Japan Times Reader's Letters

[Mulboyne]

If Metropolis was not free, would you read it?

What would you pay for?
I used to buy Tokyo Journal up until about 1996 and it never had anything like the information content of Metropolis although the articles were often good. I remember when TJ did an expose of Aum in Matsumoto. It was confusing because it appeared in the edition just after the sarin raid but it was obvious they had their focus in the right place since they had lined it up to publish before the attack. I wouldn't touch that mag with a barge pole today
So, I'd probably buy Metropolis now and again, depending on the cover price. But that is currently a moot point since they give it away. Sure it's not everything in one place but, at no cost, I can't complain. They do get outside the Yamanote now and again although, admittedly, that usually means far out of Tokyo in the hills or by the beach.

[Marvin Feltcher]

I used to buy Tokyo Journal up until about 1996 and it never had anything like the information content of Metropolis although the articles were often good.

Didn't the interviews kick arse? TJ was real cutting-edge, with great interviews with people like Rie Miyazawa (at the height of her fame), Ai Iijima and Yoshinori Kobayashi, who used to be the darling of the Western media until he started denying Japanese wartime hostility and now seems to be taboo. I think I still have a book at home somewhere with the best of TJ's interviews. Nobody in Japan does anything in English as good as TJ did it in the early to mid-'90s. It was really worth the exorbitant charge it used to levy.

[Mulboyne]

I remember the Ai Iijima interview and that goes back some. There was a good one with Mitsuko Baisho too which had stuff even her fan club didn't know

[Marvin Feltcher]

TJ did an expose of Aum

Didn't they also do an interview with Asahara (well before the sarin piece)?
I don't remember the Mitsuko Baisho interview, but TJ really was great.

[Ol Dirty Gaijin]

Mark's going to love me for this, but I think you're being way too tough.

Nope.
I am one reader in "30,000", why should I blow smoke up someones ass.
When you first get to Tokyo, Metropolis can be great. After a couple of years here, it means nothing. You learn your areas, the networks for information and move on. How many of it's 30,000 readers would drink 10,000 yen bottles of wine at dinner???? Yet we get a review like this every week? Reports on "International" schools? For the sallaried slacker like myself, it's crud.

What would you pay for?

I wouldn't pay for a magazine of puff pieces on the Kano sisters or Dewi Sukarno. Seems like they have a talent agent contact. Why don't they just write ADVERTISING above every article. Reviews seem the same, not many bad ones???

They do get outside the Yamanote now and again although, admittedly, that usually means far out of Tokyo in the hills or by the beach.

Tokyo is not just Shibuya and the surrounding areas. Calling a magazine Metropolis and having condescending remarks like "we didn't expect to find .... out here" and the like when they do travel shows a very narrow view. East/North Tokyo is not touched. Metropolis my ass, moneyed-up Anglo Gaijin Ghetto more like it.

A classic..

Located near stations on the north end of the Yamanote line, these shops are far from the prim, trim streets of Minato-ku and her neighboring wards.

and watch out coz someonez gunna pop a clip in yo ass. I live walking distance from Ginza - Akihabara etc, hardly out in the boonies, yet anything reported about this area is like slumming it. And guess what, the reality is it's not.

I don't like the direction it's heading. As Metropolis moves more into the Weekender the middle ground is not covered. "FG" covers this for me thanks to the efforts of those posting (not wanting "to piss in your pocket in any way shape or form" Marvin, Mulboyne, Cap'nn Japan etc). Japanzine is a great read, but not not being a weekly (not being able to cover news) it is really in a different area.

On the up side, I have enjoyed Ned Goodwin's wine articles, and the addition of the "Last Word" is welcome.


sorry kids crying, gotta run

[Ol Dirty Gaijin]

Thanks.
As you said are many types of readers.

In the Weekender days the international community comprised rich ex-pats and travelers. Metropolis has grown because it caters to the broader "middle class" of foreigners that have decided to make their lives here. Many of those people now have kids and need information on international schools. The advertisers would stop if the market wasn't there.

This is part of the point, I am part of this "middle class". Wife, kid, OK but not flash wage, and I feel the magazine totally misses my demographic. I need information on education/schools in general, not sales services on International schools. I don't feel I get any quality information.

Metropolis, to me, seems to be about observing Tokyo, not participating in it at a normal community level. Keeping a "us and them" approach to Tokyo.

[Blah Pete]

The only reason I buy Japan Times these days is to do the crossword puzzle while I am on the train out to Bumfuck, Japan.
Do you know if you buy a paper today in Kanto the next days paper in Kyushu will have the same articles (and crossword puzzle) with a slightly different front page.

[Taro Toporific]

Nobody in Japan does anything in English as good as TJ did it in the early to mid-'90s. It was really worth the exorbitant charge it used to levy.

All the collapse/bankruptcy Tokyo Journal stuff was great, especially the crank (fake) letter-of-the-editor that some lunatic named "Calvino" wrote every month, nudge-nudge, wink-wink.

Problem was the Tokyo Journal never really made money and its many imitators all have failed too.

[same]

The only reason I buy Japan Times these days is to do the crossword puzzle while I am on the train out to Bumfuck, Japan.
Do you know if you buy a paper today in Kanto the next days paper in Kyushu will have the same articles (and crossword puzzle) with a slightly different front page.

In some areas you can buy the exact same paper two days later, with the same news, the same crossword and the same front page EXCEPT for the date. Isn't that false advertising??

Same