Japanese Equivalent of The Economist?

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - Printable Version

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Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - TheVinster - 2015-05-18

Is there such a thing? Is Asahi the only option for somewhat interesting articles? Even then, I often feel overwhelmed by Asahi's site. Perhaps I'm giving The Economist too much credit for their content...?

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - yudantaiteki - 2015-05-18

I don't think you're giving it too much credit; the Economist is one of the best magazines (or "newspapers" as they call it) I've read, and it's well worth the high subscription price.

Unfortunately I can't answer your main question; I've never really made an attempt to read news or politics stuff in Japanese.

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - Ash_S - 2015-05-19

How about 日本経済新聞? http://www.nikkei.com/

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - TheVinster - 2015-05-19

Do you have an opinion about Nikkei, is it actually good?

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - yudantaiteki - 2015-05-19

Nikkei is probably closer to the Wall Street Journal than the Economist. Despite the name, the Economist is not as oriented towards finance/business as the WSJ is.

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - TheVinster - 2015-05-19

yudantaiteki Wrote:Nikkei is probably closer to the Wall Street Journal than the Economist. Despite the name, the Economist is not as oriented towards finance/business as the WSJ is.

Thanks for your help. I definitely like the Economist because of those very reasons. I'm looking for something similar to what the Economist provides but seems it's one of a kind in that regard. Typical Japanese news is just so bland and I can't stand it.

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - jimeux - 2015-05-19

I find most news sites bland as well. I think the print editions tend to have more in-depth stories, but I never buy them. Flipboard is pretty decent for finding readable content. That or some other aggregator might be a good option, since they tend to include magazines and content sources other than just newspaper sites.

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - harahachibu - 2015-05-19

I just downloaded and installed "SmartNews", an app that is the #1 news aggregator in Japan. You can change the settings to the Japanese edition. I literally just downloaded and tried it because this thread prompted me to try it out, but it might be one option.

Another option that is more click bait-y than the Economist is to read Huffington Post JP (http://www.huffingtonpost.jp/)

Still lower in quality would be Reddit's newsokur site: http://www.reddit.com/r/newsokur

All of these options seem to be a little less dry than just scanning Asahi, but I don't think of any of these as being really high quality articles. Still, I thought I would just drop these in here...

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - vileru - 2015-05-21

yudantaiteki Wrote:Despite the name, the Economist is not as oriented towards finance/business as the WSJ is.

While you're correct to say that the Economist is less finance-oriented than WSJ, I don't think that's in spite of its name. Almost all of the article's in the Economist, even the biographical ones, have economic significance. The Economist isn't for some quant who's just crunching numbers all day or a trader looking for signs that a stock will take off. It's for global corporate strategists looking for a bird's eye view of business climates, trends, and opportunities throughout the world.

Edit: in the spirit of staying on topic, I recommend checking out the app called "たてコラム". It updates daily with every major newspaper's 天声人語-like column. Also, more so than newspapers, Japanese magazines tend to have interesting, full-length articles. I remember staying a ryokan in Kusatsu, and the cover story was an article on neuroscience by Ken Mogi. I was so absorbed reading it that I didn't notice everyone else was waiting for me so they could head to the baths.

Just go to a random bookstore and check out the magazines and start reading anything that looks interesting. I'm sure you'll find something you like. Of course, this method only works while you're in Japan. Unfortunately, most of the good content in Japanese is still print-only, but there are some high quality blogs out there if you're willing to dig around.

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - yudantaiteki - 2015-05-22

vileru Wrote:
yudantaiteki Wrote:Despite the name, the Economist is not as oriented towards finance/business as the WSJ is.
While you're correct to say that the Economist is less finance-oriented than WSJ, I don't think that's in spite of its name. Almost all of the article's in the Economist, even the biographical ones, have economic significance. The Economist isn't for some quant who's just crunching numbers all day or a trader looking for signs that a stock will take off. It's for global corporate strategists looking for a bird's eye view of business climates, trends, and opportunities throughout the world.

Technically any news can have economic significance, but their international and "local" news coverage isn't economics oriented. I have little interest in finance or business but I read the Economist every week for the news coverage.

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - TheVinster - 2015-05-22

vileru Wrote:
yudantaiteki Wrote:Despite the name, the Economist is not as oriented towards finance/business as the WSJ is.
While you're correct to say that the Economist is less finance-oriented than WSJ, I don't think that's in spite of its name. Almost all of the article's in the Economist, even the biographical ones, have economic significance. The Economist isn't for some quant who's just crunching numbers all day or a trader looking for signs that a stock will take off. It's for global corporate strategists looking for a bird's eye view of business climates, trends, and opportunities throughout the world.

Edit: in the spirit of staying on topic, I recommend checking out the app called "たてコラム". It updates daily with every major newspaper's 天声人語-like column. Also, more so than newspapers, Japanese magazines tend to have interesting, full-length articles. I remember staying a ryokan in Kusatsu, and the cover story was an article on neuroscience by Ken Mogi. I was so absorbed reading it that I didn't notice everyone else was waiting for me so they could head to the baths.

Just go to a random bookstore and check out the magazines and start reading anything that looks interesting. I'm sure you'll find something you like. Of course, this method only works while you're in Japan. Unfortunately, most of the good content in Japanese is still print-only, but there are some high quality blogs out there if you're willing to dig around.

I can go to a nearby Kinokuniya here in America for print magazines. It's not huge (it's in a Japanese market), but they have a magazine section. Do you have recommendations for print?

The downside is I can't use rikaikun, so that slows down things a bit; however, still doable.

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - vileru - 2015-06-07

Sorry, my memory is coming up blank. It's easy to spot which magazines carry more "sophisticated" articles, though. They tend to have cleaner designs and the written information on their covers are more descriptive and less sensational. Here's an example of a magazine you might be interested in. You can search through this site to familiarize yourself with different magazines and the types of covers they have. Anyway, I recommend just flipping through magazines until you find one you like. At least for me, one of the joys of shopping in a brick-and-mortar bookstore is the surprise of finding what's out there.

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - TheVinster - 2015-08-30

I wanted to bump this real quick because I was thinking of trying a month subscription to Yomiuri, Asahi, or something similar. Has anyone tried these digital newspapers and have recommendations based off of that, or an opinion on if they used it often enough to justify the purchase (it's kind of expensive).

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - ktcgx - 2015-08-30

I would recommend nippon.com. It's not economics focussed, but it does a lot of interesting reporting on issues in Japan and the wider region. It publishes articles each article in several languages, though I think some are still Japanese-only, or English-only. However, if you get stuck reading the Japanese version, you can always switch it to English.

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - anotherjohn - 2015-08-30

vileru Wrote:Here's an example of a magazine you might be interested in.

On the front cover: ... ノーム・チョムスキーに聞く

Pass :|

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - harahachibu - 2015-10-15

The BBC has just launched a Japanese-language version of its site. It may be worth a look:

http://www.bbc.com/japanese

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - Stansfield123 - 2015-10-15

The Economist is different from the average newspaper in a couple of ways. It is aimed at an educated audience (it uses more precise and sophisticated language), but it also has a very specific (moderately liberal - liberal in the European sense of advocating relative freedom, not in the US sense of advocating economic and even social repression) political agenda.

Which are you looking for? The high brow writing, or the political agenda?

Japanese Equivalent of The Economist? - NickT - 2015-10-15

エコノミスト (週刊) is quite good I think. Not as good as The Economist, but I have a few recent issues on the Greek debt crisis and the recent Chinese stock market turmoil, which I quite enjoyed reading.

You can see some of the covers here: https://goo.gl/hEgN7G