2008-07-30

video, "Election, Japanese-style"

http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/campaign/
Discover Democracy "Japanese-Style"

This is democracy – Japanese style. Campaign on P.O.V. provides a startling insider's view of Japanese electoral politics in this portrait of a man plucked from obscurity by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to run for a critical seat on a suburban city council.


Kazuhiko "Yama-san" Yamauchi's LDP handlers are unconcerned that he has zero political experience, no charisma, no supporters and no time to prepare.

What he does have is the institutional power of Japan's modern version of Tammany Hall pushing him forward. Yama-san allows his life to be turned upside down as he pursues the rituals of Japanese electioneering – with both tragic and comic results.

full film online at http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/campaign/fullfilm.html

2008-07-17

J-Pop with on-screen lyrics

Soul-ja: His song with Thelma Aoyama is nice. Several of my students bought the album this summer
   www.jpopasia.com/play/4153/soulja/kokoni-iruyo-feat-thelma-aoyama.html
see also the J-Pop homepages, http://www.jpopasia.com

2008-07-14

audio slideshow (contest)

13 July 2008. [senseionline] Digest Number 2685
 
Kwassui Women's College announces a worldwide video slideshow contest
reserved to students who are learning Japanese as a foreign language
in high school; original announcement at
http://www.kwassui.ac.jp/college/news_topics/news_82/news_82.html
For further inquiries, please email videocontest@kwassui.ac.jp
 
The purpose of this contest is to encourage high school Japanese
language teachers to enhance their classes with video production
projects. Kwassui has long been active in forming teachers of both
English and Japanese. The college is now experimenting with new
technologies and promoting their use in language teaching. It has
become evident to us that many language teachers would like to use
video production in their classes but are hindered by time constraints
and limited access to technology. The experience matured by our
English department has shown us that this kind of obstacles can be
overcome by letting students work on video slideshows rather than
moving image videos.
 
A video slideshow is a succession of still images, be they
photographs, drawings, charts, or computer-generated pictures,
accompanied by narration and/or music and recorded in video format. It
can be created with minimal equipment: a computer, a digital still
camera or camera phone, and a microphone. The editing can be done with
simple software such as Windows Movie Maker (free on all Windows XP
and Vista machines) or iMovie (free on all new Macs).
 
A site with extensive technical information on video slideshows,
including step-by-step tutorials can be found at
http://www.deepmoat.com/moodle/
 
Theme of the Contest: School Life
This theme should be interpreted as including topics such as school
clubs, school festivals, school friendships, etc. Entries may be
authored by a single student or by groups of up to four students. Only
one submission per student or group will be accepted.
 
Basic Requirements: All authors must be high school students. None of them must have lived
in Japan for more than a year. Teachers can advise students but cannot
be authors. All videos must be composed of still images accompanied by Japanese
narration. They must be suitable for all audiences. Opening and end
titles are required and must also be in Japanese (romaji is
permissible). Transitions, the Ken Burns effect, and other special
effects are permitted. On the videos, students' must be identified
only by their first names. Family names, addresses, and other
sensitive personal data must NOT be included. The script and all
images must be original and created by the entrants themselves. Music
is optional. If included, it must be legal and properly credited.
"Legal" music means a piece that is either out of copyright,
copyright friendly (such as Creative Commons licensed pieces from jamendo.com or
podsafeaudio.com), or composed and played by the students who make the
video.
 
Video format: wmv or mov. Videos submitted in formats other than wmv
or mov will not be considered. Those who are creating in other formats
are welcome to use online converters such as media-convert.com or
zamzar.com to get their piece into one of those two formats.
Length of entries: minimum 2 minutes 30 seconds; maximum 3 minutes 30
seconds. Files should not exceed 30 MB.
 
Deadline for submissions: 11:00 p.m., Japanese Time, on November 30,
2008. No entries can be accepted before 8:00 a.m., Japanese Time, on
October 1, 2008. To find out the corresponding time in your time zone,
you may wish to use the converter at
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html.
 
How to submit: All videos must be submitted by teachers. To submit,
please use a free file delivery service such as YouSendIt.com. In the
"To" box, please type the following address: videocontest@kwassui.ac.jp
Do not send videos as email attachments.
 
Teachers will also need to send a separate confirmation email to videocontest@kwassui.ac.jp
containing the following information: teacher's name and contact email, school's name and address, title of the video, full name and grade of each student who authored the video.
[see full announcement for detailed judging criteria]

2008-07-06

pbs-Japan: Military Academy (July 8), Campaign for local elections (July 29)

intro blurb, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/japans-about-face/introduction/746/
In the aftermath of World War II, Japan's new American-authored constitution renounced the right to wage war and maintain military forces.
 
In recent years, though, the line between defense and offense has blurred. In 2004, Japan sent its Ground Self-Defense Forces to Iraq — the first deployment of Japanese soldiers in an active combat zone in 60 years.
 
With China's economy and military expanding and North Korea test-launching ballistic missiles into the Japan Sea, Japan has started reconsidering its regional strategy.
Today, Japan has a $40 billion military budget, the fifth largest in the world.

About the Film:
Japan's About-Face is a remarkable window into the shifting role of the military in post-war Japanese society.
WIDE ANGLE has acquired rare access to the National Defense Academy, Japan's "West Point." We follow Defense Academy cadets preparing for a future that may involve overseas deployment, and meet with a group of peace activists — some of them atom bomb survivors — on a grueling two month, 750-mile protest march from Hiroshima to Tokyo. We also witness joint maneuvers with the U.S. Marine Corps, surveillance flights over the Sea of Japan, and the DDH Hyuga — the first Japanese aircraft carrier built since WWII.
Japan's About-Face offers unprecedented insight into the future of Asian geopolitics.
 
VIDEO PREVIEW, http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/japans-about-face/preview/1272/
 
 
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
 

Campaign


by Kazuhiro Soda
Broadcast Date: July 29, 2008 at 10 PM (1 hour)
Check local listings



This is democracy — Japanese style. "Campaign" provides a startling insider's view of Japanese electoral politics in this portrait of a man plucked from obscurity by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to run for a critical seat on a suburban city council. Kazuhiko "Yama-san" Yamauchi's LDP handlers are unconcerned that he has zero political experience, no charisma, no supporters and no time to prepare. What he does have is the institutional power of Japan's modern version of Tammany Hall pushing him forward. Yama-san allows his life to be turned upside down as he pursues the rituals of Japanese electioneering — with both tragic and comic results. A co-presentation with the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM).


 
FILM PREVIEW, http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/campaign/index.html