世論 What Japan Thinks

Just a short note to say that Debito has published a detailed look at the recent survey on human rights, including bits from my translation and other more traditional news sources.

He gives an interesting summary, and adds a few of his own opinions, so head over there and check them out.

Thanks for the link back Debito - I hoped I could tempt/taunt you into replying and perhaps spark some debate on the topic.

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I saw this story on Japanese eager to get hands on iPhones, and whilst I am somewhat irked that USA Today did not choose to interview me on the subject, I did get a hearty laugh at this comment:

Culture. “The iPhone’s broad and easily accessible screen could actually be a liability in Japan,” says Roland Kelts, author of Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the U.S. Japanese are “accustomed to doing more in smaller spaces — and keeping things to themselves. The (pornographic comics) you download on the subway may be all too visible to your neighboring commuter” if you’re using an iPhone.

As anyone who regularly commutes on Japanese trains will tell you, everyone from youths to suited businessmen freely read manga of varying degrees of sauciness, and I’ve never seen anyone make any effort to hide the fact that they are studying the adult entertainment sections of the sports newspapers complete with not just topless women, but even the occassional pornographic image, although edited to hide any naughty bits.

Secondly, there is quite a large market in privacy screens, polarising filters for mobiles to stop people glancing sideways at your mobile, although with the iPhone being able to be viewed in both landscape and portrait orientation, there might be a slight technical issue here.

I happened to notice on YouTube that an offline and online Tokyo news broadcaster Tokyo MX is currently copying CNN’s YouTube presidential candidates debate idea, by gathering questions for everyone’s favourite politician, the great internationalist Shintaro Ishihara. They are looking for 30 second questions to pose to him at some as yet unannouced date, and I suspect that questions from foreign residents might have a good chance of getting through, especially given the quality of the other two posts to date!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJCduU2ChJ0

If anyone makes a contribution, please let me know and I’ll add it to this page.

Although I started out as somewhat of a skeptic about the iPhone, mainly in reaction to the blanket news coverage it has been receiving, reflecting on the situation I now consider that the iPhone has what it takes to be big in Japan; indeed to become the very first foreign mobile phone (Sony-Ericsson doesn’t countas foreign!) to be a success in Japan’s rather insular market. There are, however, a small number of additions and modifications that I propose Apple must make to the hardware, software, and design before they can consider selling it in Japan.

iPhone: Japan’s carriers

Looking at the market image of the three big mobile phone carriers, namely NTT DoCoMo, au by KDDI, and SoftBank, the most natural fit would be au, as according to many surveys they have the strongest image for being on the leading edge and for supporting music playback on their phones. However, if a bidding war starts, SoftBank may be prepared to lay the most cash on the table as they are most desparate for customers, and with Cameron Diaz and Bradd Pitt pushing an American image of talking on the phone for SoftBank, SoftBank’s president Masayoshi Son may see the iPhone as a natural extension of his brand. Therefore, I predict there will be a SoftBank iPhone on the shelves early next year.
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After a quick search around the web, I found the official Japan Organ Transplant Network homepage. Send them an email at support+at+jotnw.or.jp with your name, address and number of cards you want, and they’ll pop them into the post for you. For those of you who work in locations with a number of English-speakers around, please order a handful and pin them to a handy notice board or the like.

I’ve applied for mine. If there are any other Japan-resident bloggers (including Japanese nationals, of course!) who wish to take part, or who have already filled in a donor card, please blog about it or give me a shout with your name and web page, and I’ll add you to a roll of honour here.

Japan Blogosphere Organ Donor Roll

your name here!

Ken Y-N

UPDATE: marxy beat me to the punch!

Just a day after my posting of the top 100 natto-related searches, I see that Hakkutsu! Aruaru Daijiten’s producers have admitted to making up the whole story!

Some of the lies and distortions of the truth made by the program included:

1. Some people in the USA did lose weight on a diet program based around boosting DHEA levels, but the before and after photos the program used to illustrate weight loss were of totally different people!

2. A foreign professor from Temple University in Japan was interviewed in English and he did actually make the translated comments attributed to him, but thanks to selective editing, some of his caveats or qualifications of his statements were omitted.

3. They said that two of the eight people they tried the natto diet out on saw drops in their cholesterol levels, but in fact their levels were never measured.

4. They claimed that people eating just one pack of natto per day had lower isoflavone levels than those eating two packs, but they in fact just invented these numbers.

5. Similarly, DHEA levels in the blood of their eight volunteers were also invented!

I noticed via Japan Probe, via Scoop NZ, that there was a press release issued by the Institute Of Cetacean Research, which, if Wikipedia’s article is to be trusted, is basically not much more than a front for the Japanese government for justifying whaling. In the press release there is much statistical jiggery-pokery that I shall try to get to the bottom of.
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Watching Aru Aru Daijiten (”Encyclopedia of Living” is the official translation) on television last night, they were talking about diagnosing problems with internal organs via acupressure, that is acupuncture pressure points, but just pressing them instead of sticking needles in. Whether on not you accept the medical validity or not (I personally do not), the program did, and presented some rather dubious statistics to back up their thesis, and to top it all off, accompanied it with some extremely poor, almost dangerous, advice.

One of the figures that stuck in my mind was that from their 40 guinea pigs, ordinary members of the public aged from 30 to 50 or so, 18 had pain when pressing either or both of the pressure points associated with kidney problems. These 18 were then given blood tests and six were found to actually have unusually high figures for protein in the urine or other kidney problems. Whilst everyone in the studio was amazed, to me that was just one in three who was correctly diagnosed, and there was not even the simple comparative figure of checking the other 22 to see if more or less than seven had similar kidney problems.

Next, when they did liver problems, they claimed (with no evidence to back up this statement) that with a simple one-minute massage of three pressure points one could metabolise alcohol faster and avoid hangovers!

With the people from the sample above where they had detected kidney or liver problems, after just one week of thrice-daily massage of the pressure points, they showed that on average these people had lowered their cholesterol or other indicators by about 5% to 10%, but failed to mention if these people had in addition changed their diet or started taking medicine.

Finally, my pet hate as a holier-than-thou ex-moderately-heavy drinker, was that when two of the regulars confessed to starting drinking before lunchtime and continuing until late at night on a regular basis, they were treated almost with respect for being so strong, and rather than being advised to cut down, massage of said pressure points was the recommended and sufficient activity. There was also no mention of the most basic disclaimer like “if symptoms persist, please see a doctor.”

James over at Japan Probe has highlighted again “Haneru no Tobira” (the closest thing to a sketch show on prime time Japanese TV) and their oh-so-funny “bung on a big nose a blond wig and make like a gaijin” segment; these characters also appear in a Nissan mini-car advert, which has, as a poster named Don pointed out in the comments thread, been voted the most popular television commercial for three months running (Japanese-language link) by the CM Databank.

Desparate to cover up a bullying incident in one of their schools, a Mr Masayuki Akiyama of the Hokkaido Board of Education plucks a few spurious reasons out of nowhere as to why James at Japan Probe should remove not just the allegedly human rights-infringing images, but the whole post as, I suspect, he merely feels it reflects badly on his Education Department. James made a very good and reasoned reply, but now as it seems that Mr Akiyama has the “get English-speaking lackey to email blogger” task ticked off on his to-do list, he has not had the courtesy to follow up on James’ request for clarification.

UPDATE: Trans-Pacific Radio is also covering the same Hokkaido School Board bullying story. Please also digg the stories - see the links in the comments below.

Also, I’ve just seen this good piece on the BBC about the bullying problem.