Archive for October, 2007
Goodies I am working on that are keeping me from posting an interview today…
On October 11, 2007 in Announcements, Suggestions Please
1. A mailing list for Daily J
2. the “Next J-Net” idea
3. An ebook to give out free for everyone who joins the mailing list
Ok. now its back to work for me.
Let me know what you think
The Next Japan Blog Matsuri - Interested?
On October 10, 2007 in Announcements, JapanBlogMatsuri, Suggestions Please
To me blog carnivals seem like a good way for bloggers to come together more than they might otherwise, put their heads (and posts) together under one banner and create something useful.
I’ve never had the opportunity to participate in one before so I don’t really know if that is accurate or idealistic, but I would like to find out.
I have been asking around about the next Japan blog matsuri. I hope there will be one!
Word on the street is that What Japan Thinks is the one to talk to so I will see what I can find out.
If you want to look at past ones, click here –> Japan Blog Matsuri
(I started this post and then I found this:)
An ebook we hope you will love!
On October 09, 2007 in Announcements
We are working of an ebook to release to everyone here on Daily J.
Like everything Daily j/Nipponster, it will the FREE.
The title and topic of the ebook?
“25 gems of the Japan-related web that you knew nothing about”
We are bringing together in one volume some of the great resources we have unearthed during our hundreds of hours of scouring the net (while working on Nipponster).
More will be posted about this is the future. We’ll keep you posted.
“Toward further control over foreign nationals?: Japan’s anti-terrorism policy and a Japanese version of the US-VISIT program”
On October 08, 2007 in Announcements, Rights of foreigners
This is a brief addition to the news we posted yesterday about Japan’s fingerprinting of foreigners. If you haven’t read that article be sure to click there now and do so.
After reading yesterday’s article some of you might be interested in hearing more about this particular issue, so we have some more info for you.
Gyaku.jp has passed us some information about an upcoming symposium in Tokyo organised by Amnesty International and SMJ.
The keynote speaker will be Barry Steinhardt
( American Civil Liberties Union)
The full details of the symposium are on their site under “Toward further control over foreign nationals?: Japan’s anti-terrorism policy and a Japanese version of the US-VISIT program
It sounds like it will be an interesting event. Unfortunately not every one lives in Tokyo so many will be left out.
Beside this symposium, Turner, the blogger from KeepingPaceInJapan has proposed a plan of presenting requests written in Japanese to immigration (similar to the letters to FamilyMart about Gaijin Hanzai Magazine)
Click here to read his “Call to Arms” post
We also interviewed him about his idea
That’s all for today.
Let us hear your comments and thoughts (i.e. post a comment below)
What translated documents on gyaku.jp have to do with you and the fingerprinting of all foreigners in Japan
On October 07, 2007 in Interviews, Rights of foreigners
“Just under one year ago, revelations emerged that a contract for a new biometric immigration system had been awarded by the Japanese government to Accenture Japan Ltd., a corporation previously hired in the role of “advisor” for the same project, at a price of only 100,000 yen (less than 900 USD).” - (Excerpt from gyaku.jp)
Wait. Rewind.
The company hired as advisor for Japan’s biometric immigration system (for fingerprinting foreigners entering the country) has also won the contract to implement that same system?! And on top of that, the amount of their bid that won the contract would not pay for the cost of a laptop in Japan! Something does not add up…
This is the story that House of Representatives member Hosaka Nobuto has been trying to make known since April 21st 2006; a story that is still widely unknown amongst the group that potentially has the most to benefit from it… non-Japanese in Japan.
It is a story that we found out about first on gyaku.jp, and when we did we knew we had to present it here.
We since interviewed gyaku.jp about the article. The contents of that interview are below. (For full English translations of documents related to this issue see the following article on gyaku.jp’s site –> Accenture, JAPAN-VISIT, and the mystery of the 100,000 yen bid)
Daily J: I believe your article mentioned that this issue affects not only foreigners in Japan but also Japanese nationals, Americans, and possibly many more if Accenture’s technology is incorporated into immigration systems in other countries (likely in SE Asia). Can you explain briefly how these others will be affected, particularly Japanese nationals?
Shioyama: I think you are referring to the translation of Mizuho Fukushima’s speech in the Diet (http://gyaku.jp/en/index.php?cmd=contentview&pid=000178). She made the point that Accenture is being commissioned for a whole slew of institutions: Imperial Household Agency, the Fair Trade Commission, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Finance, and the National Tax Agency. She argued that among these, the Ministry of Justice in particular deals with very sensitive information of Japanese citizens, and that this information might get leaked.
Actually the most interesting part of that particular exchange is former-PM Koizumi’s response. He couldn’t even pronounce the name Accenture (in Japanese). He clearly had very little idea of what the company was going to be doing with the information, which I think is pretty scary.
The main target of this particular article however wasn’t really Japanese nationals. It was targeted at two groups, who we thought could make use of the English-language materials about the 100,000 yen bid which we translated: Americans and (English-speaking) foreigners living in Japan. That’s not a statement about who “this issue affects”, because I’m sure it affects a much broader range of people. The materials that we translated had not been available earlier in English, and we thought that they could serve as an important means of leverage in trying to reverse or delay the new policy.
Daily J: What did you have in mind as far as a reaction when you started translating and discussing this issue? In other words, how do you want people to react? Are you asking for advocacy? If so, what measures do you think would be most effective?
Shioyama: We’re not asking for anything, we’re simply providing something which was lacking, i.e. translations of (what we believe to be) important documents related to the issue of the JAPAN-VISIT program.
I think if you read over the article, you’ll see that while it deals with fingerprinting and JAPAN-VISIT in general, it is quite specifically focused on the 100,000 yen bid incident. The reason is that, first of all, there is already a lot of material out there about fingerprinting in Japan (see for example Debito’s site). Our interest in translating these Diet session proceedings, blog entry, etc. was in opening up a new avenue in the debate, an avenue which I continue to think could prove to be very useful in exposing what Accenture is trying to do here.
Beyond that, however, it’s really hard to say what would be best. That’s really a topic that other people might have a better idea about.
I will say, however, that we put a lot of time and effort into translating this stuff expecting that more people would be interested, and the reaction we got was somewhat less than satisfying. Although Debito posted a blog entry about it, and there were a couple comments, given the nature of this story (Accenture was paid only 1000 USD to implement a fingerprinting system in Japan) I had really hoped more people would pick it up. The more you look at the details of this story, the more sketchy the whole thing comes out looking.
Another thing is that Diet members such as Hosaka Nobuto put a lot of effort into exposing this story. He was really almost alone in doing this, and yet the people who could potentially most directly benefit from the work he did — i.e. non-Japanese living in Japan — hardly know about the story. That was a big motivation in translating all this stuff and writing the article.
Again, full translations are available at gyaku.jp Accenture, JAPAN-VISIT, and the mystery of the 100,000 yen bid.
We have more information about this issue and an announcement about an upcoming symposium about the JAPAN-VISIT program that will be organised by Amnesty International.
Look for that tomorrow,
here on Daily J.
Alternative perspectives on Japan - an interview with Gyaku.jp
On October 06, 2007 in Interviews
Today I want to introduce you all to gyaku.jp. I more or less stumbled upon this site while doing some research and contacted them about a past article they had featured. That will be the topic of tomorrow’s post. It is definitely information worth knowing so be sure to check back tomorrow for that.
But until then, I want you to hear about this website because I think that they offer something very unique. But don’t take my word for it, listen to what Shioyama has to say and then check it out for yourself!
Shioyama: The “about” section on the main page is a bit out-of-date, here’s something more up-to-date:
Gyaku is a media project run a handful of Japanese and non-Japanese people, featuring articles, interviews, and translations (J/E and E/J). The project is fairly unique in the degree to which it features both Japanese and English language content in roughly equal proportions, with a lot of correspondence (through translations) between each language. This takes a lot of time and effort, hence the pace of article posting is not anywhere close to that of a blog.
The goal of the project is to amplify (partly through translation) certain voices and stories in Japan that might not otherwise get heard in an international context. A dominant theme is to present perspectives rather than to argue positions, hence the emphasis on interviews. The range of themes covered is pretty broad: we have interviewed a percussionist, a documentary film director, a nuclear physicist, human rights activists, journalists, professors, and artists.
I cannot add anything to that, it was well said. All I can say is that I think this is a great project. And I hope you check it out.
That’s all for today. Stay tuned tomorrow for the real scoop.
Daily J
Learn Japanese With Takanori Sensei! - an exclusive interview with learn-japanese-kanji-hiragana-katakana.com
On October 05, 2007 in Interviews
Today I have a real treat for anyone wanting to learn Japanese, we are talking to Takanori-sensei from learn-japanese-kanji-hiragana-katakana.com about his site and video lessons!
I picked Takanori to interview (as promised) beacuse he has a number of Japanese lessons posted and freely accessible on youtube, which I think is awesome (I love free 
)
In this interview I plan to introduce you to some of those resources and, better yet, give you some exclusive insight into Takanori-sensei’s goal to help you really communicate in Japanese.
So everybody please welcome Takanori *hakushu*
Daily J: What motivated you to start your site? Also what motivated you to want to start teaching/teaching on the internet?
Takanori: Because I found out that there are a lot of people who want to learn Japanese, but things you learn at a normal school is only grammartical Japanese language.
I want to teach the Japanese language for real communication. So, they can speak Japanese.
When I was in Australia to learn English, it was very different from the English lesson in Japan.
Normally, school focus on how to write, not relaly how to speak.
But, I think learning to speak is more important.
That’s why I provide the Japanese video lesson.
Daily J: What part of running a site and teaching online is the most fun for you?
Takanori: When a lot of people send us the comments.
Daily J: What is unique about your site and how can people best benefit from it?
Takanori: People can learn the Japanese language for real communication, rather than just learning the Japanese grammar part.
Also, they can watch our Japanese language video at home, as if they are learning Japanese at school!
Isn’t it amazing the way the internet is changing the way we learn?! If youtube had arrived just a bit sooner I could have ditched class and learnt Japanese at home .
Thank you Takanori for the interview.
And thank you all for reading. Be sure to check out sensei’s lessons on podomatic and youtube.
And then hurry back tomorrow for more interviews.
Have a great day!
Daily J
Up and Coming
On October 04, 2007 in Announcements, Interviews we'd like to do
Hi everybody,
No interview for today, but there will be one tomorrow.
In the meantime…
lets take a look at what’s coming up!
We mentioned before that we would interview:
One ole time J-blogger (he has been blogging since ‘02)
One Japanese woman who blogs about her life in Tokyo
And we did. So be sure to click the links above and read those.
Now we still have to interview:
One media project presenting alternative J-news
One online Japanese language teacher
And after that we have some news for you.
We are also chasing interviews with:
HerroFlomJapan and KintaroWalksJapan
plus the SupaGaijin, Firefly, and TvInJapan. Hopefully those will materialise.
And we have a few interview posts (not mentioned here) that we are already working on.
The point?
Stay tuned!
And I hope we are bringing you useful resources.
As always we welcome and love your feedback, good, bad, and ugly (especially ugly, it helps us improve).
We want to help make the web a better place for Japan-enthusiasts!
Harvey on housing, travel, and skinny girls - an exclusive interview with JapanNewbie
On October 03, 2007 in Interviews
Hi All. We are back again today with long-time blogger Harvey from JapanNewbie. If you happened to miss it yesterday we had a nice chat with Harvey and found out a little about what makes him tick. Today we are going to dig deeper and look at some of the great content he has produced to educate and entertain.
Here’s Harvey!
Daily J: You mention on your blog that you have travelled a lot, is there any place in your travels in Japan (or elsewhere in asia) that you would say is your favourite?
Harvey: I keep my posts related to Japan, but a few of the places I have visited that I absolutely love are Laos and India. In Laos I went to Luang Prabang, a wonderful city. The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage site. I was in India for three weeks and especially enjoyed that state of Kerala in the south, and the city of Dharamsala way up north. Dharamsala is the city where the Dalai Lama has his Tibetan government in exile based.
Here is my visited countries map.
http://www.japannewbie.com/2006/09/20/visited-countries-update/There are still many places I haven’t been, including South America and Africa.
Daily J: Is there any post in particular that is your favourite, and why? (You’ve been blogging since 2002, right? If you can’t narrow it to one I understand)
Harvey: Favorite posts… Yes, as you said, that’s very very tough. One that has brought a lot of traffic is this one comparing female BMI in various countries. Japan sticks out like a sore thumb. http://www.japannewbie.com/2006/11/26/skinny-girls/
Personally, I like my posts about the Hanshin Tigers and takoyaki! I love Osaka.
Daily J: In your “Movies” section you mention some Japanese movies as a method of learning Japanese, which I totally agree with (and I love the first three that you mention). What is your favourite Japanese film of all time and why?
Harvey: Of all time is tough, but a Japanese movie that I recently saw that blew my mind was Twilight Samurai.
http://www.japannewbie.com/2007/06/16/samurai-movie-twilight-samurai/Not a good movie to learn Japanese from (it has a lot of Samurai grunting and slurring), but as a film, it’s incredible. I just loved the humble unlikely protagonist, and the final encounter with the “bad guy” is classic.
Daily J: You talk a bit about housing in your “older docs” section. I know first hand that housing is a major issue for foreigners living in Japan. Can you give us some advice about that
Harvey: I haven’t had to look for housing for a long time now, so I can’t really give much advice. These days though it -is- possible to find places with little to no key money or gift money or whatever it’s called in English (shikikin, reikin), so “my mamma told me, you better shop around
Thanks Harvey for the interview!
And thank you all for reading. Be sure to visit JapanNewbie and drop harvey a line, ask him a question or just learn something new about Japan. You’ll be glad you did!
To all a good day,
From Daily J
Chatting with JapanNewbie - an exclusive interview
On October 02, 2007 in Interviews
Today we are chatting with Harvey from JapanNewbie.com. If you haven’t been to his site before I hope we convince you to during the course of the interview posts. It is a treasure trove of Japan-related info! But more about that tomorrow. Today we are learning about…
What makes Harvey and JapanNewbie tick:
Daily J: What motivated you to start your site?
Harvey: I had always been an internet geek, and had a few websites in the past but none really took off. Mainly because I never had anything to write about. After I decided to move to Japan, I knew that I would have something to write about everyday that would be interesting, so I started JapanNewibie.
Daily J: What part of running JapanNewbie is the most fun for you?
Harvey: Feedback from readers. I have learned a ton from all the people I have met through my site.
Daily J: If there is any example in particular that you’d like to share let me know.
Harvey: It’s hard to name anything specific, but just recently I got this great reply about life on the military bases that was especially interesting.
http://www.japannewbie.com/2007/07/01/life-on-the-bases/#comment-33447
Daily J: Where did you get the idea for the name of your site?
Harvey: When I first came to Japan I was a total newbie… So there you have it. JapanNewbie. I have been in Japan 5 years now, so am no longer a newbie… But I still like the name.
Daily J: How can readers benefit the most from your site?
Harvey: If readers have any specific questions they want answered, ask me, and I’ll get the answer! Otherwise, keep reading, and stay curious.
“Keep reading, and stay curious!” I couldn’t have said it better myself. So check out JapanNewbie and then come back tomorrow to get the low-down on some of Harvey’s best content.
Right here on Daily J!
