Mainichi's English site shuts down one column criticized for being 'too vulgar'

Thursday 26th June, 12:48 AM JST

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

Latest 15 of 69 Total Comments Show All

pimpninja1 at 04:07 AM JST - 26th June

I'm torn. When I first came back to the states from my japan travels in 04, I found wai wai to be a humorous take on the behind the scenes. Its no different from the tabloids in the grocery stores that housewives obsess over. On the other hand, even though intelligent people understand to take what they read with a grain of salt. To put it politely though, not everyone on the web is intelligent. I get what they were trying to do, but this seems a an act of cowardice to those of us that fall in the intelligent category.

Pimpninja say, if no one knows 15 year old have affair with gay married clown, does it not still happen?
Zen_Builder at 07:00 AM JST - 26th June

More/New info on the Mainichi site:

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/culture/waiwai/
Honne at 08:11 AM JST - 26th June

J-bloggers and ni-channelers were initially the ones who were complaining about the WaiWai section for awhile (going on for several months). One recent posting along with a link to where the ongoing "discussion" was taking place on 2ちゃん.

http://blog.livedoor.jp/tonchamon/archives/51930175.html

Their previous complaints to MDN only resulted in minor changes or article deletions which did not make these folks happy because they wanted it shutdown completely. MDN pretty much just blew them off. The noise only got louder (what do you expect once a bunch of ni-channelers start organizing) especially after one particular article ran about how mothers would give their sons sexual favors in exchange for doing well on their exams. J-CAST on Friday decided to cover the story about WaiWai.

http://www.j-cast.com/2008/06/20022225.html

The article appeared on Yahoo! Japan shortly

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080620-00000003-jct-sci

This exposure was all that was needed to get MDN to pull the plug. There are unconfirmed rumors that some MDN staff members and families received threatening phone calls.

MDN shutdown WaiWai fairly quickly but initially left just a very terse statement on June 21. That statement is posted at the end of the new longer message they put up the next day. The original statement was not acceptable to the complainers because they demanded a FULL apology and also asked that Ryan Connell reflect on what he had done. The detailed one you now see on their website including the statement about punishing the people involved is a result of the complaints that came in AFTER the site was already pulled.

Ni-channelers (the ones in the society threads are the worst) have gotten their way in the past before so this isn't anything new. Each win only emboldens them. What they are not aware of YET are the translated Shukan Post articles that exist on this site or the Tokyo Confidential articles over at the Japan Times. Once they learn about them, the same thing could happen because they've already mentioned this in previous threads to report back on sites that have such material.
TJrandom at 08:26 AM JST - 26th June

I provided a very polite disagreement with their removal of WaiWai on the Mainichi Readers Forum. (I assure you that it would have passed the JT Mod’s high standards.)

My comment was not accepted. It seems that they really do not want any constructive criticism, in spite of saying that they encourage readers to post.
Pukey2 at 09:57 PM JST - 26th June

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainichi_Shimbun

The disappearance of waiwai is also documented on wikipedia. Anybody interested in re-editing it?
GJDailleult at 11:21 PM JST - 26th June

Just checked the Wikipedia site, and just want to say this, and it is not a Japan specific point. There are few things more pathetic in life than seeing self-appointed protectors of their country's image attempt to do so in a foreign language and in a foreign culture setting that they clearly don't understand. But as the person or persons who put up the information on Wikipedia appear to understand English well enough to be possibly reading this site, I will offer the following sincere and heartfelt advice. If you really care about Japan's image in the world, shut up.
tenguleavings at 01:30 AM JST - 27th June

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainichi_Shimbun

The re-edit appears to be complete.
presto345 at 07:41 PM JST - 27th June

This is a very sad development. The MDN bowing to a couple of uptight prudes trying to dictate their pathetic convictions. And on top of that immediately naming a scapegoat for something that brought lots of visitors to the site. Well, these visitors will sign off en masse. Goodbye.
Kijimuna at 07:27 AM JST - 28th June

Not happy with the outcome but frankly the idea of WaiWai on MDN to begin with is surprising. Apparently the editorial staff there thought that Japanese readers never read the English. Not blown away that someone finally got organized. MDN has to shut it down to protect the for-pay readership numbers. What it should have done is set up a separate site sans the MDN brand.
SpanishEyez37 at 12:25 PM JST - 29th June

Come on JT pick up the Wai Wai!
frontandcentre at 03:10 PM JST - 30th June

My comment was not accepted. It seems that they really do not want any constructive criticism, in spite of saying that they encourage readers to post.

Why should they apply any different standards to what they allow on their forum than they now do to their willingness to translate Japanese articles, with provisos? No reason at all, it would seem. Total cowards.
nigelboy at 03:30 PM JST - 30th June

Not happy with the outcome but frankly the idea of WaiWai on MDN to begin with is surprising. Apparently the editorial staff there thought that Japanese readers never read the English. Not blown away that someone finally got organized. MDN has to shut it down to protect the for-pay readership numbers. What it should have done is set up a separate site sans the MDN brand.

In the 2-chan thread, there was a post from a Mainichi employee stating that sponsor pull out was the last straw. The irony of it is that they were able to lure these advertisers with the large # of access partly because of waiwai on-lookers overseas but I guess the sponsors realized that these on lookers aren't going to purchase/consume their goods anyways.

People here are under the assumption that 2-chan surfers were specifically targeting waiwai when in fact, these guys have been targeting Mainichi for their Japanese reporting for a very long time. This is just one of many issues they have with Mainichi.
GJDailleult at 09:23 AM JST - 2nd July

Interesting points above from nigelboy. But I don't think the protests to sponsors were limited to the ones on the English MDN site, I think they were protesting to Mainichi sponsors in general. Also, if this was just one issue in a bigger battle, the question is then how often has the Mainichi issued a public apology and dropped columns or articles from the Japanese language paper or website after complaints from the media critics at 2chan. If zero, then maybe WaiWai was an opportunity to throw the dog a bone.
Kijimuna at 10:55 AM JST - 2nd July

GJD, I think nigelboy agrees that waiwai was part of a larger picture. nigelboy, thanks for your added info on this. Someone suggested above that JT pick up waiwai? How would it change the look and feel of this website, really?
GJDailleult at 11:51 AM JST - 2nd July

Kijimuna, actually I was agreeing with nigelboy. Just adding that the protesters were sending complaints to the sponsors of the Mainichi Shinbun company, not the sponsors of the Mainichi Daily News. Says so right on the protesters' website. So in the big picture, the advertisers on MDN and the traffic brought in by WaiWai were probably pretty insignificant factors in their thinking.

Also, if JT is actually considering picking up Waiwai, you might want to check out the site I mentioned before you do. Preventing other organizations from running WaiWai seems to be one of their listed objectives. Or maybe my Japanese comprehension is bad.