Need Japan News Now? Check Out The Japan Times

My friend Nagamimi just wrote a great post on print advertisement media in Japan.  Here is a related follow up post from me. Years ago when I lived in Japan, I used to like reading the English version of The Japan Times, a print newspaper that brought me up to date on current news, issues, special events, book and movie reviews, even Japanese lessons. Today, though I no longer live in Japan, I still want news of what's going on there. I continue to look to The Japan Times for my info fix by going to my bookmarks and clicking on my saved link to The Japan Times Online. It's a mainstream media news source useful for catching up on Japan current events and trends.

The Japan Times Online is quite impressive for being a free news website. You can get late breaking news and current date news reports, weather, sports and general interest and cultural stories.  The English site (there is a Japanese website too) is well-written and organized.  It's aimed at Western audiences and all English speakers; the writers seem to favor use of American English, as opposed to British English (if that makes any difference to you), except for weights and measures.  In that case, the metric system, used by Japan, Britain and many other countries, is how you get your information. 

The Japan Times Online is the electronic counterpart of the flagship newspaper, The Japan Times. In the  electronic format you get a digest of news and feature stories from the newspaper.

One of my favorite sections is "Life in Japan." Click on this title in the menu bar to see a list of feature and special interest stories about life experiences and cultural discoveries.  Articles are written by both Japanese and non-Japanese writers, so you can get different perspectives on what it's like to live in Japan (or visit).  Here are examples of articles I recently came across that proved to be very interesting reading! I'll provide links if you'd like to read them in full.  1)  Farmers markets in Tokyo; 2) Jelly noodles. Of course, there are articles on many other topics besides food. This just happens to be one of my favorite subjects!

If you wish to read the entire contents of the current day print publication, that is made possible by subscribing to Japan Times Plus.  This can be set up online.  You can subscribe to receive daily issues, or weekly issues, in English or in Japanese.

I just discovered that The Japan Times has a You Tube channel, too. This is great since I spend lots of time on You Tube watching video news stories and special interest videos directly from Japan. (Okay, and Japanese singers and TV dramas as well.)  Some videos are in English, while others are in Japanese. Very nice to have both!  Keep in mind this is not the only media source taking advantage of You Tube.  I also subscribe to other Japan-related You Tube channels, including asahicom, modulartokyo, tbsnewsi, fujitv and tokyomx.)  Below is the banner for The Japan Times Online and one of the many video playlists you can choose from.

You can find videos like this one covering a summer festival that just took place last month.

 The Japan Times is quite visible on the Internet, including Facebook.

Want to receive tweets about Japan via Twitter?  You can!  Just log into your Twitter account and do a search, then subscribe to one of the many options. I follow  @japantimes_life.  What I really like about the Facebook page and Twitter feeds is that you can view comments and reactions posted by readers in real time.  It's fun to see what others think of the news stories published. Note: Another very reliable Japan-based tweeter of information I follow is Kyodo News (@Kyodo_News_EN).  Also, I like reading tweets by Hiroko Tabuchi, a New York Times reporter based in Tokyo. Below is her Twitter summary and a tweet she sent 13 hours ago. 

Of course, The Japan Times is not the only news source for Japan-related information - there are many options out there. But I like that it's very well organized in both print and electronic forms. It is a great place to start when you need more information or an update on what's happening in Japan right now.

Nakazuri: In-Train Advertisements

Those of who ever have lived in an urban area of Japan just might miss seeing the images above. These are examples of advertisement posters for magazines that are displayed inside the commuter trains in Japan. Japanese-packed commuter trains are well known, thanks to Freddie and Bowie. I was a big fan of them both, and was so excited when they used the Japanese scenes in Queen's "Under Pressure" by the way.

This train shown below is not one of the packed trains but you can see some of the advertisement posters hanging down from the ceiling. These are called "Nakazuri 中吊り meaning inside (of train) hanging ads.

In the bus and trains in Chicago we see advertisement posters on the walls above the seats. Japanese trains have those too of course, and stickers on the windows and the train car-size ads like we see in the US as well. But I haven't yet seen these Nakazuri ads anywhere in the US so far.

This is clever as well as too much, whichever the opinion goes, but they change these hanging ads a lot more often than the ones on the walls. So these ads are for a short span, focusing on upcoming store events, seasonal destination campaigns sponsored by travel agencies, and special alerts from the transportation service or authority. Posters advertising current magazine issues are the most common.

Lots of them are weekly, some are monthly or fortnight. All sorts of news and information I got in the deadly packed trains for years. These ads show only the headlines, which tend to be rather sizzling and attention-getting, but not necessarily representative of the actual article; that everyone knows. However, for those trains packed packed so tight with passengers who even can't open a book, the ads are offer some slight relief, information and distraction.

So, every time I visit back Japan, I enjoy looking at the Nakazuri ads. Since I rode those packed train for a long time, it still remains in my brain as a common way to get up to date information briefs.

I get what's new and hot, in politics and among girls/boys, bargains of department stores, museums' current exhibitions, etc. The special airport express trains don't have these ads so I take regular commuter train into the city. It's just like a path to transform me from the US mode into Japanese mode.

It is funny though that I cannot understand what the ads say for a while right after boarding the train. It is like too much of information and overwhelms my brain, really. It could be related to the direction of the text too; English goes horizontally and Japanese mostly goes vertically (in the ads above, they have both examples). 

It makes me frustrated in the beginning because I can't read the lines as fast as I know I can. It is where I amaze how brain processes information with familiarity. The location in the train, typeface and size (present day font styles), the layout, the background color, etc.,  I used to be automatically able to process the information from looking at the ad text. I could pass the lines I didn't need without recognizing doing so. Now, I have to read each line from the beginning to the end to know what it says and see if it is needed, the magazine title to know what type of magazine that is, etc. It seems to frustrate my brain. My eyes even don't want to stick with the same eye site so long and start looking at something else before I finish reading as if the eyes know the estimate time better and I do. Therefore my comprehension of the information gets delayed and that frustrates me. Gradually I get better at reading and processing these ads the longer I stay in Japan, but my brain resets when I get back to O'Hare. This is fun to know that such a shifting struggle is going on in my brain though!

Anyway, they have a portal site of magazines with a page showing the current Nakazuri ads. I enjoy looking at them when I want to see brief updates on current events in Japan.  You need some background knowledge of Japan and common sense knowledge about the advertisements in addition to the ability of read Japanese but I think these ads are good learning tools.  When you click a magazine icon, some of headlines are displayed. You can copy/paste or right click the word or phrase or the whole sentence into either translation or dictionary page in the net. The headline sentences are short, so even translation tools may show a pretty accurate translation of the selected phrase. 

You probably can purchase some of these magazine from a few different services in the US. Also, Japanese are finally gets into the age of eBooks. We'd love to review the device or service, so please send us a free trial!   :D