More Time Spent on the Net than Papers

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Yahoo: Japanese spend more time on Internet than newspapers

The average amount of time people in Japan spend each day browsing the Internet has exceeded that spent on reading newspapers for the first time, according to survey results released Wednesday. The annual survey conducted in March by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology showed that people spend an average of 37 minutes a day using the Internet, up five minutes from the previous year, while time spent on newspapers decreased two minutes to 31 minutes.

I wonder whether they include i-mode and the like in their definition of internet usage.

[Blah Pete]

Nice Picture

[Mulboyne]

TMC: Japan maintains ban on newspaper discounts for now

Japan's Fair Trade Commission has decided to maintain for now its ban on newspaper publishers and distributors discounting subscription fees, a senior ruling party official said Wednesday...The government commission had been reviewing the decades-old ban since last November from the viewpoint that it might have become excessive regulation that gives the industry an excuse to maintain uniform fees...Under the regulations which prohibit newspapers from diversifying fees by region or subscriber and distributors from offering discounts, uniform fees for home delivery of newspapers and similar products have been maintained across Japan.

This is the saihan seido (resale price maintenance) which Taro picked up in this thread.