In most places, the blogosphere offers an alternative to the mainstream media where people can go for a taste of the unvarnished truth. But not in Japan.

Most bloggers here tend to trust what companies write about their products, and take their press releases at face value.

Nearly 63 percent of Japanese who keep blogs consider corporate press releases to be trustworthy sources of information, compared with fewer than five percent of English-speaking Americans, Canadians and Europeans, it said.

In contrast, almost two-thirds of English-language bloggers who write about products believe other blogs are reliable sources, a view shared by 15 percent in Japan, said the joint research by public relations agency Edelman and blog search engine Technorati.

“Japanese bloggers have high trust in ‘official’ information from corporations including news releases,” the study said. “Japanese companies have been using such one-way ‘monologue’ methods.”

The main reason Japanese get into blogging?

For Japanese bloggers, the top motivation to blog was to “create a record of my thoughts,” with 28.2 percent listing it as their primary reason.

The U.S. Navy cruiser USS Shiloh recently joined eight other Aegis-equipped warships in Yokosuka, southwest of Tokyo, in order to bolster ballistic missile defense capabilities in Japan. The deployment came in an apparent response to the threat posed by recent North Korean missile tests in the area.

That didn’t stop protestors from turning out in small craft, one carrying a sign reading, “Stop MD.”

Veteran Japanese politician and recent politically-motivated arson attack victim, Koichi Kato, has warned a group of assembled foreign journalists that Japanese militarism and nationalism is on the rise. In his speech to the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo, Kato likened Japan’s morally detached youngsters to helium balloons floating on air currents;

“Even in the slightest breeze they will all start floating in the same direction,” the one-time prime ministerial candidate said.

“And if there is a nationalistic mood that takes over the country, all of these balloons will begin to drift in a very strong way along this current.”

The newspaper story can be found here, and no surprise that this was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald/Melbourne Age’s Deborah Cameron, whose articles frequently take a negative view of Japanese politics. She continues in her story to outline such ominous signs of the rising tide of neo-nationalism in Japan as “foreigners being targeted by police in anti-crime crackdowns.” Since when was this a new phenomenon?

During a recent visit to Tokyo by Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, Cameron missed the substantial positive outcomes of his meeting with Taro Aso instead choosing to focus in her write-up on the fact that Downer is the son of a POW held in a Japanese camp while Aso’s family had used POW slave labour during the war. Tellingly, none of the other major Australian dailies carried a story along these lines and it seems that while Downer himself has long since moved on from the issue, Deborah Cameron has not.

Salon.com are producing a series of ‘literary guides to’ and the latest is Japan, by Kyoko Mori. It’s all to do with a national “obsession with beauty and discipline”, apparently. Curiously she focuses on Kazuo Ishiguro for this trait, though she does at least acknowledge his English upbringing.

News just in… Tokyo has been chosen as the official Japanese candidate bid for the 2016 games by the Japanese Olympic Committee (33 votes to 22). No one I’ve spoken to who lives there wants it though, either supporting Fukuoka as the underdog or alternatively not wanting years of construction projects and congestion. I suspect they won’t have much to worry about as the bid is likely to remain just that, a bid. Still, it gives the Governor an excuse to run again next year.

This seems to be long version of yesterday’s Engrish post.

If North Korea expecting relations with Japan to get better when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi steps down as Prime Minister in September, they may be mistaken.

According to reports, Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, who is far and away the front runner to fill the post of prime minister, is considering even tougher measures against the NORKS than those imposed Koizumi.

As prime minister, Abe would boost the power of a government task force on the abductions and push ahead with new measures for economic sanctions in cooperation with the ruling coalition parties, the sources said.

They said these plans would represent a policy shift from Koizumi’s “dialogue and pressure” against North Korea to one stressing “pressure.”

Abe is reportedly considering a tougher approach in response to NORK defiance against Japan during Koizumi’s reign.

Even if you can’t understand Japanese, this 7 minute video will be entertaining. Watch it to the end, I promise you won’t regret it.

The toilet cost $50,000 USD to create (5,000,000 yen).

- Harvey

Is this propaganda from Tokyo’s tourism promotion authorities or what? They’re not fooling anyone with such blatant attempts to get foreign visitors to come to Tokyo:

“Shibuya has this image of being a youth-centered, bright part of town, but from the middle of the night to the early hours of the morning, it’s a real Sodom and Gomorrah. Photos I’ve taken show stuff like the streets being filled with kids coming home from all-night jaunts at nightclubs, girls sprawled on sidewalks not caring at all that they’re showing off their panties for all the world to see and kids beaten to a pulp over the tiniest disagreement”

Not being a ‘kid’ that doesn’t really bother me. And it’s really safe now too:

“Shibuya has definitely lost the risky types that used to be around. It’s definitely a much safer place,” a streetside talent scout says.

Though there’s a downside, apparently:

Nonetheless, Shibuya remains a magnet for runaway schoolgirls and the streets have junior high school girl runaways selling their bodies off, high school girls regularly indulging in hard drugs and other teens using fake IDs to find jobs working in the sex business.

They’re really selling it, aren’t they?

As you may have noticed, things have quieted down considerably here.

I have multiple projects to work on until around mid-September, which means that my posting will be light until then.

JP

Chinese officials have decided to crack down on the practice at some rural villages of hiring strippers to perform at funerals. The practice is intended to attract more attendees to funerals because many people believe that a greater number of people improve the deceased’s chances for better afterlife. They also think that more people bring luck to the survivors as well.

Local officials [have been] told they must submit plans for funerals within 12 hours after a villager dies. Exotic dancing is off the menu - and residents can report “funeral misdeeds” on a special hotline for a reward of USD $35.

Thanks to Mr. Pink for the headline!

Young Girls Give a Drum Demonstration before the Station

Tohoku - the northern region of mainland Japan - likes its summer festivals (matsuri). The whole area in the first week of August seems to erupt with big and grandiose festivals - each one apparently trying to outdo each other in extravagance. It’s like a keeping up with the Joneses (or the Tanakas) affair with each city vying for attention and visitors.

Traditional Sansa Odori Dancer

For visitors to Tohoku in August, they have their pick of festivals to attend. With a bit of luck and transportation fiddling, they can almost do all of them or at least a good number.

One of the 600 Flute Players of Sansa Odori

Morioka’s Sansa Odori Festival has some stiff competition from Aomori’s famous Nebuta Matsuri with its gigantic floats to the North, Akita’s Kanto Festival with its tall, tall lantern poles to the west, and Sendai’s colorful Tanabata Festival to the south. Even many Japanese are not familiar with the Sansa Odori but the festival boasts a procession of 20,000 participants in colorful robes, 5,000 drums, and 600 flutes. Definitely nothing to sneeze at.

Power Rangers on Parade

Morioka is the capital of the Iwate Prefecture and was founded in 1597. It was a castle town administrated by the Nambu clan during the Edo Period (1603-1867). The origin of name of Iwate and the Sansa Odori are linked to the same legendary event.

Sometime in the distant past, a devil terrorized the area around Morioka. The people prayed to a local god for deliverance. The god answered their prayers and defeated the devil. He made the devil swear never to bother the people of the region again. As a sign of his pledge, the god had the devil place his hand upon one of three stones. The handprint remained and the name Iwate was born which means “stone-hand.”

The people were so relieved that they put on a festival - the Sansa Odori - to celebrate the devil’s departure. Sansa Odori is held throughout the first week of August. During the day near the train station several dance demonstrations are held. In the evening a long procession is made involving 20,000 people in various colorful attire. Some are dancing, others are playing the flute, but the largest contingent is the drummers.

The drummers carry a miniature taiko drum on their chest with the drum heads facing left and right. The drummers range in ages from grandmothers to toddlers. One would fear that the noise of all these drums would make a horrendous un-rhythmic catastrophe of music. Fortunately, the procession had a pleasant rhythm that was unbroken and quite catchy.

The participants chant “Sansa! Sansa!” and something like “Sakkora Cholwa Yasse” which most Japanese can’t even understand. The phrase the participants chant is a linguistic soup mix of the local dialect and old Japanese with a bit of Emishi for flavoring. The Emishi were the original inhabitants of the Iwate area before they were absorbed after much effort a thousand years ago.

I was passing through Iwate on my way to Aomori and the Nebuta Festival. I knew nothing about the Sansa Odori when I arrive in Morioka. When I saw pretty young girls in flowing dresses near the station, I thought to myself that this bore further investigation. I was not disappointed.

In the evening I watched a two hour long parade of drumming, dancing, and fluting(?). Along with the pretty girls, I saw a number of unique displays of individuality in the shape of Power Rangers, walking vegetables, a group of monkeys that seemed to have materialized from some drug-induced nightmare, and some very unconvincing drag queens.

She’s not a natural blonde but she drums well

I heard from witnesses that the Sansa Odori in the past was more uniform in appearance but is now evolving (some say de-evolving) as Japanese society itself changes with the times.

A disturbing Monkey - what nightmares are made of

Sociology aside, Morioka’s Sansa Odori is a worthy addition to anyone’s festival schedule while they are in Tohoku in August.

All text and photos ©2006 D.Weber

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Japan Talk #037 is now available on the Japan Talk website and at FeedBurner.

* Getting busy
* Life of a translator
* Space Cowboys

* Britney Spears Harper’s nude makes trouble in Tokyo subway
* Megumi Yokota
* Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story
* Vanity postage stamps
* MPEG toilet
* Mobile noodle restaurant
* Narita meat patrol
* Drug drop linked to pressure on North Korea?
* Japan turns away North Korean peace meet envoys
* Geisha go digital
* Most women do not use women-only train cars
* Japanese women think men stink

* Truck falls on building
* Magic number of con artists: 980,000 yen
* Parents accuse teacher of mental torture in son’s death
* Officials suspended slush fund receive support from another slush fund
* Man has sex change operation to please lesbian girlfriend
* Baby dies as parents play pachinko
* Novelist admits to throwing kittens off of cliff
* Japan revamps its CPI basket of goods
* Wal-Mart bleeding red in Japan
* Man makes 1,100 prank calls to police number
* Man molests woman who turns out to be off duty cop

Japundit Contributors:
Danny Bloom in Taiwan, David Weber in Tokyo, Marie Mockett in New York, Sylvain Bouchard in Sendai, Mike Plugh in Akita, ghoti in Fukuoka, Mr. Wake in Kamakura, Tokyoid in London, Bill (Ampontan) Sakovich in Saga, JP in Tokyo

Music
* Settle Down, Cabin Dogs

MF247
* Resident Of A City, Maiko Sekito

Garageband
* Hello California, Salme Dahlstrom

Podsafe Music Network
* Rocket Science, Brain Buckit

Listener Feedback:
* Hiro from Hiroshima
* Amanda B from Knoxville, Tennessee
* Salme Dahlstrom
* Everybody loves Bart!?!

Links of Interest:
* Next Big Hit
* Podsafe Music Network
* Space Cowboys
* Megumi Yokota
* Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story
* What Japan Thinks
* Garageband
* MF247

Contact: podcast@japundit.com

American writer Jed Rubenfeld may be the only constitutional-law scholar to have appeared in a Lexus commercial in Japan. Movie stars, yes, but a law guy? Now Rubenfeld has penned a historical thriller that his agents hope will be the next DaVinci Code. Of course, it won’t; there’s only one DVC. It’s a bit risque, as one reviewer has said, noting: “Who knew that in 1909 one could have a dear friend give you a Brazilian shave?”

Oh yeh, the title of the book. Almost forgot. The Interpretation of Murder.

A monkey head found in the window display of a shop that sells medicinal powders made of dried snake and other stuff.

Nothing to do with Japan but hey, it’s the weekend . . .

You know those optical illusions where it’s hard to tell whether you are looking at a vase or a person’s profile? How would you like to be the vase/profile?

For a fee, a company called Turn Your Head will record a digital image of your profile and carve a wooden vessel with a profile that matches yours.

Via Popgadget