Global Voices Online

Chris Salzberg

Author Profile

Stories

February 13th, 2009

East Asia

Motohiko Tokuriki at Tokuriki.com posts a long discussion [ja] of the recent PayPerPost incident at Google Japan. Tokuriki writes that while he does not agree with the PayPerPost approach, there is nonetheless a distinction to be made between the PayPerPost strategy in which funding is openly acknowledged, and the strategy in which it is not; this case came to light precisely because it was mentioned in posts that the bloggers in question were participating in a CyberBuzz campaign.

February 12th, 2009

East Asia

Blogger Hiromitsu Takagi posts a transcript [ja] of a recent open meeting [ja] organized by the Tokyo metropolitan government about Google's Street View service, introduced in major Japanese cities last summer. Google was invited to the meeting and reportedly told that, in future cases, the company should give advance notification [ja] before photographing neighbourhoods. Renewed demands to outright stop the service altogether have been mounted in recent months by citizen groups, lawyers, professors and journalists.

February 11th, 2009

Japan , South Korea

Commenters at Japan's popular bulletin board service 2channel are responding to the story [ja] of a Japanese girl (ID tomochan) who, reportedly through the “enjoy JAPAN (KOREA) translation service” run by Korean search portal Naver, became close friends with a Korean guy. Naver plans to end the service on February 20th, meaning that tomochan and her would-be boyfriend will no longer be able to communicate [ja]. An early commenter responds, “I guess these Japanese girls who discover that Korean guys are better looking lose their interest in Japanese guys.” [Original article at Naver (in Korean).]

February 4th, 2009

Japan: Bloggers respond to new filtering measures

Chris Salzberg · 16:16, February 4th, 2009 · East Asia

lingua → id · it

Over the past week, Japan's major mobile phone operators have commenced filtering web access on mobile phones contracted to minors (users under 18 years of age), following on legislation introduced in late 2007 and on developments over the last year toward the regulation of “harmful” content. Bloggers respond. 0 comments · read »

January 25th, 2009

Japan: Looking back on 2008

Chris Salzberg · 10:53 · East Asia

lingua → id

The last year in Japan saw, among other things, an economic crisis, employment instability, and the beginnings of the collapse of journalism. While the year was already recapped here last month, we add to that recap the reflections of bloggers looking back over the year. Blogger Motohiko Tokuriki wrote about this ... 2 comments · read »

January 10th, 2009

East Asia

Michi Kaifu at Tech Mom from Silicon Valley responds to news that Toyota “crown prince” Akio Toyoda is to take the company's president position in June this year. Reflecting on the future of the car maker and on rumors in the Japanese blogosphere, Kaifu writes, “if you still have some money to invest, buy Toyota share. I am pretty sure that they are TOTALLY OK.”