 2005
It's not all quiet on the (Middle-) Eastern front after the abduction
After it was learned that Akihiko Saito, a Japanese national working for a British security company in Iraq, was captured by a militant group during an ambush, the media seemed so stunned by the revelation that they couldn't get their bearings. So they seized on the only source of local information they...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 15, 2005
The great corporate escape: Blame it on the factotums and avoid responsibility
The news media's breathless coverage of the train derailment in Amagasaki that claimed 107 lives last month operated on several levels. On one level was an investigation into the details of the accident itself. On another was the coverage of victims and their families. And on a third was the gradual...
JAPAN / Media / MEDIA MIX
May 8, 2005
TV show scrapes bottom of barrel in bringing Asia to Japan
One of the hoariest cliches of international politics is the idea that governments only have beefs with other governments, not with their citizens. The tragic irony is that the citizens suffer anyway. Maybe the majority of Iraqi people didn't like their tyrant, but one has to wonder how much they accept...

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