Stories about Japan from March, 2009
Japan: Tourism videos
Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces a series of official tourism videos produced by the city of Hakodate. The videos are about aliens invasion of the city.
Japan: Two-man union on strike at Kyoto University
Adamu from Mutantfrog blogs about a two-man strike at Kyoto University against the exploitation of irregular work contract.
Global Recession Survey: Survival Tips and Business Opportunities
Everybody is trying hard to cope with the global economic crisis. Bloggers are offering survival tips to their readers. Businesses around the world are adjusting. Some are even profiting from the crisis. In this post, I will feature individuals and companies exerting their very best to overcome the recession.
Japan: Political volcano awaiting to blow?
Ampontan gives an update on the Japan political climate that the voting public will erupt, soon or late, is inevitable.
Japan: Italian news commentary in Japanese
Italian comedian and opinion-leader Beppe Grillo's blog [ja] is the only blog that is translated into Japanese (and English), presenting Italy from an unusual perspective. In his blog, he also hosts the translated version of journalist Marco Travaglio‘s weekly talks on the misdeeds of the current Italian government [it].
Japan: Tech Innovation Awards Contest
Masaru IKEDA from Asiajin introduces the 15 nominees of CNET Japan's Tech Innovation Awards Contest.
Japan: I wanna know America!
Koichi (耕一), a webdesigner living in Oregon (U.S.A.), tells about American culture, people, food, language and much more at his personal website Koichiben: Amerika ga shiritai (コウイチ弁、アメリカが知りたい lit. Koichi dialect: I wanna know America). Writing and video-blogging in Japanese, he proposes every time a new interesting topic with the aim of...
Japan: Sri Lanka, Somalia, us? The government?
Ryutaro Yanagawa (柳川龍太郎) in his podcast program Nekura Nomikon Onvoice (ネクラのみ来ん on voice) [ja] reflects upon issues related to Japanese foreign politics. In the last episode, the podcaster invites us to not forget those areas of the world, such as Darfur or Sri Lanka, that too rarely are the centre...
Japan: The work of art in the age of digital reproduction
A cross-generational debate over the value of art, and culture in general, has arisen among users of the social bookmarking service Hatena. The debate, originated by an anonymous entry titled: ehm… Isn`t it weird the idea that we have to pay money for music?, has brought many bloggers to ask...
Japan: Shintaro Kago's Terror Animation
Shintaro Kago, a Japanese guro manga artist, has set up a channel in youtube (warning: some are rather scary). via Pink Tentacle.
Global recession and its discontents
Today the world seems flat. From Asia and Africa to Europe and the Americas, the people of the world are experiencing the traumatic effects of a global economic recession. This post is an attempt to describe the social impact of the great financial crisis as seen and felt by ordinary citizens around the world.
Japan: On Twitter, nobody knows you're a bot
“On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog.” -- The words of a well-known adage dating back to a New Yorker cartoon from 1993 capture the anonymity people generally expect from online communication. This week a new take on this adage hit the Japanese blogosphere when a blogger discovered that two of his closest friends on Twitter were actually bots designed as part of a programming contest.
Japan: Brazilian community
Roy Berman from Mutantfrog blogs about the life of a Brazilian community (with photos) in the Homi public housing area of Toyota City.
Japan: Link Spam
Motoko comments on Google's decision to punish Google Japan for paying bloggers to promote their new “hot new keywords” by links.
Japan, Brazil: Crisis puts an end to the dream of a better life
After 30 years of a strong immigration trend from Brazil to Japan, young Brazilians who have crossed the ocean in search of a better life are now leaving their adopted country. It is estimated that between 40,000 and 50,000 Brazilians have lost their jobs and, unable to compete in the shrinking Japanese job market, have decided it is time to make the journey back home.
Japan: Making money thanks to the economic crisis.
If on one hand libraries and newspaper kiosks overflow with books and magazines that examine, analyze and comment on the current economic recession hitting Japan, then on the other hand, many people have begun to think that, if there are losers (layoffs and companies in the red), there must also...
Japan: The end of Bloomberg TV in Japanese
Kawase Madoka (為替 円) expresses surprised [ja] at the halt of Bloomberg Television's Japanese channel starting from the 30th of April. The blogger, who participated several times in seminars organized by Bloomberg, and who used to follow with enthusiasm the morning news, is sorry to learn about the end of...
Japan: To you who will graduate this year
Spring is fast approaching, and in Japan that means two things: the fall of cherry blossoms and the start of the new school year, which coincides with last year's graduates joining the workforce. One blogger and university professor posted a letter to a student which struck a drew a huge reaction among Japanese bloggers. The first line of the letter begins, "To you who will graduate this year"...
Japan: Virtual Marathon
Masaru IKEDA from Asiajin blogs about a newly launched virtual marathon game.
Japan and Taiwan: Gay politics
Roy Berman from Mutantfrog Travelogue notices the different between gay politics in Japan and Taiwan.
Japan: Why do Japanese work so hard?
Japanese blogger id:eliya, who is doing economics research abroad, writes that he is often asked by colleagues why Japanese work so hard [ja]. Referring to economics professor Masami Nomura's book, “Employment Instability” (雇用不安) [ja], he explains that Japanese work hard basically because the penalty for being fired from your job...
About our Japan coverage
Nevin Thompson is our Japan editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.
