“Journalism is about finding out things and then telling the audience what you have learnt – it doesn’t really matter whether it is about the human genome or the Chinese shadow banking system. Once you find out what is interesting about a subject, the rest is easy.” Asia Media discovered…
Category: Japan
JAPAN: Justice Minister Seeks Justice
The private lives of public figures are often the focus of media scrutiny and Japanese Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa is no exception. According to The Mainichi Daily News, Japan’s third leading daily, the Justice Minister “has filed a libel suit against major publishing house Shinchosa Publishing Co” over an article…
NORTH KOREA: China’s TV Interviews ‘Fading’ North Korean News Anchorwoman
China Central Television’s Pyongyang reporter gets an exclusive look inside North Korea’s Central Television news studio while interviewing the country’s most recognizable star, anchorwoman Ri Chun Hui, according to the Korea Realtime of the Wall Street Journal Asia. According to NorthKoreaTech.org, a site dedicated to reporting North Korean news, Ri,…
JAPAN: Please Wake Up, Don’t Leave It To China!
The inevitable and historic shifting of global power from the West to the East is the famous central theme of Kishore Mahbubani. Currently dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, Mahbubani has put forth another view of important consequence. It’s that…
JAPAN: The Publisher Who Kept on Going
The March 11 natural disasters that ravaged the Tohoku region of Japan early last year forced most local industries to cease operations. Despite the difficulties, Masashi Hijikata, the owner of the Araemishi publishing company, continued producing his quarterly magazine, the Sendaigaku, or Study of Sendai. According to The Mainichi Daily…
SOUTH KOREA: Getting Back a Few Pages of Its History
According to Yonhap News Agency, a leading English-language news source, South Korea is celebrating the Japanese return of 1,200 ancient Korean texts that were taken during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and kept by the Japanese Imperial Household Agency. Among the books is the “Uigwe,” a collection of…
JAPAN: Trying to Get Those Outsiders to Understand
Language can represent a daunting obstacle to traveling abroad. Kyodo News, Japan’s leading nonprofit news agency, aims to diminish this barrier through the introduction of Japan Portal. According to The Japan Times, the nation’s leading English-language publication, the trilingual website was created to both convey pertinent Japanese issues to foreigners…
PACIFIC PERSPECTIVES: The Death of a Great American Professor: A Story of Scholars and Journalists
Scholars and journalists don’t always get along (right, call this Dept. of Understatement). But their need for each other is endless and often deep, even when each side bull-headedly refuses to admit it. Let’s put the matter this way: Journalists are generally scavenger birds of the moment, tweeting their view…
JAPAN: Okinawan Newspaper Puts It All on the Record
The relocation of the U.S. Futenma airbase in Okinawa continues to be a pressing issue in Japan’s political discourse. The government has been criticized for its sluggish pace and lack of definitive decisions…
JAPAN: Free Speech VS. Political Correctness in Journalist’s Comments
According to the Japanese government, seventeen Japanese citizens were abducted and taken to North Korea during the 1970s and 1980s. Among those who are reportedly held by the communist nation is Keiko Arimoto. In 2009, TV Asahi, a Japanese television network, featured a debate program during which journalist Soichiro Tahara…
JAPAN: Cityscapes of Iron
The great contemporary artist Enoki Chu was inspired to become a painter after an unfortunate motorcycle accident. Chu decided to challenge himself and began exhibiting his paintings in 1965 to 1970 in the Kobe-based Niki-kai exhibitions. One of his artistic inspirations was the infamous Marcel Duchamp, who is notorious for (among…
JAPAN: Newspaper Raises Questions About Nuclear Export Policy
The issue of nuclear energy has been hotly debated amongst the citizens of Japan following the March 11 disaster. One the views that has been frequently voiced is the opinion that Japan should turn away from nuclear energy altogether…