04.05.05
Movie Company Scoops Up Outstanding Shares in Fuji TV

From UCLA Asia Media: A top stakeholder in Fuji Television Network upped its shares to more than 7 percent on April 4, apparently answering the company’s call to stave off a Livedoor Co. takeover. Toho Co., a major movie distributor and producer in Japan, bought 1.4 percent of the outstanding shares in Fuji TV to become the TV network’s third-largest investor. Livedoor, an Internet service provider, recently achieved its hostile takeover bid for Nippon Broadcasting System Inc., which, like Fuji TV, is a major asset of the Fujisankei media group.
— By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Erica Ogg
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04.03.05
NHK Replaces Entire Board of Directors

From Daily Yomiuri: On April 1, NHK President Genichi Hashimoto declared a new board of directors for the public broadcaster following an emergency session he called with the station’s management committee. According to Hashimoto, the quickness and unusual method of the replacement showed that the broadcaster was “caked with mud.” A number of scandals involving NHK employees caused many subscribers to stop paying their viewing fees. The new board of directors consists of all new faces, which indicates an attempt to rebuild viewers’ trust. All the board members under former NHK President Katsuji Ebisawa are now gone. In addition, Hashimoto appointed Toyohiko Harada, chief of NHK’s Nagoya bureau, who had reportedly distanced himself from Ebisawa. Critics say that replacing members of the board does not represent a total transformation of the public broadcaster. As Hashimoto pointed out, the pressing issue that some viewers pay the fee while others refuse still remains to be solved.
— By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori
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04.01.05
Asahi Censors Ad Accusing Paper of ‘Checkbook Journalism’

From The Japan Times: A partly blacked-out, quarter-page advertisement for a new weekly issue of Shukan Bunshun was published in the March 31 issue of The Asahi Shimbun. The magazine issue’s main story accused Asahi of “checkbook journalism” for accepting money from consumer loan company Takefuji Corp. to publish a year-long series of articles. Shukan Bunshun’s original headline read “People call it black journalism, 50 million yen that Asahi Shimbun received from Takefuji in ‘backdoor ad fee,’” and ran in many other major dailies. The ad in Asahi appeared without the phrase “People call it black journalism.” The newspaper says it does publish ads that defame its articles only when it considers them to be appropriate. Asahi’s advertising department requested that Shukan Bunshun change the headline, but the magazine declined, which resulted in the blacked-out passage by Asahi’s ad agency. Asahi admitted that it used 50 million yen ($460,000) from Takefuji for a series of articles in its weekly magazine, Shukan Asahi, from 2000 to 2001 without revealing the sponsor. But the newspaper claimed the Shukan Bunshun’s accusations were baseless. In response, Shukan Bunshun said, “The attitude of rejecting reports of facts that are unfavorable to the company could lead to the suppression of the freedom of speech and expression.”
— By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori
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03.31.05
Livedoor, NBS Meet; 3 NBS Board Members Quit

From Kyodo News via Japan Today: Nippon Broadcasting Systems (NBS) reported that three board members have left the company for “personal reasons.” Some critics are speculating that they may have quit in response to Internet service provider Livedoor Co. gaining a controlling stake in the company, according to Kyodo News.
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The Yomiuri Shimbun reported Wednesay that Livedoor President Takafumi Horie and NBS President Akinobu Kamebuchi met Tuesday for the first official talks since Livedoor purchased a controlling stake in NBS on Feb. 8. The meeting was reportedly held at the request of Livedoor. Sources also said that NBS, though it agreed to the meeting, would like to continue its relationship with Fujisankei Communications Group.
–By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Erica Ogg
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03.29.05
Rail Company and Bank Plan All-In-One IC Card

From The Japan Times: East Japan Railway Co. and Mizuho Bank announced a joint venture Monday, an integrated circuit (IC) card with debit and credit features that also doubles as a train ticket. The two companies said the new Mizuho Suica card can be linked to Mizuho savings accounts and used at View Altte ATMs in Japan Railway East stations. Train fares can be purchased and added like a debit card. IC tag technology is growing swiftly in popularity in Japan and has previously been introduced in food quality control, crime prevention, ticket sales and identification cards.
— By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Erica Ogg
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03.26.05
Companies Join Blogosphere to Promote Products

From The Yomiuri Shimbun: Japanese companies like Nissan and toymaker Sanrio are blogging to promote their products in a casual, accessible style. Nissan’s temporary blog project promoting a new car became a marketing tool after it received more hits than expected. And Sanrio’s famous cartoon character Hello Kitty has even connected with fans on a blog. Tokyo-based eNatural’s blogging service caters to corporations and has seen a spike in interest in business blogs over the past few months, said eNatural President Shinya Saito. Blogs are also said to be helpful to small companies because they are simple to maintain, cut Web site costs and provide in-house communication. Company blogs have made use of features like the track back function, which directs people to information of interest on other blogs.
— By Japan Media Review Managing Editor Shellie Branco
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03.25.05
Softbank Company Steps In to Help Fuji TV

From The Japan Times: An affiliate of Softbank Corp. turned into a white knight for Nippon Broadcasting and Fuji TV by buying the largest stake in the broadcaster on March 24, putting a hold on a controversial takeover by Internet portal Livedoor. Only a day before, Livedoor had enjoyed a small victory when the Tokyo High Court stopped NBS from issuing share warrants to Fuji TV in order to fend off a takeover. “In order to strengthen ties among partners, NBS will lend its Fuji TV shares to Softbank Investment,” the three corporations said in a joint statement. Softbank Investment’s chief executive officer, Yoshitaka Kitao, was firm in saying Softbank Corp. was not involved in the deal. The companies said they would put 20 billion yen into investments in media content startups.
–By Japan Media Review Managing Editor Shellie Branco
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03.21.05
Popular Cell Phone Novels Connect Authors, Readers

From AP via The San Francisco Examiner: Several mobile Web sites are catering to the next emerging mobile culture in Japan: literature on cell phones. Hundreds of novels, including classics, best sellers and new works written only for cell phone users, are available online. Readers can read a few lines of a book at a time, which are downloaded in short segments. Bandai Networks Co. Ltd., a mobile service provider, launched a mobile e-book service in 2003 and carries 150 books with some 50,000 subscribers on its Web site “Bunko Yomihodai” (“All You Can Read Paperbacks”). Readers can search books by author, title or genre on the site as well as post reviews and send fan mail or ideas to authors through their cell phones. A recent marketing survey by Bandai reported more than half of readers are female and most reading is done at home. A novel titled “Deep Love,” originally posted on a minor mobile site, became popular through word of mouth among young readers. That resulted in a film and TV show deals, as well as a comic book and printed novel that sold about 2.6 million copies. An executive producer at Starts Publishing Corp., which published “Deep Love,” points out that cell phone publishing has formed a new kind of entertainment because of its interactive nature.
–By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori
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03.19.05
NHK Cell Phone Site Posts False Disaster News

From Mainichi Daily News: Public broadcaster NHK accidentally posted false disaster information during a system test on a news site accessed by thousands of cell phone users. For some 20 hours between March 18 and 19, users accessing the site’s tsunami information section could see postings on mock train accidents, such as “[Japan Rail] line tracks in all parts of the Metropolitan area are on fire,” and “Shinjuku station has collapsed.” The broadcaster failed to terminate its test system, leaving the information displayed on the site. While NHK took action after receiving a user’s query 13 minutes after the last test, many people could still access the information until noon the following day. An NHK representative apologized for the mistake, saying the broadcaster would try to avoid another accident.
–By Japan Media Review Associate Editor Keiko Mori
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