INTERNET Media Scandals Stir Up Japanese Blogosphere Discussions on Ethics As major media players take heat for lapses in professional conduct, journalists-turned-bloggers take the ethics debate online. Such media bloggers are becoming increasingly outspoken in discussions of their profession. By Bruce Rutledge and Sumie Kawakami
INTERNET Reining in the Web in Japan Japanese media stories about a flood of "illegal and irresponsible" postings on the Net are being accompanied by calls for stricter regulation. Some observers worry that traditional gatekeepers of information are trying to tighten control over Japan's Net entrepreneurs and users. By Tony McNicol
INTERNET Gossip Becomes News on Popular Anonymous Discussion Board Channel 2 -- Japan's most popular Web site -- gives people an anonymous way to vent their feelings. It also gives them a way to report news the media won't touch: Posters have repeatedly broken stories that were later followed by the mainstream press. By Hideki Furukawa.		INTERNET Will the Web and Blogs Change how we Govern -- and are Governed? The Internet and Weblogs still have some growing up to do, but eventually they could help create a new form of emergent democracy able to support, change or replace our current representative democracy. By Joichi Ito.
INTERNET Video News Network Pioneers Internet TV in Japan Teddy Jimbo's Video News Network gives him the freedom to cover controversial topics the mainstream press ignores, but is anybody listening? So far, the Internet TV station's alternative programming has attracted just 4,000 subscribers. By Jane Ellen Stevens.		INTERNET Q&A With Publisher Mark Devlin Mark Devlin, publisher of Japan Today and Tokyo city guide Metropolis, says emerging technologies will give ordinary citizens more of a voice in Japanese media. Other predictions: The death of blogs and the end of free access to newspapers online.
Going Paperless in Japan Mainichi stopped printing its English-language edition in 2001, deciding instead to publish it exclusively online. The move has paid off: The Mainichi Daily News' slick design and tabloid take on the news have made it Japan's most popular English-language daily. By Jane Ellen Stevens.
JanJan: A Little Online Daily With Big Dreams Frustrated with the complacent reporting offered up by Japan's daily papers, journalist and former mayor Ken Takeuchi recently launched Japan's first serious alternative online daily. He hopes to follow in the footsteps of OhmyNews, Korea's wildly successful online news publication. By Tim Clark.
Blogging 101 What the heck is a blog, and how do you make one? An inquiring reporter at Japan's No. 1 paper recently trained his sights on the blogging phenomenon, which has yet to take off in Japan. While the Western press has penned hundreds of stories on blogs, this article is one of the first to explain Weblogs to readers in Japan.
Asahi's Wireless Magic Act While most of the world's media companies have yet to figure out a way to coax readers to pay for online news, Japan's No. 2 newspaper is making $200,000 a year selling wireless news to more than 1 million subscribers. How do they do it? They're giving people what they want -- a news feed heavy on sports and entertainment news. By Jane Ellen Stevens.
Expat Bloggers Big in Japan The most active bloggers in Japan seem to be expats writing about what it's like to be an expat in Japan, but Japanese bloggers are slowly getting into the act. By Bryan Shih.
Online Anti-war Activism Gains Momentum in Japan Japan is buzzing with anti-war activity on a scale that hasn't been seen since the Vietnam War. Information spread via Web sites and e-mail has helped create a formidable grassroots peace movement largely sustained by online communications.
Online News in Japan: Popular, but Not Profitable Japan's largest newspaper Web sites run 24-hour news operations and get hundreds of millions of page views per month. But many new media pioneers are still unsure where news sites fit into the media mix in Japan -- and whether they'll ever make money.
Japan's Generation of Computer Refuseniks Most teens and young adults in Japan don't use computers to surf the World Wide Web. Instead they use cell phones to access a scaled-down wireless Web. The result: A growing computer literacy problem among Japan's youth. By Tim Clark.
Cell Phones That Surf for News New always-on desktop applications for cell phones can be programmed to scan the mobile Web constantly for the latest news and send you links to must-see stories, photos and videos. This latest development in cell phone technology may turn phones into the next big news delivery device. By Daniel Scuka.
Q&A With Tim Clark From the Japan Internet Report The Japanese haven't embraced the Internet because they do not have a media-seeking habit, says researcher Tim Clark. Most Japanese aren't equipped or inclined to use a medium -- like the Internet -- that requires them to hunt down the news and information that interests them.
The Freeing of the Press Despite the Web's tentative debut in Japan, many predict the Internet will eventually become a major new alternate source of news, and could challenge the media monopoly now in the hands of a few major companies. By Daniel Scuka, Kyoko Fujimoto and Chiaki Kitada.