Tag: Asahi Shimbun

Japan’s Youngest Female Mayor Complained Media On Facebook. The Media Fusses

Naomi Koshi, a mayor of Ohtsu, Shiga-prefecture, who recorded the youngest female mayor when she was elected this January 2012, was reported by several national papers that she “moaned” that her opinions do not reach for her people via Japanese media in Japanese and English.

I am so frustrated at Japanese media. Does this happen all over the world?? Or only in Japan??

Yomiuri, Asahi, Mainichi, Sankei’s sports paper, etc. reported in titles with “moan”, “criticize”, “anti-media”.

Koshi answered to Yomiuri that she wanted to explain directly to her supporters, also wanted to ask her foreign friends if such miscommunications are common thing.

Like the news that video streaming of her first address making the server down, we reported last month, “politician”, “woman” and “young” seemed to be magic keywords, has been attracting some manly news-makers. This social media usage might make media disappointed.

Allatanys – Three Major Japanese Newspapers’ Online Challenge Silently Taken Down

Allatanys, an website where you may read headline news from three of Japan’s most published newspapers in parallel, run by Yomiuri Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun and Nikkei, has ceased yeasterday, February 29, 2012.

The site top shows a short text with background image which makes the text hard to read. The text tells, “Allatanys site has ended. Allatays, a site for compared-reading Nikkei/Asahi/Yomiuri, stopped its distribution at the end of February 2012. Thank you for your long-term reading. You may read the news on each company’s website.”. And three newspapers’ website are linked.

Yomiuri, Asahi and Nikkei are on top of the world’s most circulated newspaper ranking, Yomiuri #1, Asahi #2 and Nikkei #7.

Allatanys began on January 31, 2008. We covered its free iOS app release on February 2009.

On Facebook, these three had opened Allatanys page, where students are running discussion place under the three newspaper names. This Facebook page will remain with Allatanys brand.

There are no related news around this termination found on Google News so far.

Gree CEO Talks To National Paper Readers By A Full-Page Ad

December 8 morning, Japanese major newspapers like Yomiuri, Asahi and Nikkei, sum of the number of their print will be around 20 million issues every morning, had a full-page ad almost only with text, which is by Gree CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka.

The text is also publicized on Gree’s company page [J]. It has about 4,000 Japanese letters.

The text titled with “Making the world a better place through the power of the Internet”(English translation of which is not on the web page but was on the newspapers) is a style which Tanaka tells you by himself, starting with his memory on his youth that Japan started suffering long time economic standstill, how the Internet and Silicon Valley culture (like Netscape and Yahoo!) business and working style attracted him, how those companies from the Valley had changed the world.

The latter half is his talk how Gree began as his personal hobby after his daytime job (at early days in Rakuten, FYI), had many difficult time, how other people did not valued his and his teams challenges.

He ends the text that the only people who never give up and keep challenging have been changing the world, and (he and Gree) by learning that history, want to keep contributing society, “Making the world a better place through the power of the Internet”,

Many of those readers of major newspapers may be the farthest people who play and purchase virtual items on Gree. But they are the people who run business in regular Japanese enterprises. There are critics from traditional business that the social game companies are exploiting users as their sales and profits are soaring. By this he seems to try to impress people that Gree is just another company who serves society.

Asahi Shimbun Follows To Nikkei, Digital Subscription Starts Today

Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest newspapers in Japan and the world, is to start “Asahi Shimbun Digital” at 3 p.m. today, May 18th 2011, which is seen on its teaser page [J] (thanks @kansai_takako).

The teaser page does not tell much, but I think the “digital” means paid-subscription of online version, like Nikkei has been doing on its Nikkei Digital.

Asahi Shimbun has been running its online site Asahi.com, and selling archive database services under several different packages [J] to enterprises and individuals. In July 2009, they purchased CNET Japan, one of the largest online IT news media in Japanese.

[Update] It has begun at 15:00. As I expected, it is a paid subscription service.

The top page of the Asahi Shimbun Digital is typical online newspaper site, and the design is different from Asahi.com. Except the top page, all articles are not accessible behind authentication – login and password.

Prices are very similar with Nikkei’s one. If you already subscribe the paper version (3,800 yen = US$47), you can access the digital version with extra 1,000 yen($12.3). If you only want the online version, it costs 3,800 yen. So same as Nikkei, they show their preference that their readers keep reading its paper version.

To subscribe, you need to register on Jpass, an online payment service provided by Asahi Shimbun. By the end of July, it is readable for free.

Asahi.com reports [J] this new Asahi Shimbun Digital at 15:01 today.

Sony, KDDI, Asahi And Toppan To Co-launch E-Publisher In July

Sony, Toppan Printing (Japan’s 2nd largest printing company), KDDI(Japan’s 2nd largest telco) and the Asahi Shimbun (newspaper publisher) announced last Thursday that they would launch a joint venture for an e-publication distribution service.   Sony has introduced an e-book reader device called “Reader” in Europe and the U.S., and the company plans to introduce it in Japan by the end of this year in rivalry with the combination of Apple’s iPad and iBook Store.

Four founding companies take 25% stake each in the new company, and their distribution platform is expected to be in service in this year.