KWPro.net

I saw this and had mixed feelings.  While it's true that the content for WaiWai was racy and very crude, I did find them interesting, albeit it does give a poor impression of the Japanese society on a whole.  I think it sucks big time that they removed the column entirely because in some ways, you don't want to just read about their latest generic pitcher throwing some ball for a US team or how some mom made cookies for her kids.  It's nice having edgy stuff once in a while, even if it doesn't represent everyone.

Censorship in any form is a bad thing (well I hate useless comments on the net but heck that's what gives me my paycheck at the end of the day).  The thing is that this is a huge form of censorship about Japan and its imagery.  I think the Japanese want to promote just their temples, food and arts culture much in the same way America likes to enforce itself as the world's police man.  But there's a lot of underground aspects to Japan that makes it gritty and less pristine.  This is a good thing in reality because those other images are archaic and for historians.

This situation reminds me of the old English teachers that want their students to worship Shakespeare and Chaucer for their poetic artistry, but not really expand the relevance to current issues.  Yeah, we know Shakespeare and Chaucer are great, but tell us why and how they pertain to me in 2008.  With Japan, templates, sushi and some silly theater are just one aspect of Japan.  There's enormous amounts of subcultures that are virtually hidden because like many other countries, they only want to glorify their equivalent of Renaissance periods.

I wasn't a huge fan of these columns but I think it's a travesty to Japan and speech that they did this.  Well, hopefully other sites will open up some interesting gossip.  I mean, it exist everyone and people really aren't angels as they'd like people to believe.