Stories about Japanese from July, 2009
Japan: Parental child abduction
Given the rise in cases where children born to a Japanese mother and a foreign father are abducted by the Japanese mothers and brought to Japan without the father's consent, the U.S., France, Canada and the U.K. have recently urged Japan to sign the Hague Convention.
Japan: Possible Twitter Novel Publication
Netafull [ja] reports that writer/essayist Mica Naitoh tweeted [ja] that she has received an offer to publish her Twitter novel, just a few days after she started tweeting with the hashtag #twnovel.
Japan: No Twitter for Election Campaigns
In response to the government's decision that the usage of Twitter in election campaign activities violates the Public Offices Election Law, Kengo Preston wonders why disruptive methods such as direct phone calls and street speeches with megaphones are permitted while these low-cost and practical new technologies are not.
Japan: Internet users in the world
A post [ja] at ideaxidea shows graphs [en] describing the percentage of the world's internet users in 2008.
Japan: Cat mania
The spreading of communities of people with same interests and hobbies is not new in the internet society. Netizens often exchange news, suggestions and picture on things and activities they share a common interest on. In Japan that is not only limited to hobbies, however, also love for pets is...
Japan: Japanese characters as ccTLD?
Motoko Hunt reports that a new conference is being set up to discuss Japanese ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) issues. We'll be seeing ccTLD with Japanese characters, such as “xx.日本”. (日本 is ‘Japan’ in Japanese.)
Japan: Beng Mealea Temple and Miyazaki's Laputa
Karapaia shares some pictures of the ruins of Beng Mealea Temple, Cambodia, which, the blogger says, inspired the architecture of the floating island in the anime Laputa: Castle in the Sky (original title 天空の城ラピュタ, Tenku no Shiro Lapyuta), by Miyazaki.
Japan: Personal Donations to Politicians
With “Love Japan“, Rakuten Inc. has enabled personal donations to politicians via credit card, a first in Japan. Hit Okano [ja] ponders about the relationship between the amount of donated money and its influence on politicians, while blogger Satotaku [ja] refers to U.S. President Obama's success with online contributions and...
Japan: Amano elected as IAEA chief, some doubts
Lawyer and blogger raymiyatake expresses his doubts [ja] over the election of Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano as director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). First, he says, Amano was supported by only 23 nations out of 35. Second, he points out the difficult situation that the Agency is dealing...
Japan: Eight endangered languages in the Japanese archipelago
In February UNESCO presented the Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, giving an accurate and worrying description of the languages considered endangered (about 2,500). Among these eight belong to the Japanese archipelago. Not a big surprise if we think about the severe policies of linguistic and cultural assimilation carried...
Japan: Gundam 30th anniversary
This year is Mobile Suit Gundam‘s 30th birthday. While a giant statue of the robot stands in Odaiba's park (in the Tokyo bay area), in a theatre of northern Tokyo, blogger/actress Rie Takahashi [ja] and her crew pay tribute to the animated television series in stage play Robot.
Japan: On How to Perceive the Japanese Web (Part Three)
Continued from Part Two. As examples of the Japanese web that it isn't ‘disappointing’ at all, many bloggers referred to the success of the video sharing website Nico Nico Douga. A-list blogger Dan Kogai pointed to the recipe site Cook Pad (which went public a few weeks ago) and Yahoo!...
Japan: Implications of the Population Crisis
Ian Wright at Japanian analyzes the implications of the diminishing population in Japan from an economic, political, and military point of view.
Japan: On How to Perceive the Japanese Web (Part Two)
Part Two and Part Three of this post highlights some of the discussions in the blogosphere and Twittersphere that followed the conterversial interview “The Japanese web is ‘disappointing': An interview with Mr. Mochio Umeda, summarized in Part One. [All links in this article link to Japanese content unless otherwise noted.]...
