· April, 2009

Below are posts about citizen media in Japanese. Don't miss Global Voices 日本語, where Global Voices posts are translated into Japanese! Read about our Lingua project to learn more about how Global Voices content is being translated into other languages.

Stories about Japanese from April, 2009

Japan: The Trouble with ‘Free’ Money

  27 April 2009

As part of an economic stimulus package, the Japanese government is spending two trillion JPY for cash handouts to boost consumer spending. To put it simply, all Japanese citizens and those registered as residents will receive 12,000 JPY, or 20,000 JPY for those under 18 or over 65, once they've lodged their application forms.

Japan: Tunisians in Japan

  27 April 2009

Blogger kuskusu, whose husband is Tunisian, makes some observations about the Tunisian people living in Japan. Dividing them into two categories, she observes that, since 9/11, immigration laws in Japan have become more severe and illegal Tunisian residents are very few nowadays. While many of them come to Japan as...

Japan: The “anime” business

  26 April 2009

Hiromichi Yasuda (増田弘道), production director of the anime production company Simple d'essai [ja] and author of Anime Bijinesu ga Wakaru (アニメビジネスがわかる, lit. Understanding the Anime Business), constantly updates his blog [ja] with news and reviews of books about the anime business world in Japan.

Japan: Petition for Tsuyoshi Kusanagi

  24 April 2009

Blogger akinori-i is asking people to sign an online petition that calls for tolerance from the media and the government for SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, following his arrest for drunken nudity.

Japan: An Oscar to “Okuribito” (Departures)

  22 April 2009

For the first time a Japanese movie, Okuribito (or Departures), has been awarded the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, over the French “The Class” and the Israeli animated documentary “Waltz With Bashir”. Directed by Yôjiro Takita, Okuribito is based on the novel Nôkanfû Nikki (納棺夫日記, lit. Diary of an undertaker)...

Japan: The SHADO Collective

  19 April 2009

Photoreporter Noriyuki Aida (会田法行) presents the SHA-DO Collective (写道・写真家集団). The group comprising Aida-san and other four photographers based in Tokyo — the Japanese Yasuhiro Ogawa, the Greek Androniki Christodoulou, the Spanish David Coll Blanco and the German Eric Rechsteiner — intends to provide “five specific photographic approaches focusing mainly on...

Japan: Crisis Vocabulary

  17 April 2009

Adamu from Mutantfrog Travelogue collects and explains a list of Japanese vocabulary for describing the financial crisis.

Japan: New Publishing Models for Manga

  15 April 2009

Experimenting with new publishing models to overcome the decline of manga magazines, Shuho Sato has announced that he will be posting updates of “Say Hello to Black Jack (Sequel) – 新ブラックジャックによろしく” on his site one month after their publication in Weekly Big Comic Spirits.

Japan: Missile Launched. What to Believe?

  14 April 2009

On April 5th, North Korea launched a Taepo Dong 2 'rocket' that flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese government, media, and the blogosphere all had very different reactions.

Japan: CB2, the child robot

  13 April 2009

On Pink Tentacle, updated news about CB2, the Child Robot With Biomimetic Body. The robot, already presented to the public in 2007 by the researchers of Osaka University, is said to have developed socials skills by recording human expressions via eye cameras. According to Professor Minoru Asada, within the next...

Japan: Filipino girl sees her parents deported

  11 April 2009

All are equal before the law and in Japan, foreigners without a legal permit to stay must leave the country. Deportation is assured for any illegal immigrant. This is what the Calderons are heading for. Arlan and Sarah Calderon, two Filipino citizens, illegally resident in Japan since the early 90s,...

Japan: The best remedies for hay fever

  8 April 2009

id: Fromdusktildawn sums up [ja] the best items and treatments against hay fever (花粉症, kafunsho). The blogger illustrates the pollen structure and the allergens that cause the hay fever through graphs and microscope images, and accurately reports on the different masks, vacuum cleaners and air filters purchasable in Japan.

Japan: “Missile” or “Flying Object”?

  5 April 2009

“Missile” or “flying object”? Yasuharu Dando has put together a page with screenshots of how the major Japanese newspapers have reported whatever it was that North Korea launched over Japan to accompany his blog post on the topic of wording for headlines. The page is temporary and will be taken...

Japan: Bullying at school, the parents’ point of view

  5 April 2009

Ijime – the Japanese word for “bullying” – is still a worrying social phenomenon in Japan, despite the “latest” surveys published by the Japanese Ministry of Education [pdf, ja] (no data after 2007 is available) appearing to show how the cases of bullying at school have decreased by 7.1% in later years...

Japan: Tokyo Marathon 2009

  4 April 2009

Tokyo Marathon 2009, the largest marathon event in Japan, was held on March 22nd. It felt like everyone in Tokyo knew someone who was competing or had wanted to, and with 226,378 applicants for 30,000 spots, that might not have been too far from the truth. Tokyo Marathon's official website...

Japan: A food tale

  1 April 2009

Greenz.jp, a bilingual internet media source “dedicated to promoting a green economy and a sustainable society”, presents the illustrated book Tabemonogatari (たべものがたり, lit. A food tale). The book is part of the project Think the Earth and it explains the importance of food and many allied and concerning issues through...

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