Comments on: Japan Bloggers on the Princess Masako Controversy

By: Blogosphere Highlights #2 « I, Shingen

Blogosphere Highlights #2 « I, Shingen — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:30:16 +0000

[...] Jun Okumura covers discusses the two sides of Ben Hills and his book Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne… an outsider attempting to look in and reaction from Japan’s right-wing. Japundit also covered the book, getting a statement from the author. James at Japan Probe summarised the various positions of the blogosphere. [...]

By: ken

ken — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 17:34:54 +0000

I read the book and I am in full sympathy for the Princess. I do not see why the author has to apologize to he Japanese government as the persecution of the princess by the rpyal adminsrators are evident! Evem the empress was subjected to their bully!

By: tocchin

tocchin — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:54:25 +0000

Its about time the imperial household ,pointless institution was
abolished.

By: Langslave

Langslave — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:23:36 +0000

I havent read this book and probably wont. If its selling well in Japan, my worry is that its being bought by all those “high level” English students whose greatest joy is being able to come in and harangue us for somebody elses lack of knowledge…”Hoh! You Aussie/American /English/Westerners, you cannot the understanding to Japan culture. Ho, ho, ho!”

By: Nicholas Klar

Nicholas Klar — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:29:32 +0000

What does it matter? All this controversy just keeps selling books. The book’s ranking on Amazon has gone through the roof. When I checked a few weeks ago it was selling sod-all.

By: Trans-Pacific Radio

Trans-Pacific Radio — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:12:25 +0000

TPR News: Tuesday February 20, 2007 – Abe meets Chinas foreign minister, Ishiharas re-election campaign, bullies, and the Princess Masako book incident…

One of the biggest Japan-related news stories at the moment is the case of Princess Masako: Prisoner of the Chrysanthemum Throne, an unauthorized biography of Japans crown princess written by Australian journalist Ben Hills. …

By: Karina

Karina — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:46:33 +0000

I think there’s a bit of a double standard from the media and whatnot.
Let’s just assume for one minute that the book is rubbish….the Japanese media and government are all up in arms about it, right?
But, the Gaijin Ura File magazine gets NO mention from the Japanese media whatsoever?
Now, even if the book allegedly insults Princess Masako or writes about her in a not so savoury manner (I haven’t read the book in question; I can’t say for sure), still I get the impression that the Japanese media thinks it’s inappropriate to insult the members of the royal family, but it’s perfectly acceptable to insult any non-Japanese (via blood and/or citizenship) via a racist magazine.

Hmmmm….what a hypocrisy.

By: James

James — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:05:51 +0000

Ron:

I haven’t read the Masako book so I have no idea how many errors the book has, but the imperial household does point out the one leper-visiting error in its letter. If he isn’t even willing to admit the existence of that error, it doesn’t reflect well on him. It would be nice if Kodansha had released a list of all the errors he had agreed to have them correct, so we could see how large they were. Don’t get me wrong, I also think its likely that the Imperial Household Agency bullied her into depression, but if a journalist wants a book on the topic to be taken as a serious professional work, he should at least be willing to admit that there were a few small errors in the original version that needed correction…

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:35:12 +0000

James,

Going back to the theme in one of our earlier posts about the Gaijin Hanzai book, I wonder if any of these bloggers who have criticized or commented on the book have actually read it?

I’m curious about the book, but I have yet to hear what any of the factual errors actually were. I think that was one of the author’s main complaints in that he received nothing but a rant from the Japanese government, which didn’t have any specifics about what was wrong with it.

I’m sure the book on Princess Masako has some errors. Every book published has errors. However, the author’s basic premise that the princess has basically been bullied into depression by the Imperial Household Agency is an opinion I pretty much agree with. She has been under a tremendous amount of pressure to produce a male heir. It seems that most Japanese people feel the same way too.

Regards,

Ron