{"id":13109,"date":"2015-03-01T15:09:29","date_gmt":"2015-03-02T01:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13109"},"modified":"2015-03-01T17:05:28","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T03:05:28","slug":"japan-times-inflammatory-articles-arent-helping-mags-circulation-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=13109","title":{"rendered":"Japan Times: Inflammatory articles (such as Sono Ayako’s “Japartheid” Sankei column) aren\u2019t helping mags\u2019 circulation numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0An excellent round-up article by Mark Schreiber in the Japan Times featured some analysis of the media ripples following Sono Ayako’s column advocating a Japan version\u00a0of South African Apartheid<\/a>. \u00a0He has a good look at not only the domestic reaction to this xenophobic proposal for state-enfranchised\u00a0segregation (surprisingly favorable towards it, especially in a younger-age group!), but also the battle for Japan’s soul through control of the historical narrative. \u00a0He also gives us some statistics on how the most common denominator for fanning xenophobia though the media — profit motive — doesn’t seem to be working: \u00a0Sales of the scandalous Shuukanshi\u00a0<\/em>Weeklies are significantly down across the board. \u00a0Then it concludes with Japan’s rapidly declining press freedoms as measured worldwide, and offers the lack of trust in the media\u00a0as a possible cause for people not buying it\u00a0because they don’t buy into it. \u00a0It’s an insightful piece into how Japan’s media-manufactured national mentalities are descending into a Pravda-style official groupthink.<\/p>\n

Probably one of the best\u00a0articles the\u00a0Japan Times will put out this year, already appearing. \u00a0Excerpt germane to Debito.org follows, but do read the whole thing. Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/<\/p>\n

Inflammatory articles aren\u2019t helping mags\u2019 circulation numbers<\/strong>
\n BY MARK SCHREIBER<\/strong>
\nTHE JAPAN TIMES, FEB 28, 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a controversial column by 83-year-old author Ayako Sono that appeared in the Feb. 11 issue of the Sankei Shimbun under the headline \u201cMaintain a \u2018suitable distance,\u2019\u201d Sono suggested that when and if Japan changes its immigration policies to accept more foreign workers, they should live in racially segregated areas.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Remarks on the article appeared in Shukan Post (March 6), Asahi Geino (March 5), Flash (March 10) and Weekly Playboy (March 9). Sono also defended her column in the Shukan Bunshun (Feb. 26). While the general tone of the responses was supportive of Sono\u2019s right to express her opinions, Weekly Playboy went the extra mile and surveyed 100 adults between the ages of 20 and 79. When asked about her stance, 42.3 percent of respondents replied, \u201cI can understand what she\u2019s saying, in part.\u201d This exceeded the 36.6 percent who responded, \u201cIt\u2019s understandable for her to be criticized\u201d and 21 percent who saw no problem with the column\u2019s contents.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The magazine also asked the participants if they agreed that foreign blue-collar workers should be admitted in greater numbers to cope with labor shortages. As opposed to 7.8 percent who said they agreed and 27.5 percent who agreed to some extent, 41.8 percent were opposed to some extent, and 22.8 percent were opposed outright.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Interestingly, the age segment that most strongly opposed the acceptance of foreign workers for nursing care services (and the only segment that provided a majority response) was respondents in their 30s, 53 percent of whom said they\u2019d prefer to avoid non-Japanese nurses. From its in-house survey results \u2014 the rather small number of subjects notwithstanding \u2014 Weekly Playboy concludes that the Japanese still have a deeply rooted \u201callergy to foreigners.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rest of the article at: http:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2015\/02\/28\/national\/media-national\/inflammatory-articles-arent-helping-mags-circulation-numbers\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An excellent round-up article by Mark Schreiber in the Japan Times featured some analysis of the media ripples following Sono Ayako’s column advocating a Japan version of South African Apartheid. He has a good look at not only the domestic reaction to this xenophobic proposal for state-enfranchised segregation (surprisingly favorable towards it, especially in a younger-age group!), but also the battle for Japan’s soul through control of the historical narrative. He also gives us some statistics on how the most common denominator for fanning xenophobia though the media — profit motive — doesn’t seem to be working: Sales of the scandalous Weeklies are significantly down across the board. Then it concludes with Japan’s rapidly declining press freedoms as measured worldwide, and offers the lack of trust in the media as a possible cause for people not buying it because they don’t buy into it. It’s an insightful piece into how Japan’s media-manufactured national mentalities are descending into a Pravda-style official groupthink. <\/p>\n

JT: Remarks on the [Sano] article appeared in Shukan Post (March 6), Asahi Geino (March 5), Flash (March 10) and Weekly Playboy (March 9). Sono also defended her column in the Shukan Bunshun (Feb. 26). While the general tone of the responses was supportive of Sono\u2019s right to express her opinions, Weekly Playboy went the extra mile and surveyed 100 adults between the ages of 20 and 79. When asked about her stance, 42.3 percent of respondents replied, \u201cI can understand what she\u2019s saying, in part.\u201d This exceeded the 36.6 percent who responded, \u201cIt\u2019s understandable for her to be criticized\u201d and 21 percent who saw no problem with the column\u2019s contents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,36,52,16,13,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-business-practices","category-bad-social-science","category-hate-speech","category-labor-issues","category-media","category-unsustainable-japanese-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}