Global Voices » Keiko Tanaka

Media's Too Simple View of Japan LGBT

Keiko Tanaka — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:34:54 +0000

Blogger and activist Masaki C. has something to say about English media coverage of LGBT politics in Japan, arguing that they simplify the issue down to marriage equality:

They are, in constructing LGBT politics in Japan as such, erasing local history and ignoring dialogues taking place among queers in Japan.

Japan's Pregnancy Handbook Plan Forgets Men

Keiko Tanaka — Mon, 13 May 2013 11:43:37 +0000

To counter the dropping birth rate, the Japanese government is proposing compiling a handbook with information on pregnancy and family planning to educate teenage girls on the subject. This plan to distribute the so-called “women's handbook” has been met with criticism by women's groups, which argue that the issues of pregnancy involve both men and women. (more…)

Tokyo Joins NASA's App Challenge

Keiko Tanaka — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:43:30 +0000

Hackathon in Tokyo for the International Space Apps Challenge. Photo by ISAC Tokyo Bureau CC BY 2.0

Japan participated in NASA's International Space Apps Challenge 2013 with a hackathon in Tokyo on April 21 and 22, 2013. Eighteen project teams developed apps with the aim of improving life on Earth and in space, including an app to create dishes in a shape of celestial bodies [ja] such as the moons of Mars using 3D printers, and a location finder app to suggest less cloudy places for installing solar panels.

Japan's Next Election Campaign will be Tweeted, Emailed and Blogged

Keiko Tanaka — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 11:17:51 +0000

Japan has approved a bill that will allow political candidates to tweet and blog and run online advertisements during their election campaigns

Up until last week, Japanese electoral candidates had to cautiously navigate their Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and blogs to avoid breaking the country's strict election laws which banned online political activity.

The revised election law passed by both houses of Japan's legislature on April 19, 2013 will allow political candidates to use social media and other online platforms to voice their opinions and reach their voters.

The bill's impact could be soon as early as July, during the election for the House of Councilors.

Young activists and change-makers had been working behind the scenes to revise Japan's election law. Kensuke Harada, one of the founders of the One Voice Campaign [ja] that advocated for online election campaigning wrote [ja] in a Facebook post:

Finally the ban on online election campaigning is lifted! We've been working on this issue as One Voice Campaign since last April [2012]. This is the issue that our elders have been working on for years. But April last year, nobody was talking about it, not even the politicians, or the public.

But I still wanted change. I thought it would be definitely fun if each one of us worked to make a difference in the law. With that passion, various people came together to the One Voice crew, and shaped how we are today. I am grateful to the people who are not members but helped us a lot too. [...]

I don't know how much impact we had in passing the bill but I can say it wasn't zero. With voices from each one of us, politics can change! You can bring change!

Image of Japanese Diet: Photo by flickr user
By Dick Thomas Johnson under Creative Commons License BY-2.0-Deed

The change is expected to recapture Japan's youth vote, by offering young people, who have turned away from old media like newspapers, an option to be politically informed online.

Only 37.89 percent of voters in their 20s exercised the right to vote during the general election held in December 2012, which made overall voting rates hit a post-war record low of 59.3 percent.

But online campaign will not be completely free, there are rules and restrictions for both candidates and voters.

One concern is identity fraud; falsifying identity and posting damaging messages can lead to imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to roughly 3,000 US Dollars.

Internet service providers (ISP) have the authority to delete malicious comments, if users fail to provide acceptable reasons within two days of being notified。

GMO GlobalSign, an Internet security certification company, announced that they would provide verification services for political parties online. The Liberal Democratic Party of Japan also announced [ja] their plan to extend the use of Extended Validation Certificates on websites of individual politicians. They embraced the popular Verisign certification on their official website in 2011.

Music blogger and Twitter user Yamada (@wms) worries [ja] that pseudonyms, common in the citizen media sphere, might get users in trouble:

@wms:ネット選挙でSNSを利用した活動を全面的に認める代わりに、偽名による発言などは逮捕につながるという記事があったので、実名以外のアカウントで政治的発言するのはかなり危険性が高い時代になったと思われ。

@wms: According to some sources, there are chances of online users getting arrested by posting political comments with pseudonyms Even though social media is now fully acceptable for online campaigns, I think it can be dangerous to post political comments if you don't use an account with your real name.

Another concern is the use of online advertisement. Muto Nobuki, a Twitter user who works in the news and advertising industry tweets:

@mutonobuki:ネットという新市場が生まれるので、政党間で不安心理が起こりネット広告に資金流入するでしょう。ただ、政党も予算あるので削られる媒体出ますね。

@mutonobuki: Now that there's a new market online, political parties feel anxious without placing online ads, it is likely they will pour money on the Internet. But they have a limited budget, so certain media will lose advertising revenue.

Kalaiyo, a supporter of the Liberal Democratic Party, which is popular among Japan's conservative voters, worries that the revised law allows political parties to buy as many online ads as they want, but leaves out measures for independent candidates:

@kalaiyo政党制である日本において無所属が不利なのは当たり前だが、無所属だけ広告出すの禁止というのは確かに変かな。

@kalaiyo: Japan's politick is based on a party system. So it's common that independent candidates that do not belong to any party have disadvantages. However it's kind of strange that [the law] bans independents from placing online ads.

Ryosuke Nishida, a researcher and professor on social entrepreneurship and public policy writes on his blog [ja]:

いろいろ言われているけれど、ネット選挙解禁は出発点というのが筆者の認識。国民が政治にもっとも関心をもつと思われる選挙運動期間にITの利活用を認めると、政治家は適応すべく、中長期でITへの理解を改善するだろう。そうすると、電子政府や電子自治体、通信と放送のあり方等々いろいろなところに波及する可能性を秘めている。

I think permitting online campaigns is a good starting point. Citizens pay more attention to politics during election campaigns. Using Information Technology, politicians will have better understanding of IT in the mid to long term while learning to adapt themselves to latest technologies: this will potentially lead to e-government and [integration of] communication and broadcasting.

Another Twitter user writes about the irony of the new law being passed while legislators have been unable to solve the unconstitutional state of Japan's election process due to vote disparity:

@gankuma_:定数是正（違憲）問題が遅々として改善されないのに選挙活動のネット解禁はあっさり決まるあたりに先生方のやる気の差が透けて見えるなとか思ってても言うよ。

@gankuma_: Let me think out loud – the online campaign bill was passed quickly while those who sit in the legislatures seem to have lesser motivation to resolve the issue of our unconstitutional elections.

Thumbnail photo by flickr user 7_70 under Creative Commons License BY-NC-ND 2.0

No More Apologies – Japan's Facebook Users Share ‘Fake’ Propaganda

Keiko Tanaka — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:00:29 +0000

A thousand Japanese facebook users unknowingly endorsed and shared a fictitious image [ja] that seemed to be an official publication and highlighted the negative impact Japan's apologetic stance in history has on the country's children.

A citizen journalist traced the image, which even has the official government seal of Japan in its top-left corner, (although the government does not use this seal for its official publications) to a right-wing Facebook page.

Fabricated image widely shared on the Internet. Vertical text: “Mommy, Daddy, did my ancestors do wrong things? Does that make me a bad Japanese? – How do you respond to your children?”
Horizontal text: “Let's teach our children the true history. Government publication”

Facebook user Tsubasa who liked the image wrote[ja] in support of a patriotic view:

自虐的な教科書には、もううんざり(´・ω・`)ちゃんとした教科書を、今の子供達に読んで欲しい!!戦争を美化するつもりは、ありませんがその当時の先人が、何を想い何のため戦い散ったのかを、教えて欲しいです。

I'm sick and tired of introspective history textbooks. I want the children today to learn from legit textbooks. I don't mean to glamorize the war, but people need to think what they fought and died for.

The fabricated image took a life of its own on Facebook when it was shared along with famous quotes, from Indian jurist Radha Binod Pal, Thailand politician Kukrit Pramoj, Indonesian scholar Arifin Bey and British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, that reinforced the idea that Japan's war posture was always for Asia's liberation.

Earlier this year, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, almost offended China and Korea, when he signaled that he would “review” the country's apologies made in the past for its World War II aggression. Later, he backtracked and said would not review Japan’s wartime history and that he would abide by the official stances of his predecessors on the issue.

Facebook user Rie noticed it was fake:

この画像は偽造です。確認しましたが、このような政府広報はありません。誰かが何らかの意図を以て「政府広報」を偽造し、フェイスブックで拡散するのは異常な事態だと思います。一体何の目的で偽造するのでしょうか。分からない。

This image is fake. I've checked and I can tell you there's no such government publication. It's insane for somebody to intentionally create a fake government image and amplify it on facebook. I don't understand why they do this on purpose.

Citizen journalist Norifumi Ohtani at Miyazaki Citizen Media criticized [ja] social media users who shared this image without verifying its source and traced the image to right wing activists who apparently fabricated the image, and gave it an official government seal.

The image of the uniformed child originated from an online shopping site for children's school-bags. Ohtani wrote a series of analysis [ja] on how the image was edited and right-wing text and a government seal were added, before it was appropriated on a Facebook page and shared without context.

I saw this on my Facebook feed on April 15, 2013. [...] Apparently this image gained more than 1300 Likes with many comments. I wondered when this image was released by the Cabinet Public Relation Office. So I checked the website of the Office [ja] but I couldn't find one like this.

Then I thought, maybe this image is a fabrication. So I searched for more information.

The one I saw on Facebook was posted by “Japanism“[ja], a Facebook page that has 4,617 likes.

There was no reference of source in the description of the image so I searched on Google with words like “Cabinet Public Relations Office Let's teach our children the true history” and arrived to this page.

It directed me to a Twitter account that intentionally amplified this image.

With that clue, I got on Twitter and found a blog named “Wake up! Japanese spirit and the eyes of patriot” [ja] in this blog post [ja] of January 14, 2013.

He adds:

It is okay to quote blogger's posts, but when you quote, make sure you name the source.

I think people should refrain from abruptly sharing facebook images, [out of context] when they do not reflect the agenda of the author.

Maybe it's nice to pause for a second and verify where the source comes from.

The alleged creator of the image was a Facebook fan page called “反日対策協議会” [eliminate anti-Japanese activity]. They have since admitted [ja] that it was fake, meant to be ‘parody.’ The Facebook page of Japanism also added a comment [ja], apologizing for sharing the image without checking where it came from.

Ohtani criticized [ja] the ‘parody’ which mislead citizens, saying that right-wing activists went too far in disguising themselves as a government publication.

The quoted blog post was written by Norifumi Ohtani in Japanese under Creative Commons License BY-NC-ND 2.1, by Nippon：Citizen's Media Miyazaki

Earthquake Hits Awaji Island in Japan

Keiko Tanaka — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 10:20:22 +0000

Uploaded by Twitter User 島人JUN @baseball_re

A strong earthquake hit Awaji island of Japan on Saturday morning April 13, 2013. Twitter user JUN took this photo [ja] of the devastation. Seven people were severely injured, according to a report [ja].

Japan's First Non-Profit Radio Turns 10

Keiko Tanaka — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 03:45:48 +0000

The first non-profit community radio station to be licensed for broadcast in Japan made its debut a decade ago out of a small corner cafe in Kyoto city. Kyoto Sanjo Radio Cafe [ja], FM 79.7 on the dial, celebrated its 10-year anniversary on March 31, 2013. They aired a program to talk about how things have been in the community since the first broadcast.

FM79.7 Kyoto Sanjo Radio Cafe celebrates 10 year anniversary on March 31, 2013

VIDEO: Student Film on Japan's Ruthless Job Hunt Goes Viral

Keiko Tanaka — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:33:18 +0000

Finding a job in today's tough economy is hard. But for Japanese college students, the country's ultra-competitive recruitment process or “shu-katsu” which starts a year or more before graduation, takes things to a whole new level.

Recruitment Rhapsody, an emotional short animated film that captures the rigid and obstacle-ridden job hunt process Japanese students must endure has gone viral with more than 350,000 views.

The film by art student Maho Yoshida [ja] was uploaded to YouTube on March 9, 2013 and illustrates a regular carefree university student who suddenly finds herself struggling to find a job among a crowd of focused, competitive, and uniformly dressed sycophants.

YouTube user afas afsa looked back to his days of job hunting in this comment [ja]:

afas afsa:
ああこんな感じだったなあ不気味な就活生の一員になるのは嫌だったけど、内定が無いのも嫌だった
笑われないよう間違えないよう、見よう見まねで、自分も不気味な就活生に成り果てた
「就活が下手」という、ただそれだけの理由で、一体どれぐらいの才能ある若者たちが無能のレッテルを貼られて心を挫かれていったのだろうと思った

Oh, I remember I used to be like this. I hated being a part of the crowd of job-hunters, but I also hated having no job offers. I tried not to make any mistakes, so as not to be laughed at…just do as everyone else does. I was reduced to that condition by the dreadful job search. I wonder how many talented young people must be labeled incompetent and are heart-broken, just because they ”lack job-hunting skills”.

While youth unemployment in Japan is not as bad as most of the developed world, most commenters were worried that the rigid social structure, not the economy, made the recruiting process competitive and complex:

Bad Apple:
自分を取り繕うだけで社会から認められるという社会構造がまずゴミだな。

If the only way to gain recognition from society is to conceal your true self, then the structure of society must be rotten in the first place, right?

blackkitty0312:
日本はこういう社会構造だというのを世界から見てどう思うのか？

If this is what the social structure of Japan is like, what must the rest of the world think when they see this?

Students at a recruiting company's briefing session.
Photo by Dick Thomas Johnson (CC BY 2.0) taken on December 11, 2011

kokore012ify:
今の日本社会にはどこか束縛があるような気がする。ビニールハウスに閉じ込められたような。これからの日本はもっと自分という人間を表現できる時代が来るべきだと思っている。動画をうpされたかた、本当に面白い作品でした。

I feel a sense of restriction in Japanese society today, as if I were trapped inside a greenhouse. In the future in Japan, I feel that there should be a time in which you can express yourself as a human being. Thank you for uploading the video, it was very interesting.

However some commenters disagreed that the recruiting system crushed individuality:

Mephist007:
就職するという意味を良く考えよう。貴方に給料を払ってくれるのは、貴方を拘束しているからじゃない。また自分が利益を作り出せる人間であれば会社に所属する必要はない。もはや「働いたら働いた分お金がもらえる」という仕事は存在しない。たとえ数年は無理でも、将来会社の利益を作り出せる人材であると思ってもらえれば、会社は貴方を雇用します。貴方と会社は対等なのです。

Let's think about the meaning of a “job”. If I'm paying you a salary, it's not because I want to restrain you. People who can produce their own profits do not need to belong to a company. The “work, and get money for each minute worked” type of job doesn't exist anymore. Even if it will not happen for a few years, if there are people who will generate profits for the company in the future, the company will employ them. You and the company are equal.

aiueoribabaable:
この動画はよくできていると思います。ただ、「就活はやっぱり馬鹿らしい」みたいなコメントはどうかと。いままでの受験だって偏差値という画一的な価値観に自分を合わせる作業だったし、社会ってそういうものでは？？
それに就活生に同じように求められている社会の基礎的なマナーであって（だって茶髪・長髪で面接に行くのはおかしいでしょう）、その上に個性はいくらでも築けるよ。

I think this video is well-done. But I doubt the wisdom of the “Job-hunting is so ridiculous!” type of comments. In school, the examinations were uniform, and you had to tailor yourself to the standard. Isn't it the same case for society?
The same basic manners of society are required for job-hunting students (it would be odd to go to the job interview with long hair, or dyed hair). Nevertheless, you can still develop your individuality beyond the basic [recruitment] etiquette.

YouTube user posaburo went a step further and suggested that students need to think out of the box:

posaburo:
“模範解答のある社会から、模範解答の無い社会に出るにあたって戸惑う学生。就活にあたって「こうしなければ」と思っている時点で「模範解答社会=学校」から
抜け出せていない。人の真似をしていたらビジネスはできないよん”

Since students are only taught the “correct answers” while at school, these students are confused when they have to confront the real world, without definite answers. While job-hunting, they are thinking that they must act upon “correct answers”, and they still are not able to escape from the school mentality. You can't do business simply by imitating what other people do, right?

Comments were translated by Andrew Kowalczuk

Japan's Prime Minister On Your Smartphone

Keiko Tanaka — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:24:36 +0000

The Japanese prime minister’s office revealed apps that give smartphone users easy access to official announcements and photos from official events. Masaru Ikeda at StartupDating writes:

for the younger generation who don’t subscribe to physical newspapers or watch TV news shows, it could be a good touch point for them to stay up to speed on Japanese politics.

VIDEO: Tokyo Gives Harlem Shake a Whirl

Keiko Tanaka — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:37:15 +0000

Harlem Shake in Shibuya crossing

Popular Internet video meme the Harlem Shake [en] has hit Tokyo. A verison organized by a Latino under the pseudonym Saw was filmed on March 17, 2013 in Shibuya, the heart of Japan's youth culture, and the video was uploaded on YouTube a few days later. Portal Mie [pt], an online portal that serves Portuguese-speaking foreigners in Japan, has more details [pt] .

Tokyo Smog Stokes Fears of China's Spreading Pollution

Keiko Tanaka — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 03:50:18 +0000

Anxiety is growing in Japan that neighboring China's jaw-dropping levels of air pollution may be wafting over the island nation.

A month after China's heavy pollution began to dominate Japanese headlines [ja], a yellow smog that descended over Tokyo on March 10, 2013 caused a flurry of speculation that the country's pollution was reaching Japanese shores. Citizens captured the yellowed sky on their mobile phones [ja].

The Japanese Meteorological Agency reported that hot weather conditions kicked up dust into a haze [煙霧], but some worried that the smog was Chinese air pollution or an even more volatile mix of seasonal Asian Dust from Chinese deserts and Chinese pollutants arriving in Japan.

The smog comes at a time when the Japanese public is increasingly aware of China's air pollution, thanks to a barrage of Japanese media reports on China's PM 2.5 or fine particle air pollution, which measure 2.5 microns in diameter and are small enough to enter the lungs. The particles can increase a person's chance of illness, including lung cancer.

Back in 1950s and 60s during a period of high economic growth, Japan experienced an outbreak of four manmade diseases caused by environmental pollution, including a kind of asthma caused by sulfur oxide smog. In response to the health crisis, Japan established the Ministry of Environment in 1971.

Tokyo's sky turned hazy.
Photo taken on March 10 2013 by suppaiku (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The ministry released a note [ja] on February 8, 2013, seeking to help China counter its air pollution. So far, China has not taken up the ministry on its offer.

Journalist @furumai_yoshiko [ja], who writes for Newsweek Japan, urged the Japanese government on her blog [ja] to offer China technology and wisdom to combat the air pollution:

マジな話、わしは今、日本大使館は微博やメディアを使ってばんばん日本の大気汚染対策の歴史、そして手段についての情報を中国に垂れ流すべきだと思うけどなぁ

Seriously, I think the Japanese Embassy should tell China about countermeasures and the history of Japan's air pollution through Weibo and various media platforms.

Anti-nuclear advocates, such as blogger “aoiroba” [ja], called the media hype surrounding China's pollution a distraction from radiation pollution from the Fukushima nuclear disaster:

マスコミは「西日本が危ない」と「西」を限定した論調で報道している。
私の母親も言っていたが「日本中何処にいても危険」という意識を植え付け、PM2.5を悪玉にする事で自国の汚染意識を薄らいで行かせるのが目的だろう。

Mass media emphasize the pollution risks in western Japan.
I assume they want to reinforce the idea that there's no place safe in this country, and by assigning 2.5 particulate matter as the bad guy, they manipulatively seek to avoid the nation's attention to [radiation] contamination.

screenshot of forecast of atmospheric aerosol pollution by SPRINTARS (Spectral Radiation-Transport Model for Aerosol Species)

Twitter user (Watase Yoshitaka) observed [ja] that the history of environmental pollution is repeating, not just in China but in Japan:

@yoshitaka_w: 水俣病、イタイイタイ病など、あらゆる公害の犠牲者の訴えは、常に「非科学的」とのレッテルを貼られて無視黙殺され続けた。福島原発事故でも同じことが繰り返されている。だが、ソーシャルメディアは一人一人の被害者の声を表に出すツールとなった。そこに希望がある #原発 #公害 #nhk

@yoshitaka_w: Every time victims make pollution accusations, as was the case for Minamata disease, Itai-itai disease, and all kinds diseases caused by pollution, their accusations were labeled as unscientific and ignored. I see the same patterns are occurring after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. However, social media has been a great tool to express and amplify the voices of each one of the victims. That's where I see hope.

The Japanese Ministry of Environment monitors the levels 2.5 particulate matter pollution in Japan. The latest observations are available here [ja].

This post was sub-edited by L.Finch

Anti-Whaling Activists Hit a Nerve in Japan

Keiko Tanaka — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 06:32:15 +0000

Japanese whaling authorities and anti-whaling activists are trading blame after a harpoon ship collided with two vessels from the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd in Antarctic waters on February 20, 2013.

The incident offered a glimpse into the country's complicated relationship with whaling as many Japanese Web users, regardless of their opinion on the practice, lined up against Sea Shepherd and slammed what some called the world's selective outrage over Japanese whaling.

Activists from US-based Sea Shepherd maintain that the 8,000-tonne factory ship Nisshin Maru rammed two of the organization's vessels, the Bob Barker and the Steve Irwin, as well as its own refueling ship, the South Korean tanker ship Sun Laurel.

Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research, the country's quasi-governmental whaling body, disputes the anti-whaling group's version of events, claiming that Sea Shepherd vessels made a “foolhardy” attempt to sabotage the Nisshin Maru's refueling effort, provoking the collision.

No one was injured in the incident.

The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986. In recent years, Japan has caught between 400 and 1,000 whales per year as part of what it calls “scientific research” and the meat is sold as a byproduct on the open market in Japan, despite the country's waning appetite for whale meat. Critics have called the Institute of Cetacean Research a ruse to continue commercial whaling despite the moratorium.

Critics have also accused Sea Shepherd of using aggressive, at times violent tactics to stop Japan's whaling. Days after this latest clash, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling on an unrelated case filed against the organization by Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research in November 2011, labeled them as pirates.

Image of the collision from the Institute of Cetacean Research.

After the collision, many Japanese Web users took to social media to condemn Sea Shepherd without explicitly professing support for their homeland's practice whaling, a sign of the Japanese people's nuanced perspective on the practice.

In an online poll on newly launched polling platform zzhh.jp [ja], users were asked to answer whether they thought Sea Shepherd's intervention of Japan's whaling is a criminal act. Many of the 210 users who participated answered that they consider it a crime regardless of if they are for or against whaling. User @naoki_ma commented:

調査捕鯨に反対するのは自由だが、彼らの行動はどうひいき目に見ても国際法に違反する行為。欧州の捕鯨国に対して批判活動を展開していなことを見れば人種蔑視を感じざるを得ない。正当防衛を含めた毅然とした対応を

It is up to the Sea Shepherd to protest research whaling, but their behavior seems obviously against international law however I tried to align with them. Given that there is no criticism [by Sea Shepherd] against whaling in European countries, I cannot help but feel that they have some sort of contempt [for Japan]. I ask for the government to stand resolute and consider countermeasures for self-defense.

Japanese media coverage of opposition to whaling has been relatively scant compared to the amount of coverage devoted to the subject by international media, as the case has been for other marine mammal hunts by Japan.

But the news of the clash between the whaling ship and Sea Shepherd ships dominated headlines in Australia, which is one of Sea Shepherd's most prominent supporters. Japanese author Kaz Hagiwara (@reservologic), who resides in Australia, noted on Twitter:

@reservologic: 今朝から豪州のニュースは、日本の調査捕鯨船が豪州領海内でシーシェパードを暴力的に妨害したという記事で持ち切り。国政選挙が近くなると出てくる日本の捕鯨問題はオーストラリア政府の定番スピンなのだった。そういやギラード首相の支持率は最低。http://bit.ly/VJ8KMg

@reservologic: Media coverage in Australia this morning flooded with the news that Japan's whaling research ship violently intervened with the Sea Shepard in the Australian territorial waters. The issues surrounding Japan's whaling always come up almost routinely when an election is near. Note that the approval ratings of PM Julia Gillard is in a slump now.

But despite the Japanese's clear cut opposition to Sea Shepherd, opinions about the actual matter of whaling aren't so unanimous. Some wonder about the inconsistency of plentiful whale meat available in the online [ja] and offline marketplace as a byproduct of whale research. Twitter user @one_one_nine[ja] asked:

@one_one_nine: 調査捕鯨といいながら、市場には相当量出回っているのは何故なんだ？ RT @lllpuplll: 捕鯨はだめ。クジラさんが可哀想、といいながら、ブタさんやウシさんを平気で食らう日本。日本人は、自分の足下をよく見つめるべき。

@one_one_nine: Then why is it that there is a substantial amount of whale meat available in the market while they claim that it is for research purposes? QT@lllpuplll: No whaling because it's a pity while you devour piggies and cows? Japanese should be more aware of where they stand.

Japan's financial support of whaling has also attracted criticism at home that funds could be better spent elsewhere. Miyako Maekita (@maekitam), who heads green advertising agency Sustena, discussed [ja] on Twitter in October 2012 how the budget for reconstruction efforts in Ishinomaki, which suffered serious damage from the massive earthquake and resulting tsunami in March 2011, was diverted to whaling instead:

@maekitam:【23億円】震災復興予算が南極海調査捕鯨事業へ23億円。被災捕鯨地宮城県石巻市「恩恵ない」と指摘。調査捕鯨費18億円＋シーシェパード対策費4億8千万円。捕鯨と鯨肉販売行う日本鯨類研究所は水産庁次長OBが理事長、役員10人うち3,4人が天下り。これ火事場泥棒。#今日の数字

@maekitam: 2.3 billion yen was allocated to Arctic research whaling from the disaster reconstruction budget. Disaster-stricken Ishinomaki city in Miyagi Prefecture [whaling area] protested that “this does not help our community.” 1.8 billion yen for research whaling + 480 million yen for Sea Shepherd counter measure budget. The Institute of Cetacean Research, which handles whaling and selling whale meat, consists of former-government officials “parachuted” in. The former vice-director for the fisheries agency sits as chief director, three to four “parachuted” in former government officials of all 10 members. This is an act of thief.

But defenders of the practice, despite Japan's image in the press as a cruel whaler, point to Japanese folk belief that considers whales as divine [ja]. A Twitter user commented last year that Japan holds memorials for dead whales in certain areas:

東北の鯨神社では日本が江戸時代から現在に至るまで捕鯨した全ての鯨を奉っており、全てに戒名を与えている。日本は世界で最も鯨を大切に扱い、鯨の生命一つ一つを歴史に残し、長年にわたって鯨の慰霊をしている。しかし、シーシェパードががそのような事をしたと言う話は一回も聞かない。

In Tohoku [north east area of ] Japan, there is a shrine dedicated to celebrate whales, as a memorial for every single whale with their names. Japan has treated whales the best in the world, and for a long time, comforted the spirit of whale after life. I've never heard Sea Shepard did this kind of thing.

French Magazine's 50 People Shaping Japan

Keiko Tanaka — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 19:39:05 +0000

Interest for Japan is at its peak among readers in France [fr] despite the Asian nation's gloomy economic outlook. Therefore, French Magazine ZoomJapan [fr] has featured 50 Japanese people that are transforming the archipelago; from architect Kyohei Sakaguchi―who established what he calls “independent government”―, to dancers, activists, business entrepreneurs, and journalists. The compilation is available online in French, Japanese and in English.
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Japan: Where Does My Money Go?

Keiko Tanaka — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 17:00:26 +0000

A group of coders and concerned citizens have launched a Where Does My Money Go? [ja] website to explore tax spending in the city of Yokohama. With cooperation from the city, volunteers participated in a hackathon to brainstorm how to creatively showcase the city's tax spending. (more…)

Defending Capital Punishment in Japan

Keiko Tanaka — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 19:12:36 +0000

Would you still be against it if someone you loved was killed by a psychotic murderer?

Human rights organization Amnesty International called for the death penalty to be abolished in Japan and criticized the Japanese Ministry of Justice for hanging three inmates. Beth at JapanCrush takes a look at reactions from netizens who are in favor of capital punishment in the country.