Japan Media Review Update: October 12, 2004

JMR Staff (Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California)

Review
The following reviews are posted at: http://www.japanmediareview.com/japan/digest/digest.php

New Technologies Link Offline Ads, Cell Phones
From Computerworld: New technology is allowing Japanese camera phone users to avoid typing in long Web addresses. Instead, they can point their phones at special bar codes on printed material and let the phone look up the address. The QR Code reader software, developed by Denso Wave Inc., has become a standard function in some sophisticated camera phones. It reads a bar code in an advertisement or other printed document and transfers the data to the phone. NTT DoCoMo is promoting it as a way to look up information from the business cards of its employees. Several magazine publishers already include ads featuring QR codes that link to coupons. Another system, invented by wireless entertainment provider Taito Corp., can deliver large amounts of data to phones using infrared beams that emanate from posters or other displays. Aside from Internet links, the Popar system can deliver still images, audio and video files.
-- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori

Bribery Nets Media Exec a Prison Sentence
From The Daily Yomiuri: A judge convicted the head of a publishing company and sentenced him to 18 months in prison for bribing an official in the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Kazunori Ojiri, president of Sentaku Agency Inc., was found guilty of paying 1.6 million yen ($14,600) to Takayuki Mori, a senior public relations official at the ministry, in part to secure a bid to make a TV ad for the Ishikawa Prefecture's Social Insurance Agency office. Tokyo District Court Judge Yoshinobu Iida chastised the two men for betraying the public trust by misusing profits generated by Sentaku from taxpayers' money. This is the latest in a string of bribery-related charges to hit the company. At least 78 officials were implicated in bribery cases involving a total of 70.35 million yen ($644,000) over the last five years.
-- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Eric Ulken

Satellite Mobile Broadcaster Announces Launch
From The Korea Times: A Japanese firm says it plans to roll out the world's first satellite-based mobile broadcasting system this month. Mobile Broadcasting Corp. will begin offering its digital multimedia service for mobile devices Oct. 20. The service, dubbed Mobaho, will initially offer seven video, 30 audio and three data channels to mobile devices such as cell phones and in-car computers. In March, Mobile Broadcasting and its partner, South Korea's SK Telecom, launched the satellite to be used for the service. SK Telecom's own similar offering remains mired in regulatory red tape.
-- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Eric Ulken

Authors Bemoan Japan's Irresponsible Press
From On the Media/WNYC: Adam Gamble and Takesato Watanabe, authors of "A Public Betrayed: An Inside Look at Japanese Media Atrocities and Their Warnings to the West," talked about issues in Japanese journalism on New York public radio station WNYC. Watanabe pointed out that Japanese journalists are "company workers before they are journalists" and they receive information on politics and the economy mainly through press clubs. Gamble added that Japanese journalists "keep tabs on each other," not scooping one another in the press club. Asked why Japanese media do not reflect the American model although Japan has followed the American system of democracy, Gamble said Japan still keeps six major news media companies that were established by the Japanese militarists "in an attempt to control their population's flow of information" prior to World War II. In addition, Watanabe said, "We don't have a concrete idea for the globalization of the public's voice, people's voice." (See related story on Japan Media Review)
-- By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori