Japan Interpreted and Reinterpreted

From the land that gave us household brandnames for appliances, televisions, stereos, and automobiles, little else is known besides the consumer image of Japan. We know it exists, and we love to make fun of them (at least in the United States) when we aren't devouring their instant ramen as a staple of the university student's diet or wishing we had a Japanese car of our own. However, beyond brands, beyond cultural bias, and beyond the image (arguably facade), the image of Japan is more than meets the eye, especially if one only looks with the eye of the consumer, regardless of whether or not the consumer loves or loathes Japan.

One of the challenges, however, in trying to find the "real" Japan in spite of the nature of Japanese culture to have a consensus on news media when providing the image Japan wants to portray, is where does one go for top news on Japanese politics and all things Japanese? Furthermore, Japan is overwhelmingly advanced in terms of Internet technology, so digging through the myriad of news feeds available is a challenge that boils down to interface preference and if the information provided is satisfactory.

An important detail to note about Japanese media culture is that stories that would generate a controversey are seldom-reported due to fears of disrupting both order and the status quo, which the media, in tandem with the government, work hard to preserve. Regardless, one does not view Japanese news with a grain of salt along the same vein of China's Xinhua news agency where there is an obvious bias, because reporting is honest, though there is a big difference between outright lying and withholding information.

Cheers: Though lacking in presentation and being a list of different news feeds, News on Japan is the most informative site there is, for the viewer who does not need news images to relate to Japan's political issues. It is updated daily from multiple news sites and listed chronologically. Although the mixing of different news sites is debatable as the quality of each varies, one gets a very diverse image of Japanese politics due to the mix of sites and simple, accessible page loaded with information. It is one of the few news indexes that proves linking to multiple sites is not a bad way of sharing information, as organization is important, as well as consistency. After all, each site-- though having different interfaces and contexts-- provides in-depth analyses, background information, and come from reputable sources. Advertisements are minimal, limited to a google ad bar on the right, but everything else is visible without being distracted by ads or other content, including the easy-to-locate foreign exchange rate box on the left sidebar. It still loses points for creativity and interface, but for those who want the straight facts, head over to http://www.newsonjapan.com/html/newsdesk/morenews/Politics_News/. Conveniently enough, it also has an RSS feed which gives people the headlines and direct link to the articles of interest straight from their bookmarks toolbar.

Jeers: In trying to be partial, the Japan Today news site has literally tidbits of information because it has no opinion or depth. Even the headlines seem to present more information than the actual news articles, which are so short that it seems one could receive an entire news story in a single text message for his or her mobile device. Organization is one good thing, however, as almost all of the ads are small excerpts from a larger ad on the right in a small sidebar; and there is one banner ad at the top, so everything appears micromanaged just like most things in Japan. It is the organization which makes navigating the site easy and good, but is absolutely shallow in terms of depth since its articles are sometimes no longer than three sentences in a lone paragraph, making it seem like a robot wrote the article since there is no opinion, no emotional depth, so boring that it feels like reading out of a textbook. An example of this is seen here:

TOKYO — Ichiro Ozawa, leader of the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan, urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his cabinet members and senior lawmakers of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party on Tuesday to disclose how they spend money on maintaining their offices.

His comments came after he revealed documents related to his own office expenses following a spate of money scandals, including fuzzy accounting of political funds, involving cabinet members and other key players of the LDP. Taken from http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/399563

This is a a clear example of how boring articles here are, with only two sentences, and each sentence seems to take the tone of an aloof speaker who says a few key words which make the reader think and wonder what the author refers to, with nothing to explain what money scandals or who was involved with the scandals. Events are reported dutifully, but information is scarce.

For those with a short attention span, the link to Japan Today's political news feed, free of opinions and depth, head over to

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/cat/9