Chris Salzberg · February, 2008

Latest posts by Chris Salzberg from February, 2008

Japan: Advertisers abandon print, move online

  21 February 2008

Japanese blogger and journalist Fujishiro Hiroyuki at Gatonews summarizes results [ja] from a report [ja] issued by Japan's largest on ad agency Dentsu on advertising sales in Japan over the year 2007. The figures indicate a shift away from newspapers and magazines and toward online media: compared to figures from...

Japan: Reactions to alleged Okinawa rape

  17 February 2008

The news last week that a U.S. Marine had allegedly raped a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Okinawa sparked various degrees of condemnation from local citizens, politicians, the government and bloggers, reigniting anger at the continued presence of American military bases in Japan's southernmost prefecture. In blogs and internet forums, however, many Japanese also criticized the alleged victim herself for being careless and "allowing" the rape to happen.

Japan: Filtering going global

  15 February 2008

Blogger and social activist Sakiyama Nobuo [ja] (see earlier coverage) picks up a number of recent news stories and predicts that it may not be long before Chinese filtering policy is no longer thought of as “another country's problem” [ja]. He points to the launch of the Mobile Alliance against...

Japan: Bloggers study group

  14 February 2008

Blogger shinyai [ja] (Keiwa College Associate Professor Ichinohe Shinya) writes about an upcoming bloggers study group [ja] organized by the Agile Media Network (AMN), which will take place on February 22 from 7pm at the Pasonatech seminar room [ja] in Shibuya, Tokyo (Japan). For more details see the original announcement...

Japan: Future words of the Web Era

  13 February 2008

Japanese web visionary Umeda Mochio (see earlier translated interview) announces the upcoming release on Feb. 27th of his new book, “Five propositions for a web era: These words will open the way to the future!” (ウェブ時代 5つの定理―この言葉が未来を切り開く! [ja]), at his blog My Life between Silicon Valley and Japan [ja]. According to...

Japan: Interview with Sasaki Toshinao by g86

  12 February 2008

In an interview with "space journal", a group blog by four architecture students at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, well-known Japanese IT journalist and writer Sasaki Toshinao speaks about the emergence of Japan's Lost Generation, the birth of the country's blogging movement, and the recent transformation of Japanese society from "seken" to "kuuki".

Japan: Japanese bloggers on Super Tuesday

  8 February 2008

While Super Tuesday has come and gone in the U.S., conversations carry on in its wake among bloggers in the booming Japanese blogosphere. What do bloggers in the world's second largest economy think of the presidential elections of their major trading partner? In this post: Japanese views on Clinton, Obama, Edwards, McCain and Ron Paul.

Japan: How many Japanese blogs are there?

  3 February 2008

On January 22, blogger smashmedia asked readers of his blog to answer a questionnaire [ja] on the topic of: “How many blogs are there in Japan?” [ja] In another post [ja], smashmedia reports that respondents on average estimated the number of Japanese blogs at 2.44 million. Other results: 23% answered...

Japan: Newspapers launch news portal “Aratanisu”, bloggers respond

  3 February 2008

Three of Japan's largest newspapers, Nikkei Inc., Asahi Shimbun Co. and Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings on Thursday together launched a new online news portal referred to as "Aratanisu", aiming to provide side-by-side coverage of news stories from each newspaper to allow readers to easily draw comparisons. Bloggers in Japan have reacted with skepticism to the new service, however, pointing to issues like the absence of RSS feeds and a general lack of understanding among traditional media of the value of content presentation.

Japan: Insider trading at public broadcaster NHK (Part 2)

  2 February 2008

The uproar last week about the discovery of insider trading at Japan's public broadcaster NHK has died down, with former Asahi Breweries advisor Fukuchi Shigeo having taken over for beleaguered NHK president Hashimoto Genichi, who resigned days ahead of his scheduled end-of-term. This week, more comments from bloggers on the insider trading scandal.

Japan: Imai Noriaki

  1 February 2008

At The Westerner's Fear of the Neonsign, calligraphykid writes about the experiences of freelance journalist and blogger Imai Noriaki, who became famous in 2004 as one of three Japanese to be taken hostage in Iraq.