Japanese Tabloids

The Mainichi Daily News Online Website has recently removed the "Wai Wai" section. In the past it was a rough translation of various trashy Japanese tabloid articles in Japan. Here is a short list of the type of headlines you'd see.

Schoolgirls' decade of decadence: panty sales have punters panting
University turns blind eye as foreign students turn tricks
Coffee pot tips seductress plucking schoolboy cherry
Depraved duo target pregnant women in horror rape spree
Super Onanism Machines rubs the lonely the right way
Lion poo proves roaring success as deer deterrent
Sex shop offers discounts for big sluggers
Quirky quacks prescribing sexual harassment
Old fellas savor the ins and outs of a porno actor
Sucking away for huge hooters in the land of itty bitty titty

It was trashy news, unfortunately for many foreigners who read the Mainichi Online, they usually get the most hits on the site.

So here's my problem. On the one hand, this is a clear example of the Japanese selectively censoring its image to the world in thier ongoing effort to show a sophisticated, and cultured face on the global stage. Although all countries do this, it just seems that the Japanese do this with such a brazen disregard of how constructed it looks to outsiders. On the other hand, defending articles on how nurses give tell alls on how they sleep with thier patients seems not worth the effort. What I do see is this, it seems as if the crime here is not that these articles exist, but that they are being translated to English. The Mainichi has never claimed responcibility for these articles, they are merely translating them for curious foreign readers. I find it hard to swallow that Managing Director Yoshiyuki Watanabe needed to be punished for this publicly, being that he had no power on what the articles were about.

My question is how did this ever become such a big issue? It seems that much of the attention was directed at bloggers bringing traffic to the "Wai Wai" articles, and the reaction to them from Japanese citizens who are afraid of how this reflects Japan.

If you give a mouse a cookie...

So I just got Mario Kart for the Wii recently. I've been holding off on buying this game for a long time because I knew a few things about this game.

1) It's going to be a fun game.
2) My friends will come over to my apartment just to play this game.
3) It will begin the slippery slope into "geeky consumerism".

It all begins very innocently, with this game I will finally have a reason to get a second Wii-mote. (Although I've been wanting one ever since I bought Trauma Center, but no one else really was willing to appreciate my love of hospital drama.) This second Wii-mote is quite an investment. It's 60 dollars for both the Wii-mote and a nunchuck. (Not to mention the 10 dollar Wii-wheel)

Of course buying begets buying. Now I'm happy with two Wii-motes, and the two GameCube controllers I already got for Super Smash Brother's Brawl, and I have three friends who actually want to play on my Wii. But now I realize that my TV is too small to play the game.

For most guys of my generation this is not a problem. They just slip on some sandals get in their light truck and drive out to the newly rezoned commerical area 40 miles out from the city and buy a bigger TV at a big box store. A decent size LCD TV isn't that expensive these days, and I can afford it even on my salary. But that's not the point. The point is I know that once I let that door open, I'll release the flood gate of even more buying.

If I get a bigger LCD TV, then I will be tempted to buy a gaming PC to hook into it. This is because I really would want to do things like play Mass Effect, (Which I don't own) Skype StarTrek style to my friends, and watch Homestarrunner and AdultSwim. You see what I mean, buying this one game has set off a chain of more consumption. Now I don't mean to imply that there are some marketing guys at some company laughing at their genius marketing plan, but there is something insidious with how our consumer culture has prepped us to buy things.