globalization, these sites are particularly important, but quality sites are relatively rare. The sites I added to my link roll are either blogs, online affiliates to magazines, government sites, NGOs, and private companies. The provide a wide range of focuses: with some more closely aligned with the global, financial side of my blog and some focusing strongly on the cultural, Japanese focus of my blog. I tried to select sites that were visually stimulating, user friendly, organizationally adept, and with engaging content. All of the sites I found are posted in the link roll, to the right. Below, I will critique the sites in two loose groups, those sites that deal with political/economic issues and those dealing with cultural issues. Additionally, a link will be provided for each site as the title of the site below.The first site is Asia Policy Point, a professional looking site provided by an American think tank relating to topics concerning Japan and Asia. The site is notable for its clean, scholarly design and ease of use. Content wise, the site provides solid information and commentary concerning more controversial issues involving Japan such as: comfort women and Japanese nationalist movements. Asia Society provides a variety of valuable speeches and interviews with leading academics in the realm of East Asian Studies. The site is also notable for it's visual display. East Asia Forum was one of the first blogs I found that discussed Japanese issues through a strong academic lens. The authors are all strong in their respective fields, with several notable academics including Drysdale and Zhang. While the site also uses the work of several graduate student writers, it obviously has a strong editorial office since all of the work is of excellent quality. The inclusion of a few graduate students on this site provides an outlet for up and coming opinions on many issues, and a comfortable environment for other students to share their own opinion. I think that feature is of particular importance in engaging the reader and creating Fairer Globalization is a blog that deals with issues pertaining to globalization. In Asia, is a blog hosted by the Asia Foundation, it has frequent, well-written postings. J@pan Inc. provides a wide variety articles on " Business Technology People". The major problems here are a some what confusing interface and confusion presentation. The look of the site is also somewhat dated looking. The Japan Center for International Exchange is a nice looking site, however it is somewhat sparse on hard content. It mostly serves a portal to articles and summaries of conventions concerning Japan. The Japan Economic Foundation is a great site not only for current economic news, but great articles that pursue current issues to a deeper level. Managing Globalization is a blog run by the International Herald Tribune, focusing on current global issues. This is an excellent example of a blog: providing well written content in a user friendly environment. Furthermore, the site design is professional without being boring, and devoid of tacky advertising that could detract from the focus of the blog. The Office of the Prime Minister, The National Diet, and The Bank of Japan sites provide a wealth of information on Japanese government activities, and finer points of policy not reported in major news outlets. Of the three sites, the Office of the Prime Minister and The Bank of Japan have the most effective sites. Both sites provide a great deal of information, as well as lively graphics that draw the user in. The National Diet site provides a great deal of valuable information, however, it is presented in a dense forbidding manner that discourages the user from exploring the site.
J-Pop Asia is a blog providing video, music, and lyrics to a variety of Japanese popular music. This site is notable for the sheer quantity of material it provides, and the forums it allows for discussion of that material. However, the site, since being for profit, is marred somewhat by tacky ads. Japanese Streets provides a large amount of information, including pictures and magazine scans, about Japanese youth/fringe fashion. Tokyo Street Style is also a site dedicated to Japanese fashion. However this site shows more mainstream fashion, provided by catalogs of snapshots taken of pedestrians. Tokyo Neo Style provides a look at individual's fashion, and also excels in providing more information about their models. It should be noted, that Tokyo Neo Style has more content on its Japanese version. The information on the English site, while understandable, occasionally is awkwardly
phrased. The addition of video files is also noteworthy. Takashi Murakami is a site dedicated to the artist of the same name. He is notable for his pop-art, which was recently used for the album cover of Kanye West's Graduation album. Unfortunately the site is someone aesthetically flawed due to side bars full of google ads. Trends in Japan attempts to present a wide spectrum of new trends occurring in Japan. The site has a slick, modern appearance that lends itself to the newest, if at times trivial, trends. Web Japan provides a broad spectrum of information concerning Japan. Unfortunately the site's design is somewhat old-fashioned, and detracts from the contemporary nature of its content. However, the large amount of information provided, including a large amount of video files, help to make up for drawbacks in appearance. Overall I was somewhat surprised by the breadth of content available on the web about Japan, and I found quite a few really top notch sites amongst them. I found these sites noteworthy because, unlike many sites focusing on Japanese pop-culture, they did not attempt to emphasize or play up bizarre facets. In particular, I think I enjoyed Tokyo Neo Style and Tokyo Street Style for their unfiltered presentation of Japanese fashion. I look forward to keeping up with these sites as they develop, and using them as valuable resources for my posts in the future.
1 comment:
You have done a great job of covering Japan from many different angles while still keeping within the overall focus of your blog. You offer your reader a wealth of information for each site you mention by offering pros and cons. I like the mix of scholarly sites with pop culture sites as this breadth allows the reader to gain a larger picture about Japan if they are not already intimately familiar with the nation and the multitude of things it has to offer. I particularly like the images you have chosen as they augment your descriptions very well.
Some sites I am assuming you found to be more interesting or detailed than others as some of your descriptions are better than others. On some of your site descriptions only one sentence was given. For example, your description of the Japan Economic Foundation only received one sentence before you went on to the next topic. You made it flow well, so it did not hinder your argument too much. However, I would have liked to learn a little more about it in your post (even if its title is self explanatory). What are they involved in, what do they do? How does their site compare to the others?
I like how you made your article not as long as some others by grouping together several websites, linking to them, and offering up a description of all of them. Not only did you condense the links, but you singled out which sites you felt were most effective and gave your reasoning for that conclusion.
Overall, I think you wrote a very nice post. Good job.
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