This entry was a poor effort methinks. With these "I didn't say it" posts I was expecting you'd start mentioning new sources of obscure and arcane lore in order to beef up your theories (like in the very first installment of the same series). However, quoting Cyzo is old news since you have already quoted them extensively and we all know by now what this magazine stands for.

In addition to that, the content of this paragraph is very banal and you don't need to work for Cyzo or even an industry insider to verify these facts.

Disclaimer: I'm not bashing, I'm just exercising 'deconstructive Neomarxisme'.

So surprised to hear negative commentary from you, Dzima.

That wasn't negative, I'm just waiting hear more.

Aren't you wasting valuable time here when you could be dropping my name in perjorative usage on Momus' daily comment roll?

he's got a point though. You could find some hot stuff off the lips of a member of the diet or something, or a professed member of the "bad guys" of this blog (entertainment/music/magazine/porn industry types), and then you'd have some punch to the I didn't say it.
As it is, Cyzo freaking published a cleaned up version of your thesis, didn't they?

They may have published some of my work, but I am not setting Cyzo's editorial positions.

My point with this "series" is to show that my own writing does not deviate very far from certain positions within the Japanese public. If certain people would get over that very basic idea, I would also move on.

I also hope that anyone interesting in reading about the Japanese entertainment industry will pick up a copy of the issue while it is still on the shelves. Or maybe I will type up a summary...

Here are two old "I Didn't Say It" before I gave it a name. These do what you want me to do:

http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/000526.html
http://www.pliink.com/mt/marxy/archives/000528.html

I think there are always problems with this metaphor of dirt. To call a complex series of social interactions (resulting in an entertainment industry that's successful by anyone's standards) "dirt" helps no-one, and to talk of "cleaning up" this dirt makes no mention of what would replace the current structure. (Bring in Clear Channel?) It reminds me of French politician Nicolas Sarkozy saying he wanted to "take disinfectant" to the French suburbs. It's much better to lay out a financial plan of restructuration, and also to stop alienating key actors by defining the way they do things as "dirt".

Of course, I'm assuming that Cyzo magazine wants to improve things, that they have a vested interest in seeing less sleaze in Japan. But why would a scandal mag have that vested interest? Don't they have an interest in precisely the opposite? Perhaps they just like mud-slinging; any mud you've got, they'll sling it. Then you can quote them slinging your mud as justification for the fact that you collected it in your bucket in the first place.

Oops, there's that dirt metaphor again!

But at least they are not "outsiders", so that somehow gives them more right to criticise, correct? Or does voicing criticism make you an "outsider"?

But just because you have a vested interest in one thing does not mean its eradication is wrong. Michael Moore can make all the money he wants off of Bush-hate but I still think Bush being out of office would be a good thing, no?

Of course, you are only questioning Cyzo's position because you have you a vested interest in making sure no one actually believes any of the "dirt."

Sure, it's better for insiders to question. And I note that Cyzo editor Hiroto Kobayashi is not only an ex-Wired Japan columnist (like me!) but someone who insists on Japanese particularity; in his interview with Japan Inc he talks a lot about how imposing US business models / publications on Japan just isn't going to work because "Japanese culture is different".

But I really wonder whether exposees of the stains behind "this seemingly flashy industry" are either terribly radical or terribly effective. Of course you can pose as a hero when you expose sleaze, and perhaps you'll elicit some sobbing shame-culture apologies on TV from time to time. But does running stories about sleaze in the world of glitz really make a nation more democratic? Have all those tattle mags you can buy at the supermarket check-out in the US made America more democratic? Or do they just foster a culture of "moronic cynicism" where everyone assumes the worst of people in public life, everyone gets cynical and prurient and helplessly angry, and only the gossip mags profit. And let's not forget how this sense of impotent rage plays into the hands of right wing politicians, with their rhetorical strategy of calling whole sections of humanity "evil" or "dirt".

You have proffered the best solution ever: when you see something wrong, ignore it. Again, the only reason you suggest any of this is because you don't want us talking about it in the first place.

Have all those tattle mags you can buy at the supermarket check-out in the US made America more democratic?

I think you fail to conceptually grasp the difference. This is not Bennifer gossip Cyzo is attempting. Without getting themselves killed, they want to talk about how very dark forces work to provide and produce happy images for an entire nation. And the reason they are dedicating a whole issue to it is because YOU CANNOT TALK ABOUT IT IN THE MEDIA. (ALL CAPS!)

But again, you would know that seeing that you and Kobayashi are one in the same.

You have proffered the best solution ever: when you see something wrong, ignore it.

I'm not quite sure how you got that from my "It's much better to lay out a financial plan of restructuration, and also to stop alienating key actors by defining the way they do things as "dirt"."

ex-Wired Japan columnist (like me!)

Have you lost your gig? Sorry to hear that, it seemed to have provided a great source of pride to you.

stop alienating key actors by defining the way they do things as "dirt"

"Dear Mr Yakuza-guy, I apologise for labelling what you do as "wrong". Again, my ethnocentricity got the better of me. Please accept this Excel spreadsheet detailing what in my humble opinion is a better way of allocation resources as a humble gift."

It's much better to lay out a financial plan of restructuratiom

How do you get people in a monopoly to lower prices for the common good? How do you get firms with empires based on fear to stop enforcing? By asking them nicely?

One of the easiest things to do is to at least inform the general population of how the entertainment industry works - which is not quite yet open knowledge.

Have you lost your gig?

I still have my gig, but go ahead, you can still have your dig.

der; ya beat me to the punch!

marxy: there really is nothing like the RICO act here is there?

Momus: I too am unclear on how a "financial plan of restructuration" might look like (and I'm assuming you meant "restructuring"). There exists nothing like bad loans to be securitized or a payroll which needs pruning or even an unprofitable division to sell off. Though it is an interesting question to speculate what model might work instead of the jimusho model currently in place. Thane Camus seems to think it works fine but just needs a bit of transpaency.

Also FWIW I dont consider Japan Inc to be all that good of a source. They (like Momus) are members of what Alex Kerr amuzingly described as The Crysanthamum Club.

Johnny Kitagawa has handled his young talents so expertly, yakuza-related companies control TV so successfully. Marvelous. Part of Japanese culture is it, pedophilia and organized crime?
Cleaning up, it could lead to music and art, maybe even foreign made music and art, oh no.
Yes, Momus-san, the powers that be so eagerly await your new improved metaphor-free, culturally correct financial model.

But does running stories about sleaze in the world of glitz really make a nation more democratic? Have all those tattle mags you can buy at the supermarket check-out in the US made America more democratic? Or do they just foster a culture of "moronic cynicism" where everyone assumes the worst of people in public life, everyone gets cynical and prurient and helplessly angry, and only the gossip mags profit.

This is a really interesting point, only let's replace "sleaze" with "corruption," and replace entirely the 2nd sentence with, "If there actually WERE any tattle mags at the supermarket check-out publishing exposes of entertainment industry corruption, would it make America more democratic?"

I like your answer, though. At first glance the answer seems to be yeah, that would surely promote democratic principles. But the translation of that knowledge into the slightest productive action is an awfully big assumption.

The Rise of Japan's Thought Police
By Steven Clemons
Washington Post, Aug. 27, 2006; Page B02

Anywhere else, it might have played out as just another low-stakes battle between policy wonks. But in Japan, a country struggling to find a brand of nationalism that it can embrace, a recent war of words between a flamboyant newspaper editorialist and an editor at a premier foreign-policy think tank was something far more alarming: the latest assault in a campaign of right-wing intimidation of public figures that is squelching free speech and threatening to roll back civil society.

On Aug. 12, Yoshihisa Komori -- a Washington-based editorialist for the ultra-conservative Sankei Shimbun newspaper -- attacked an article by Masaru Tamamoto, the editor of Commentary, an online journal run by the Japan Institute of International Affairs. The article expressed concern about the emergence of Japan's strident new "hawkish nationalism," exemplified by anti-China fear-mongering and official visits to a shrine honoring Japan's war dead. Komori branded the piece "anti-Japanese," and assailed the mainstream author as an "extreme leftist intellectual."

But he didn't stop there. Komori demanded that the institute's president, Yukio Satoh, apologize for using taxpayer money to support a writer who dared to question Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, in defiance of Chinese protests that it honors war criminals from World War II.

Remarkably, Satoh complied. Within 24 hours, he had shut down Commentary and withdrawn all of the past content on the site -- including his own statement that it should be a place for candid discourse on Japan's foreign-policy and national-identity challenges. Satoh also sent a letter last week to the Sankei editorial board asking for forgiveness and promising a complete overhaul of Commentary's editorial management.

The capitulation was breathtaking. But in the political atmosphere that has overtaken Japan, it's not surprising. Emboldened by the recent rise in nationalism, an increasingly militant group of extreme right-wing activists who yearn for a return to 1930s-style militarism, emperor-worship and "thought control" have begun to move into more mainstream circles -- and to attack those who don't see things their way.

Just last week, one of those extremists burned down the parental home of onetime prime ministerial candidate Koichi Kato, who had criticized Koizumi's decision to visit Yasukuni this year. Several years ago, the home of Fuji Xerox chief executive and Chairman Yotaro "Tony" Kobayashi was targeted by handmade firebombs after he, too, voiced the opinion that Koizumi should stop visiting Yasukuni. The bombs were dismantled, but Kobayashi continued to receive death threats. The pressure had its effect. The large business federation that he helps lead has withdrawn its criticism of Koizumi's hawkishness toward China and his visits to Yasukuni, and Kobayashi now travels with bodyguards.

In 2003, then-Japanese Deputy Foreign Minister Hitoshi Tanaka discovered a time bomb in his home. He was targeted for allegedly being soft on North Korea. Afterward, conservative Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara contended in a speech that Tanaka "had it coming."

Another instance of free-thinking-meets-intimidation involved Sumiko Iwao, an internationally respected professor emeritus at Keio University. Right-wing activists threatened her last February after she published an article suggesting that much of Japan is ready to endorse female succession in the imperial line; she issued a retraction and is now reportedly lying low.

Such extremism raises disturbing echoes of the past. In May 1932, Japanese Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai was assassinated by a group of right-wing activists who opposed his recognition of Chinese sovereignty over Manchuria and his staunch defense of parliamentary democracy. In the post-World War II era, right-wing fanatics have largely lurked in the shadows, but have occasionally threatened those who veer too close to or speak too openly about sensitive topics concerning Japan's national identity, war responsibility or imperial system.

What's alarming and significant about today's intimidation by the right is that it's working -- and that it has found some mutualism in the media. Sankei's Komori has no direct connection to those guilty of the most recent acts, but he's not unaware that his words frequently animate them -- and that their actions in turn lend fear-fueled power to his pronouncements, helping them silence debate. What's worse, neither Japan's current prime minister nor Shinzo Abe, the man likely to succeed him in next month's elections, has said anything to denounce those trying to stifle the free speech of Japan's leading moderates.

There are many more cases of intimidation. I have spoken to dozens of Japan's top academics, journalists and government civil servants in the past few days; many of them pleaded with me not to disclose this or that incident because they feared violence and harassment from the right. One top political commentator in Japan wrote to me: "I know the right-wingers are monitoring what I write and waiting to give me further trouble. I simply don't want to waste my time nor energy for these people."

Japan needs nationalism. But it needs a healthy nationalism -- not the hawkish, strident variety that is lately forcing many of the country's best lights to dim their views.

So, you've found a problem.

Now the question seems to be - how does one mobilize activism?

Yes, I think that's very much the point. I'd love to see these discussions swinging in that very practical direction. What next?

Well, no. I thought there was an early point laid out that it was "wrong to be politically active in someone else's country."

Thank you for posting that entire article on the rise of right-wing terrorism in Japan, and I want to reemphasize the point that the people behind these terror organizations are one branch of the same tree that rules the entertainment industry. I do not want to equalize the two or claim they are working together for some goal, but the money is the essentially the same.

An interesting illustration: Kato Koichi challenged Mori in 2000 against the wishes of the LDP leadership and as a result his enemies started investigations into his misdoings. His secretary had been doing all sorts of money laundering - including some for the head of Rising Production (Amuro Namie, MAX, Da Pump, etc.) who was later arrested in connection. The only reason that the government finally went after the jimushos at this time was because they got tied up with a politician on the outs with the core faction.

No matter how many (non-hegemonic) politicians' houses get burned down by right-wing thugs, these terrorist groups will never be dismantled or investigated because they are aligned with the ruling politicians. Same goes with the music industry. The state cannot go after the mafia when it would be cutting off its own arm. Abe going into power will do nothing but embolden their actions. They may be arrested afterwards but will never be stopped from pulling off their violence in the first place. Get used to it.

Yes, I think that's very much the point. I'd love to see these discussions swinging in that very practical direction. What next?

well thats very simple, we just rebuild the justice system, liquidate the yakuza, eliminate the rightists, remove the monarchy, break down the LDP stranglehold & then take a break for a jolly good breakfast.

From that interview with Infobahn's Kobayashi (who Momus somewhat baffingly used earlier to back up his own positions):

"We can't just copy and paste the Silicon Valley model. We have our own culture, politics, and mafia, which we can't just ignore."

Funny he mentions "mafia" in there. I doubt that Steve Jobs had to deal with the mob upon creating Apple.

Also:

"One of Cyzo's missions is to report all the information out there. In Japan, access to most information is closed; we're just making it public. If that seems sensational, it means that information in Japan is too restricted. Actually, we'd like to do more intensive investigative reporting, but we are not the police, so we can only go so far. And even when we learn something that seems very suspicious, we sometimes keep it out of the magazine to protect the informant. In that case, we reveal the hidden character of the suspicious subject."

What a waste! He should be creating detailed alternate plans instead of informing the public about social realities, right?

what next? how bout some laws with teeth and enforcers who arent on the take. that would be a nice start.

So, having established this is necessary - will neomarxisme now become host to a polite cycle of clockwork vituperation, or does the author actually intend to take some action, besides pumping fists, and pointing fingers?

...inside the likely answer, we just might see the reason internet interactions fail to transcend bright, blinking screens.

What next? Why not write a light-hearted article that fauxposes all this mafia malarkey as a fluffy arts-and-crafts conspiracy?

I know, since I can't win on facts and numbers and expert opinion and books and reality - I will destroy your analytic modes.

Cyzo has always struck me as less interesting and subversive than Uwasa no Shinsou, though maybe also less libelous and less outright speculative (not to mention, still in business).

I don't see what regular Japanese would see in the magazine though. Yeah We Know That, and OK But So What, would seem to be the usual responses to their articles.

I don't see what regular Japanese would see in the magazine though.

I guess their sales are a giant foreign conspiracy. I think you also underestimate that the magazine is often quite interesting even when it not digging up new dirt. I find their editorial writing is often very funny.

Interesting piece of trivia I learned out today from reading said magazine: the powerful jimusho Kenon is said to be backed by the 日本船舶振興会, which is part of right-wing hero Sasakawa Ryoichi's Nippon Foundation. (Who also were the sponsors of Alberto Fujimori.) So, I am corrected: not all jimusho are yakuza backed - some are uyoku backed.

Yes, I think that's very much the point. I'd love to see these discussions swinging in that very practical direction. What next?

Inform the Japanese voting public of the corruption. Find and promote clean candidates to them. If those candidates get elected, have them enact reforms to curtail the yakuza and the hyper-nationalists.