Latest posts by Chris Salzberg from January, 2008
Japan: Videotape from 1995 Monju reactor leak
The infamous Monju fast-breeder reactor leak of 1995, an accident that long ago earned itself a place in the history of nuclear power in Japan, has returned one more time to haunt government and industry officials with images they had hoped they would never see again. More than ten years after the original incident, a never-before-seen video has finally come out, released on YouTube by a group called News for the People in Japan (NPJ) and also posted by blogger tokyodo-2005 at his blog.
Japan: False arrest, new strategy
Shisaku despairs at the arrest of Nakatsuji Masato, allegedly for programming a virus when in fact there are no laws against virus creation in Japan. The arrest is connected to a new campaign by the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry, who has placed ads in trains and on TV...
Japan: Insider trading at public broadcaster NHK (Part 1)
Japan's public broadcaster NHK faces yet another controversy, with revelations of insider trading by three NHK employees on shares of Kappa Create Company. This first part of a two-part series features a translation of two very popular posts by blogger and economist Ikeda Nobuo, once an employee of NHK, who provides details about the 20-year-old pre-broadcast reporting system that led to the news leak.
Japan: Illegal or Harmful?
Blogger Sakiyama Nobuo, a social activist who has covered the area of web censorship in Japan for many years, early last week responded to a conversation initiated by fellow blogger Minakata Tsukasa on the topic of the regulation of so-called "harmful" websites. The blog entry provides a useful overview of the current state of legal controls on Internet content in Japan, something which may come in handy in the future.
Japan: A new car? No thanks.
Word on the street is that the Japanese economy isn't doing too well, with sluggish car sales apparently a major culprit. Who is to blame? Some say the kids, who have apparently lost the urge for material things. Whatever the reason, Japanese bloggers didn't seem terribly surprised by the news.
Japan: Kizasi
Serkantoto at Asiajin introduces readers to the Japanese blog search engine and analyzer Kizasi.
Japan: The other side of the chasm
From the perspective of global communication, one may say that the world today is divided into two groups: those who are connected to the Internet and those who are not. The "chasm" between these two worlds was the topic of a post last week at the Uncategorizable Blog, where the question was posed: How does the world of Internet users look to someone who is not connected? In a post entitled "The other side of the chasm," blogger essa draws on the relationship between uni- and multicellular life, and the relationship between humans and their dogs, to suggest a possible answer.
Japan: Top 50 blogs
Serkan at Tokyotronic translates a list of Japan's 50 top blogs (according to Technorati) into English.
Japan: Outlawing illegally-reproduced content
Andreas at Chosaq writes about moves in Japan to outlaw illegally-reproduced content.
Japan: Top blogger calls it quits, again
Asiajin reports that Wakatsuki Chinatsu, Japan's top blogger, who in late November declared that she would take a break from blogging only to change her mind [ja] shortly thereafter, has decided to call it quits for real this time.
