· May, 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 May, 2009

Go Farm, Young Man! – How Farming in Japan is Changing

  31 May 2009

For a country that identifies strongly as being historically agricultural people, the landscape of Japan's agricultural sector is bleak, and has been for some time. Simply put, the workforce is rapidly aging and there aren't nearly enough successors. The price of rice has gone down, and structural reform is unlikely...

Japan: Open access online journal Journal@rchive

  29 May 2009

Librarian Charles Ellwood Jones writes about academic journals focusing on antiquity at open access online journal Journal@rchive, an archive site of J-STAGE operated by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. The site offers high resolution scans and OCR texts on a wide range of journals.

Japan: Ministry of Health posts YouTube video

  26 May 2009

Kotori Piyopiyo praises the progressiveness of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for posting a video on YouTube and observes with irony that they have turned off the embedding function. The video introduces preventive measures for swine flu.

Japan: A brief review of the eco-technologies

  25 May 2009

In mid May the Japanese Government has launched a stimulus package to boost the demand for energy efficient household appliances with a new eco-points system, details of which will be made clear in the next month after the Diet's approval of the supplementary budget for this fiscal year. The aim...

Japan: Shunsuke Nakamura to rejoin Yokohama Marinos?

  25 May 2009

Ryota welcomes the news that soccer star Shunsuke Nakamura might be coming home from Celtic to his old stomping grounds of Yokohama F. Marinos, calling him “a treasure of Japan“. Occhan is excited about the possibilities for the city of Yokohama. Blogger No.5 gives the back story.

Japan: NHK says no to Takafumi Horie on backstage YouTube video

  23 May 2009

Former Livedoor chief Takafumi Horie wrote on his blog that NHK, Japan's national public broadcasting organization, rescinded their request for an interview when Horie stated as his terms the right to videotape the interview and upload it on YouTube. Keita Akai is not surprised, saying that for NHK, allowing unlimited...

Japan: John Roos to be U.S. Ambassador to Japan

  22 May 2009

Unexpected appointment of lawyer John Roos as the next U.S. ambassador to Japan: Blogger namekawa01 gives a high evaluation of Roos's close connections with President Obama and speculates that he must have forgone more visible positions in favor of this one, while Koichiro Mizuochi compares this appointment with that of...

Japan: Hatoyama is the next DPJ leader

  17 May 2009

Following Ichirō Ozawa's resignation, it's Yukio Hatoyama‘s turn to be leader of the Democratic Party of Japan once again – Tobias Harris on Hatoyama's leadership abilities, Ampontan with ‘some morsels of news and rumor’ of the election, and Shisaku on the ‘choice‘.

Japan: Ueno as a World Heritage site

  17 May 2009

A UNESCO panel has recommended postponing listing of the National Museum of Western Art and the surrounding buildings in the Ueno area as a World Heritage culture site. Blogger Dragon says that countries with the means to preserve its own heritage sites should give way for less resourceful countries. Taito...

Japan: Akihabara Aftermath

  13 May 2009

Almost one year after the Akihabara massacre (covered by GV here, here, and here), Fumi Yamazaki at “What's Happening in Japan Right Now?” gives a comprehensive recap[EN] of the happenings, coverage, and aftermath of the terrible tragedy.

Japan: Marriage Hunting!

  13 May 2009

Since autumn of last year, in Japan, a new term has been floating in the air. It is konkatsu 婚活 (an abbreviation of kekkon katsudô 結婚活動), based on the popular phrase shûkatsu (就活 job hunting), it may be roughly translated as ‘marriage hunting’. Konkatsu is not merely a new word,...

Japan: Motion graphics videos

  10 May 2009

GilCrows suggests that motion graphics is drawing attention on the Japanese video sharing website Niko Niko Douga [ja]. In the post, also a ranking of the best videos uploaded to NND. (The movie Ukiyo Hakkei (浮世捌景)is also available on youtube)

Japan: Doctor shortage, the medical system in crisis

  6 May 2009

Together with the economic crisis the shortage of doctors (医師不足, ishi busoku in Japanese) is becoming more and more urgent in Japan. As a Fire and Disaster Management Agency survey pointed out in 2007, the causes are the uneven distribution of the doctors mainly settled in urban areas and the...

Japan: Fooling Gun Radio

  1 May 2009

A new internet radio is born: Fooling Gun Radio [ja]. A project started in mid-April by the Japanese grad students Foo-san and Gun-san, with the help of other two colleagues, Bluman and Hihhi, Fooling Gun Radio aims to present some everyday life topics under a new and fresh perspective. Twice...

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