Mainichi ends WaiWai column
For years, Mainichi’s English language website has been translating bizarre stories from Japan’s least credible tabloid magazines and publishing them as news articles in a special column called WaiWai. The wacky stories of perversion and vice undoubtedly attracted a lot of traffic to Mainichi’s website, exposing the stories to readers who were unaware the articles were based on unreliable tabloids. Predictably, this caused stupid and false information about Japan to spread around the world.
In recent months, Japanese bloggers and 2-channelers have become increasingly fed up with the international media’s biased coverage of their country as a wacky land full of twisted perverts, bizarre forms of prostitution, and sex dolls. They specifically targeted the WaiWai column, which had the name of a credible Japanese newspaper attached to it, as a major source of inaccurate and unfair portrayals of Japan as a perverted and screwed up country. Their efforts paid off two days ago when J-Cast picked up their story and ran it on Yahoo! Japan News.
As of today, Mainichi’s WaiWai column has ceased to exist:
MDN readers,
Some readers pointed out that various articles published in the WaiWai column were inappropriate content for the Mainichi Daily News. We respond to this criticism by halting publication of this column. We plan to start a column with a new concept to replace WaiWai in the future.
Thank you for your understanding.
Mainichi Daily News
It looks like Mainichi won’t be printing the stories any more, but one can probably expect that Mainichi editor Ryan Connell will continue to write Tabloid Tokyo
[hat tip to FG Forums]
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This is a good news. Excerpts from porn magazines shouldn’t be picked up by the major newspaper. I think more Japanese should be aware of things written about Japan in English or other languages.
That sucks. WaiWai was sometimes fun to read.
Weird tabloid stories may be fun to read, but they shouldn’t be on a major newspaper’s English page and they should have a clear disclaimer that they are from tabloids and not to take them as completely true. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen WaiWai stories on sites that present them as serious Japan news because they were on Mainichi’s website…-_-
Seriously, good riddance. Imagine how ridiculous it would be if The New York Times’ website had a whole section of stories reprinted from the Weekly World News with no context to explain that these stories were, in fact, total nonsense.
I know the WaiWai is good for a laugh sometimes – I’ve been there – but it simply had no place alongside actual news items.
I enjoyed Waiwai but I knew where those translations came from. After seeing some of the stupidity of some people about Japan on YahooAnswers and other sites I’m thinking this might be a good idea.
I never took 毎日新聞 as a legitimate news source because of WaiWai. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to shake the image.
it will be missed. and considering how many talento, police men, teachers, politicians, etc. have been arrested for some pretty bizzare fetishes – i am sure that the stories were mostly credible. but, yes, i agree about the association with a major newspaper was probably not the best.
(^ヮ^)/～ヮィヮィ
Someone should make WaiWai a separate website from Mainichi.
But even without Waiwai the selection of articles featured at Mainichi can be somewhat prurient. Their photo-journal section is mostly photos of pretty Japanese females catering to the internet guy crowds:
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/photojournal/graph/photojournal/
It’s more “Maxim” than “New York Times”
In a similar context, The Asahi is acting as the Chinese Communist or North Korea’s Labour Party propaganda machine in a guise of a prestigious national newspaper.
Thank you for pointing out the problem on Waiwai. We, japanese, are getting angry on this problem (if informed by someone on this problem). Mainichi have deleted these articles, but I do not think that this is the end of the problem. I think that Mainichi newspaper should show apology and corrections on Mainichi english news.
Again, I would like to thank you for mentioning to this problem.
I’m not sure you are entitled to speak for a nation, TK.
Stop using the expression “We, Japanese” (我々日本人) in English. 英語じゃあまり使わない表現であり、日本人が集団思考してる全体主義者的に見られかねない。自分の意見なら「I」でしっかり示せ。日本人全体を言う代名詞なら「we」より客観的に「they」を使うべき。
I am sorry if I give impression that I am one of nationalistic people by using the word ‘we, Japanese’. The second comment written in Japanese pointed out it. Because I am not good at English very well, I used this (perhaps) unsuitable expression. I only wanted to inform that many Japanese bloggers are expressing unpleasantness about this problem.
To the first comment: TK is the initial of my name. I am actually Japanese.
Don’t worry TK. It’s fine. If you’re looking for the correct grammar, just remove the ‘we’.
ex.
Japanese people get frustrated when they hear about this kind of stuff.
However, since this is a blog about Japan and there are a lot of people who have knowledge about the country, it’s probably better to use a sentence like this:
ex.
It’s frustrating as a Japanese person when I hear about this kind of stuff.
The first example sentence is good if you talking to people who have little knowledge of the country. If the person you are talking to knows a lot about the country, it can sound as if you speaking down to them or trying to show off your knowledge.
So does that mean Japanese bloggers and 2-channelers (with their oft times mob like mentality) will take their gripes to other sites like the Japan Times Tokyo Confidential section or personal sites like “FuckedUpJapan” that don’t make a note that maybe some of the content is tabloid style material? I can see for sites that are a news source but if this is true for the latter, I would do what plenty of Japanese sites do, netblock ban their entire country and tell them to go pound sand. And what do Japanese people feel about news sites like Japan Today (aka Japan Trollday) which has more than enough anti-Japan foreigners posting their racist rhetoric everyday?
Isn’t part of the problem the Japanese broadcasting media itself with their draconian licensing policies that makes being able to get officially licensed shows available overseas problematic? As it stands now, no one can make a valid business case due to the licensing fees involved in addition to various other policies such as those instituted by Fuji TV (like no subtitling) and making only a tiny portion of their catalog available. TV Japan doesn’t count because that is a sham setup due to NHK being one of the major shareholders not to mention the joke programming they provide on it care of NHK World Premium. This is why you do not see anyone else trying to compete against TV Japan.
So what people end up taking are tiny little bits and pieces of the stupid variety show stuff they download off Bittorrent and putting it on sites like YouTube. Then by coincidence, some of it ends up kind of matching what gets passed off in WaiWai.
Broadcasters in Korea take a different approach from their Japanese counterparts which is why you have several channels of Korean broadcasts in the US including some interesting cultural programming on KBS World. And none of this is premium channel either which allows the viewer to learn about the actual country itself. This is in stark contrast to what Japan broadcasters offer; literally zero unless you subscribe to some premium channel that offers TV Japan’s garbage and vast catalog of NHK propoganda. So is it any surprise this is the outcome?
For TK –
Since they were actual translations of stories that appeared in the Japanese tabloid press – are you also campaigning to stop these being published?
Do you get “angry” when you see a salaryman on a train reading gendai?
I don’t think the issue is with translating tabloid stories, it’s that these stories were put on a major NON-tabloid newspaper’s page, and said page didn’t adequately explain that these were from tabloids. Like feitclub said, these types of stories have no place alongside actual news on a major newspaper’s page. And because of Mainichi’s reputation as one of the largest Japanese newspapers, many people took the WaiWai stories to be 100% true and did not realize their origins. I think that is why TK felt angry.
If WaiWai was on a completely separate site from Mainichi, and they had some disclaimer about the stories being from tabloids and not to take them as completely true, I wouldn’t have a problem with it.
doinkies is correct.
Considering all the stories were in a separate section, not mixed in with the real news and obligatory fluff pieces, and every story announced it’s source (the paragraph always included where the article was taken from), and considering there was a disclaimer at the end of the article distancing the Mainichi from the comments, then you shouldn’t have a problem with it.
Personally, I thought it gave an insight into a section of the Japanese media (and not a minor section) that would normally not be accessible to non-Japanese speakers (or readers for that matter) – at least they were funny as compared to one of today’s “serious” news pieces “‘Hearty’ potato crop delights Himeji resident” nice work from one of Japan’s largest newspapers.
Though there were people who recognized the articles as originating in tabloids, there were others who took them as being the same as any other Mainichi article, even though they were in a separate section and even though the tabloid was cited in the article. If you click on the link to Neojaponisme in the original post, you’ll see an example of how people believed a crazy article originally from Jitsuwa Knuckles about a bestiality restaurant in Roppongi, even though it’s an obvious fake.
Another example: A year ago, someone posted a story on Digg saying that “sex with minors is OK in Japan” which originally came from WaiWai. Japan Probe wrote about it: http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=2040
Even though some people in the comments pointed out the inaccuracies in the article, the submitter still insisted it was true because it was from Mainichi Shinbun. He didn’t recognize that the story came from a tabloid.
This is why people have a problem with WaiWai. Even though the tabloid stories were in WaiWai and nowhere else, Mainichi didn’t make it clear that these stories were from tabloids. They posted the name and cover of the tabloid the story came from but that was it. Even though the stories are written in tabloid-style writing there were still people out there who believed them.
I agree that 2channelers have been unreasonable in the past, but I can understand their thoughts on WaiWai. Even a lot of the comments here feel about the same way. You don’t see other major newspaper sites put up a crazy tabloid section, so why should Mainichi do that? They should have spun it off to its own site completely separate from Mainichi. That way people can still laugh at the crazy tabloid stories, but not take them as the same as any other article.
My opinion is the same as doikies. I do not get angry if I see tabloid stories in Japan, because everyone knows the articles includes fiction.
First, I appreciate that you are interested in this issue.
I am a Japanese student and so very disappointed.
This issue involves three important points, I think.
(1) The articles in Waiwai are NOT the actual translation of Japanese tabloids. They are remarkably embroidered, exaggerated, and sometimes faked, because they must attract much interest. Actually, I have compared the English stories with the Japanese ones, as many Japanese do.
(2) The editors did not confirmation that the stories of tabloids are true. They should do that because in many case, almost all the Japanese newspapers did not pick up such issues at all. But, unfortunately, the reader cannot but believe the stories because Mainichi newspaper company is one of the major companies in Japan. In other words, the big company made unusual strange stories of tabloids reliable.
I am quite sorry that even today we have sex crimes, but the articles “clealy” intend to attack Japanese for their unreliable stories.
(3) To spread ridiculous and unreliable stories of tabloids all over the world should not be the primary work of such a major newspaper company. More important for all and more reliabile issues should be spread. Newspaper must not be equal to tabloids, so they are trusted.
Thank you for your reading.
BTW, the Y! Japan readers are not satisfied. They’re asking press conferences and more apologies.
Good news. So I guess they’ll try to become a somewhat “serious” newspaper as its Japanese counterpart. They could start by translating their opinion pieces, just like Asahi, Nikkei and Yomiuri do, for example. And I agree with doinkies, if they want to set up a separate Waiwai website, good for them.
Hah!
Well, while I agree that Wai Wai needed to shape up or ship out, I think the “damage” to Japan’s reputation that it perpetuated began long before Wai Wai, and continues to occur in other media. I’m curious what effect “I Survived a Japanese Game Show ” will have, for instance…
How can the Japanese get so upset about this?
These articles are written in a tabloid embellished style. They are very funny. They are taken from Japanese weeklies and rewritten in typical English tabloid style. Nobody (except perhaps very stupid people) take them at face value. They are taken with a pinch of salt.
The vast majority of people realise that because they are taken from Japan’s weeklies they might contain a grain of truth but on the other hand are probably grossly exaggerated (in the original Japanese version and the translation).
If Japanese media outlets published translations of weird stories from my country I would be fine with that! It’s funny.
I think the problem with the people making these complaints is that they are 2ch NEETs with no sense of humor and nothing to do with their time other than conduct pointless internet witchhunts.
Jim, it is amazing that you cannot understand the point after reading so many comments here.
Mainichi is a quality paper. People are dismayed by WaiWai because it continues to run articles of tabloid quality. I think editors at Mainichi should have disciplined the pervert English writer long ago.
Oh, for heaven’s sake. What’s the big deal?
A newspaper has a section that you don’t like… don’t read that section!! Many people do find that section amusing and they realise that it’s basically an entertainment, sourced from (as the Mainichi used to put it) “Weird and wacky tales from Japan’s wild weeklies”. That title alone is enough to give anyone with an ounce of sense an idea of the content.
I suppose if you are still living in the Victorian-era then you will want to “discipline the pervert English writer”.
But my advice to the Japanese engaged in this witch-hunt is to lighten up. Try and find a sense of humor. Japan media outlets often poke fun at foreign things or people. If it’s about a wacky story from my country then I’m fine with that… in fact I’m happy to join in the discussion. I don’t feel some kind of nationalistic duty to defend my country’s honor.
As I mentioned before, everybody (except possibly very stupid people) realised that WaiWai was to be taken with a pinch of salt.
These 2ch NEETS need to get a life!
“Many people do find that section amusing”
Really? So you must be interested in such articles like
“Mom sucks son’s c**k.” or
“Schoolgirls having sex at burger shops.”
If you want such kind of stories, just visit such sites with age restrictions. There is no shortage of sexually explicit web pages in Japan.
Every news agency has its policies. Mainichi has refrained from sex related entertainment. Mainichi’s clientele do not like WaiWai articles, because they are against the shared policy of the news agency.
“A newspaper has a section that you don’t like… don’t read that section!!”
Readers also have the right to complain the editor that such articles are against the shared policy. Do you think they do not have such right?
I think you are confusing x-rated websites with tabloid-style news content. From your outrage at what is just standard tabloid content I guess you are either a highly religious person or a very prudish person or both…
The stories in WaiWai were often very entertaining and also written in an entertaining tabloid style. For example, there was recently a story about people being arrested for making a lewd movie in a branch of a famous fast-food restaurant chain. The title of the WaiWai story was “I’m Rubbing It”, which had me chuckling at my desk all day long. Very entertaining.
If vociferous minorities start witch-hunts against every single entertaining news source that they happen to object to, then all we’ll be left with is extremely bland content.
I find it interesting to note that you say “Mainichi’s clientele do not like WaiWai articles”. Not everybody thinks like you. Many people enjoyed those news stories.
Also, I don’t believe the main complaint about these stories is because they conflict with Mainichi’s news policy or whatever. I think the main complaint is that the complainers don’t like to have this kind of information about Japan presented to the world in English.
However, my point is that there is no need to worry about this. People realise that these are tabloid style stories sourced from Japan’s weeklies and are thus to be taken with a pinch of salt. I read these stories but they haven’t influenced my (positive) impression of Japan at all.
In this day and age every country in the world has its weird and wacky stories made global via the internet. If Japanese people are chuckling about weird stories from my country I am very happy to hear it! If I haven’t heard the story I hope they’ll let me in on the joke… As I said, perhaps these complainers need to think about getting a sense of humor.
As an American, I can understand why they would be pissed. How can foreigners tell a “tabloid-style”? For the many readers who typically avoid tabloid newspapers (such as the American NY Post or the Star), how would they know what tabloid-style even looks like? You might also have to be familiar with the culture being written about to recognize exaggerations but when reading what a large, “reputable” newspaper is writing about their own country, as a foreigner looking in, what cues are there to hint at exaggeration?
Besides, it’s not a stretch for those of us who have seen video clips of their crazy game shows and violent and perverted anime (school girl fetishing and tentacles) to believe outrageous news about a seemingly outrageous country.
You can chalk this up to stupidity if you want to compare my gullibility to yours (maybe you know Japan better), but these are the circumstances I see.
that is funny,because everytime I ever read Waiwai, the catch copy was something like ‘all the crazy news from the Japanese tabloids’.
If people cannot read that simple sentence then I would suggest that reading a newspaper is a bit beyond them anyway.
This is a case of the foreign journalists being targeted by rabid right-wingers, even though they only translated what was written by Japanese in the first place.The notion that they did so for so long without the knowledge of their bosses is ludicrous.
When it is written in Japanese it is tabloid titilation,but when translated,foreigners are mocking Japan? I do not think so.Where there is smoke there is fire.
There is no such thing as a “quality newspaper.” The NYT, Washington Post and LA Times are all corporate rags that lie about the Iraq war, the economy and every other news item other than Sports.
They act like celebrity gossip is news and that bashing/supporting guns/gays/abortion is politics. They avoid the real issues at every chance they get, and when they cover them, their pieces are slanted, biased, and extremely pro-corporate.
All newspapers in America should be treated like tabloids. From what I’ve seen it’s not much different in Japan either.
Don’t trust the corporate media.
The vast majority of people realise that because they are taken from Japan’s weeklies they might contain a grain of truth but on the other hand are probably grossly exaggerated (in the original Japanese version and the translation).
This wasn’t really the problem. It also evidently isn’t entirely true—things got out of hand when other news outlets and blogs picked up certain stories and either ran them as truth or embellished even more than Wai Wai did. The fact that the lines traced back to Mainichi both gave credence to the stories, and damaged Mainichi’s reputation (where that stood before Wai Wai, I can’t tell you), depending on whether the reader actually read that byline you point out (or understood it).
As far as I can gather, people wanted more than a simple tagline as disclaimer (since, and you’ll know this if you’ve worked in the service industry, people don’t/can’t read signs), or they wanted it gone.
My guess is the damage it was doing to their reputation when people traced a crazy rumour back to their site probably had something to do with Mainichi’s decision…
I’m with Jim.
Nobody was ever forced to read these articles. They were not headlines or front page pieces. They were on a separate section of the site. To say that these articles ditracted from the seriousness of the Mainichi as a newspaper seems analogous to saying the same thing about comics in English newspapers.
The WaiWai was never presented as a serious news vehicle, and the sources for the translations were always cited. Blaming the Mainichi for others misunderstandings and misuse of the editorials is in itself ridiculous. The Mainichi did not misrepresent the issues, anyone who took the editorials as fact was doing so by their own leap of faith.
This is a witchhunt, and the idea that the editors of the articles are to be severely punished is also very disappointing.
I’m coming around to this way of thinking.
I still feel I understand why they decided to terminate Wai Wai, from a branding perspective, but with the implied punishment of the editors, it’s getting well out of hand.
I’m sure the people who argue that Wai Wai didn’t have accurate translations would have a problem with Arthur Waley’s translation of Genji.
Wai Wai articles are a mixture of paraphrasing and free translation. The paraphrasing put distance between the Mainichi and the original (”According to Shukan Gendai…”; “The journalist also writes…” etc etc). The free translation parts used the idiom of English language tabloids to convey the scurrilous nature of the originals and, generally, did it well.
I can’t understand how anyone can complain that Wai Wai lent credibility to the stories and then also complain that the translations were not literal which would actually have given them some credibility.
It recalls Alan Bennett’s story about overhearing two old women complaining about a restaurant. One said “The food is terrible isn’t it?” The other replied “Yes, and such small portions.”
It’s a pity. Wai wai was an occasional amusement and certainly the only thing worth reading on the MDN web site. Saying that Japanese lack a sense of humor is usually over-stereotyping, but in this case……..
This is a sad day for freedom of the press in Japan.
The stories offered a glimpse into the underbelly of Japan. Anyone who took them as gospel — especially with the disclaimer at the bottom of the page — is a spoon of natto short of a sushi roll.
It’s a shame that one of the biggest newspapers in Japan bowed to some nationalistic nerds on 2-channel who can lead a witch hunt, slandering the foreign translator, but reserve none of their anger for the publishers of the original articles.
Looks like its back to NHK for a while and its spicy lead stories on “Heavy rain may hit Kyushu.”
Yeah, it must be a shame for editors and Mainichi-shinbun itself not to give any explanations on these articles. If what you are saying is correct, why don’t they explain so to public? Their explanations are always welcome.
Nerds on 2-channel simply asks Mainichi and editors for the appropriate explanations, but Mainichi-shinbun, editors and translators have thrown away their responsibility to answer to their question.
Not only nerds, but also many of women realized they have been secretly abused by Mainichi, its editors and translators for years. They know how to extract answers from the media company and they followed that way.
In a sense, it is a pity day for Japanese because they face the fact that Japan’s leading media company won’t feel any of obligation to their articles.
James, there’s an update to the MDN notice. Now they issued an apology (same link).
You’d have to be an utter idiot to NOT know that the stories were taken from the tabloids. It’s very obvious.
The Mainichi has shown an utter lack of integrity in knuckling under to the 2chan bullies.
You can expect I’ll be doing my best, along with others internationally, to shine the light of truth on the nationalistic Japanese bullies of 2chan.
All (ones sad to see WaiWai and go and those not),
As a long time reader of the Mainichi Site and WaiWai, I’m really sorry to see it go.
It’s really sad that a few NEETs or dare I say extremists, whipping up nationalistic views, have spoiled what was a little window into Japanese Weeklies for us who don’t have the reading skills. I think the whole episode is actually a worse testimony to some segments in Japan.
I can’t say I’m a Japanese expert, but I have spent many trips exploring Japan’s traditional sites, some of the less well known ones, and exploring some of the everyday areas of Japan’s cities. I have many close Japanese friends in Japan and abroad, so I feel I’ve had my share of opportunities to delve into some of the hidden (not so hidden) sides of Japan with friends and by myself. Including some of these funny articles. As a well rounded/travelled person I feel we the readers are in the best position to judge what these articles are and who they are written for… They are really written for the Japanese male, who loves this kind of titillation, so what is wrong with us foreigners learning about this… We know these stories are sensationalized, just like in our own countries. Hey we live in a free and open world, these people need to worry what kind of country they really live in.
I love Japan and it’s people, but yes I do have some strong views about some of the close minded people there. This story sadly just cements them in my mind. I’m just glad I know there are some really great people there as well, but unfortunately history tells us it’s the close minded ones that do the most damage.
So it’s a shame the Mainichi has pulled this segment and not had the guts to stand up to these people, are they going to stop publishing all their local papers/columns who run these stories?… Are the foreigners eyes too sensitive to this…
exactly.
You hit the nail on the head.Maybe the 2 channel freaks could invest some of their newfound puritanical spirit into campaigning against the pink chirashi that ARE really offensive.
..yeah like THAT will ever happen.
2chan FTW? Internet Superheroes?
Sad. WaiWai was hilarious.
I also concur with Robert above: you had to be an idiot not to realize what WaiWai was.
And this whole brouhahah being started by 2channel is classic. Its denizens really don’t have much room to talk.
There are lots of English Wikipedia articles on weird aspects of the Japanese society whose only referenced source is Ryan Connell’s Waiwai article. They only include a reference to Waiwai, or the Mainichi Daily News that is one of the major authoritative news media in Japan. They never refer to the original tabloid magazine whose credibility is close to zero. The same is true of many English-language J-blog articles.
That’s how Waiwai has been typically used by a certain kind of gaijin on the internet. Waiwai has been their favorite source of information on Japan. They did take information form Waiwai seriously. Rarely did they introdocue Waiwai articles as the kind of media that they really are, i.e., utterly dubious tabloid stories.
The outrage of the Japanese people is justified. There have also been some rational non-Japanese people who expressed concerns about Waiwai before this incident. On the other hand, those gaijin loosers who are complaining about the cancelation of Waiwai now are the very same kind of fellows who have been enjoying the spread of vicious misinformation about Japan with the help of Waiwai. “Nobody take them at face value”? That’s a complete bullshit. You are thinking too highly of your people.
I am japanese.
Please go to this site and read it.
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-41761
Our true aspect was not written in the article.
Neither the chance of the protest nor the chance of the correction
are given to us.
And, the voice of our protest tries to be destroyed now.
Mainichi Shimbun is putting the press restriction.
The image, animation, and sentences etc. of our protest have been deleted.
They try to conceal the fact.
We hate rape.
It’s the same as you.
We will angry if anyone called a prostitute our mother.
It’s the same as you.
Mainichi Shimbun apologized to the Japanese.
However, they stick out the tongue in foreign countries and are
ridiculing us.
We are not prostitutes.
We are not the right-wing groups.
We are Japanese races.
We also have patriotism.
It takes pride in Japanese we.
And, we love Japan.
Please know that it is not our culture that Mainichi Shimbun was reported.
Mainichi daily news
Bullshit daily news
Should die right now
This is the greatest insult act
and that’s the highest treacherous act for our country