Jul 24, 2021
Environmentalists often complain about the terminology used by the media to describe things related to climate change. Their biggest gripe might be the term “natural disaster,” which gives the impression of a terrible event that is outside of human control.
In truth, they say, human influence on the environment has exacerbated problems that contribute to hurricanes, floods, drought and forest fires. To them these events are not “natural” at all, unless you subscribe to the belief that humans, being biological entities, are impossible to remove from the calculus of nature; which means such events are disasters because that is their effect on civilization. Nature’s ways are never anything other than natural.
With the rollout in vaccinations for those age 65 and over finally underway, magazines in Japan have taken up the topic from a variety of perspectives. As
Apr 17, 2021
When last we visited Princess Mako and her boyfriend, Kei Komuro, the couple’s wish to marry had finally received the blessing of her father, Crown Prince Akishino, albeit with lingering reservations.
The media was still set against Komuro as a suitor to royalty for reasons mostly having to do with money, be it the loan his mother had yet to pay back to a former lover or the windfall that Mako would receive upon marrying and which some press outlets implied was Komuro’s reason for pursuing her.
The media’s negative view of Komuro continues to affect public opinion. The March 20 issue of weekly magazine Shukan Asahi published the results of a survey that showed 97% of respondents were opposed to the marriage. The survey was conducted on the internet, and such research tends to attract respondents who like to complain, but still that’s a pretty overwhelming reaction.
Aided by sleeping pills and social media, ex-Osaka teacher raped ‘more than 300’ men
By Roland Shichijo on March 13, 2021
OSAKA (TR) – By the time Osaka police arrested Takahiro Hojo, 42, on suspicion of rape last year, investigators had used photographs seized in his residence in Osaka City to estimate that the number of victims in the case exceeded 100.
During his trial, Hojo said that the actual figure
far exceeded 100. “The number of victims was more than 300,” he told the Osaka District Court.
On February 18, the court handed Hojo a 20-year prison term over the drugging and raping of 10 confirmed male victims over a two-year period ending in March 2019, according to the
Jan 30, 2021
One of the oft-cited entries in Mao Zedong’s famous red book of quotations begins, “A revolution is not a dinner party.”
Nor, would it appear, is a revolution a Mad Hatter’s costume ball. But one might not know it from the initial reactions in the Japanese media, which focused on the flamboyant garb of a certain individual who was part of the unruly mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
How did the Japanese media react to these acts of mass civil disobedience? Initially the coverage concentrated on the antics of a 33-year-old exhibitionist from Arizona, a self-described “QAnon Shaman,” who pranced into the U.S. Senate chamber and posed for photographs while on the raised platform in front of Vice President Mike Pence’s chair.