Obituary: Mainichi WaiWai

WaiWai is dead. WaiWai, we hardly knew you.

I like Yomiuri’s article on the matter, which says (in part):

The corner reportedly began carrying sensationalized stories on dubious topics containing seriously vulgar expressions over at least the past six years, with headlines such as “Fast food sends schoolgirls into sexual feeding frenzy.”

Yes, WaiWai, you will be missed. I guess us bloggers will have to pick up the slack, but it’ll be hard for us to match the style with which you brought all the crazy stuff from Japan to an international audience.

23 thoughts on “Obituary: Mainichi WaiWai”

  1. The astonishing thing is that Waiwai existed for YEARS! I don’t know exactly how long, but easily half a decade. I feel like I may have even seen Waiwai before I first came to Japan back in 2002. It was often entertaining, and probably well over 50% fictional. It probably drew a lot of readers to the web site, but the content was to tabloidishly lowbrow there is little doubt in my mind that it caused serious damage to the international reputation of one of Japan’s major national newspapers.

    Did you notice this?

    In late May, the Mainichi Daily News editorial department began receiving complaints about the stories in WaiWai being too vulgar and an Internet bulletin board began criticizing the column.

    Does this sound to anyone else like the work of 2ch?

  2. I’ll just state the obvious: “anonymous mass of opinion on the intarwebs” does not always mean “2ch” or 2channelers.

    I occasionally come across some 2ch pages while searching and read some of the pages (some are very informative btw), but I’ve never participated because I’m too busy writing my blogs and reading other blogs and comments.

    Anyway, I’m just disappointed that one of the “journalistic” newspaper relied on traditional method (sexualities and sensationalism) to gather page views.

  3. But… where do we turn to for gems like these now ?

    “Porn filmed in Japanese McDonald’s? I’m rubbin’ it!”

  4. WaiWai was around in the early 90s at least, I used to catch it when I was living in Osaka. It was a full page in the now-defunct MDN, appeared on weekends if memory serves me right.

  5. statiq,

    It should be covered by a independent blog or something. Come to think of it, I wonder I should start one.. Seems like there is a HUGE demand for such stories…

    But the problem with the Mainichi stories is that there seemed to be some exaggerations and fabrications here and there… The anime author who were portrayed as “hentai pedophile” anime author in the column now pissed at Mainichi.

  6. I can only hope Ryann Connell will have a blog. With enough advertising he could make as much money as Mainichi was paying him, if not more…

  7. Hey Joe. This is a bit on the more unrelated topic, so I hope you don’t mind. I really need some advice on getting to Japan. I just got back from my third trip to Japan last week, I absolutely love it and have been looking to go to college in Japan. I was just wondering if you have any tips on basically my whole voyage over there. I have looked into going to Temple University Tokyo Campus. I would be more suited for that school because the classes are taught in English, although I plan on learning more Japanese when I arrive over in Japan. Do you know at all how to survive over in Japan on a student budget, that is probably what will be most handy. Anyways sounds great over there and you lead a very fortunate lifestyle.
    Thanks,
    Jake

  8. OK,guys,here’s Sydney Morning Herald claiming all the stanpede was caused by a Japanese blogger”Mozu”who also comments here.
    http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/japan-rails-at-australians-tabloid-trash/2008/07/04/1214951041660.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

    Here’s his blog with quote on Neojaponisme discussion.Marxy’s and my comments are quoted.
    http://rockhand.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2008/04/post_6f5f.html

    So it seems to be the story spreads like follows.
    Waiwai-Marxy-Mozu-2ch-MDN-Ryan Connell-“Bomb!”

  9. The problem with Waiwai is what it was on the Mainichi’s website. After hearing about the end of Waiwai, I’ve finally realized that Waiwai conditioned me to never take the Mainichi seriously- and I absolutely never go to it for real news, even in the Japanese version.

  10. And according to one of the best selling shukanshi,Weekly Shincho,lots of ad clients including Nissan,Kirin and Fujitsu are leaving MDN for good.(however,one must take this info with grain of salt since Mainichi had sued Shincho over the article on Mainichi CEO being abducted over inner struggle with in the company in Feburary)

    http://www.asahi.com/special/mainichi-kankin/TKY200402270344.html

    Now,the new Mainichi CEO was the man in charge of Mainichi degital news.

    http://www.j-cast.com/2008/06/28022609.html

    Hmmm,I smell something.
    Maybe it wasn’t just some hot headed 2channeler behind this….

  11. This is strictly my imagination.

    The suspect and five others who had conducted abduction of former Mainichi CEO are from Nagoya,The leader is coffee bean wholesaler to one of Mainichi owned hotel in Nagoya and demanded to renew the contract and took naked picture of CEO and threatened to spread it around.

    Mainichi has sustained the press disclosure of this incident for more than a month,and for that they were criticized by the other medias.Mainichi explained that they were concerened about the background relation of the incident,meaning Mainichi didn’t believe coffee beans contract was not the real motivation for the crime.They believed there was something else.

    Now,according to Shincho article,Mainichi circulation has been declining.Yet,they have huge realestate in Nagoya area and the income from such estates sustain the company and it’s proportion in the annual income is rising.

    The real estate price in Nagoya is on the rise and now in a state of bubble.Nagoya is one of few city in Japan that see steady growth even in the “lost decade” since TOYOTA is based in the city.Now TOYOTA is moving their headquarter from Toyota city to center of Nagoya,in a skyscraper called Nagoya Midland Square that locates in the center of the city and because of that the real estate price has skyrocketed. This Midland Square is built on the property of Mainichi Shimbun.

    And now this scandal over Waiwai,I was wondering why it has to be now,for Waiwai was around for years.

    In our industry,usually the change in personnel are in June,so are stockholder mwwting.In another words,if anyone wants to blackmail Mainichi,now is the best time of the year.
    By connecting the dots and I see a hypothesis.

    Call me a conspiracy theorist,but something tells me Waiwai controversy is a set up.

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