Stories about Japan from June, 2010
Japan: Thanks, Blue Samurai!
Japan lost to Paraguay 3-5 in a penalty shootout yesterday but the Blue Samurai's performance touched their fans’ heart, Kazumie says.
Japan: Questionnaire about English ability
What Japan Thinks translated the results of a questionnaire about “when Japanese feel most ashamed about their lack of English”. The number one situation? “When a foreigner asks me the way and I cannot answer. ” Here's a series of comical commercials from Nova, the now defunct English conversational language...
Japan: The Hero, Sakamoto Ryoma
Confident, charismatic, and ever so dashing, Sakamoto Ryoma has always been one of Japan's favorite historical figures. Since NHK started to broadcast the historical drama series Ryōmaden ('The Legend of Ryoma') this January, a nation-wide Ryoma boom has exploded.
Global: Statistics on Countries Participating in World Cup
SRF from GeoCurrent Events blog writes about the economic geography of the 2010 FIFA World Cup participant countries.
Japan: Voice tweets override election rule
Akky Akimoto from Asiajin points out that incumbent upper house member Kenzo Fujisue tried to avoid the violation of upper house election rule in Japan by posting url of voice tweets instead of text tweets.
Japan and the World Cup: Silencing the critics
Ranked near the bottom of the 32 teams on the field in South Africa, facing odds estimated at 400-to-1 and four straight pre-tournament losses to boot, Japan was not even expected to win a game in this year's World Cup. But with their convincing 3-1 win over Denmark, perceptions have completely changed, propelling coach Takashi Okada from the butt of all jokes to a national hero.
Japan: Most popular company for job seekers
Akky Akimoto from Asiajin quotes a research that shows Google being the most popular company for Japanese job seekers between age 25 to 34.
Japan: A Hayao Miyazaki Profile
Trevor Hogg at Flickeringmyth [en] dedicates a series of five posts [en] to the master of Japanese animation Hayao Miyazaki [en]. In the first post, the blogger describes the beginning of the career of the Oscar winner filmaker.
Japan: A day at an elementary school
Ploychompu Srisa-an, a student at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, spent a day teaching at a Japanese elementary school as part of an exchange program. She created an in-depth video of her experience.
Japan: Okinawa Memorial Day
Today marks the 65th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa [en]. To commemorate this day, blogger 1919yasuyuki uploaded a video [ja] shot at the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum [en].
Japan: Butoh Legend Kazuo Ohno Passes Away
Kazuo Ohno, legendary performer and one of the founding fathers of Butoh, passed away on June 1st at the age of 103. Butoh is an avant-garde dance form that originated in post WWII Japan, characterized by white body paint and conceptual, tortured movements.
Japan: Online seminar on digital journalism
Joi Ito holds a weekly seminar on digital journalism at Keio University, that is live broadcast [en] on UStream. Today's guests were New York Times journalist Hiroko Tabuchi and Jun Hoshikawa [en], executive director of Green Peace Japan.
Japan: The première of “The Cove” will be online
The Japanese video sharing website Niko Niko Doga [en] announced that, on June 18 at 8 p.m. (Japan time), it will show online the documentary “The Cove” [ja] to the first 2000 users who access the website. The users will also be able to live-comment on the film. At present,...
Cambodia: Reactions to the 2010 World Cup Season
Cambodians are also celebrating the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Moto-taxi drivers, students, businesspeople, netizens, and even the Prime Minister are cheering for the Asian teams which are playing in the World Cup.
Japan: A World Cup without Nakamura?
Gaki_tsutomu comments [ja] on the absence of midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura from the match [en] that saw Japanese team win 1-0 over Cameroon. The blogger wonders if the player will be relegated to the bench also in the next matches and analyzes coach Okada's strategy.
China: Post 80s rural worker
A recent wave of labour strike in China has attracted local and foreign media's attention. While local media has been harmonized by the propaganda department in order to stop workers from copying each others’ spontaneous protests, foreign media, such as The New York Times, believe that it is a beginning...
Japan: Hayabusa returns to Earth tomorrow
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) expects the return of the spacecraft Hayabusa tomorrow, following a 7 year mission filled with enormous ups and downs. The randokukanso blog eagerly awaits its landing with links [ja] to some sniffle-inducing anime videos that cheer its tumultuous journey.
Japan: Two years since Akihabara knife rampage
Last week marked the second anniversary of the Akihabara knife rampage. Akibasuki [ja] went to pay his respects and photoblogged his visit. The scars of the rampage are still raw in the area: the ban on the vehicle-free zone (hokoten or walker's paradise), which Akihabara was famous for, still hasn't...
Japan: An interview with Nobel Prize winner Masatoshi Koshiba
The Tokyo Reporter republishes an interview [en] with professor Masatoshi Koshiba, who was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 2002 “for pioneering contributions to astrophysics, in particular for the detection of cosmic neutrinos” [en].
China and Japan: “Wanted Criminal” arrested and released
Angry Chinese Blogger comments on the recent arrest of Wu'er Kaixi, a former Chinese student activist and “wanted criminal” in Japan. The blogger believes that the Chinese government is too afraid to put him on trial.
Japan: Threatened theaters decline to screen “The Cove”
Following threatening calls and protest by right-wing activists, some theaters decided to pull "The Cove". Bloggers discuss the pros and cons of screening the documentary in the country, where it was filmed.
About our Japan coverage
Nevin Thompson is our Japan editor. Email him story ideas or volunteer to write.
