WIT Life #126: Dominance of video games and shared waters
Article/Journalism, Japan Trends, Translating/Interpreting, WIT Life 
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WITLife is a periodic series written by professional Writer/Interpreter/Translator Stacy Smith (Kumamoto-ken CIR, 2000-03). She starts her day by watching Fujisankei’s newscast in Japanese, and here she shares some of the interesting tidbits and trends together with her own observations.
Today’s NYT has two articles about Japan’s technology and relations with China. In the former, Hiroko Tabuchi discusses how the country’s once dominance of video games has been overtaken by Western game developer advances. The one exception is Nintendo, who has found great success with its Wii, but other companies are struggling in terms of economic resources and cultural understanding of what appeals to the international market (There is a growing gap in game styles between Japan and the West). Interestingly enough, in order to appeal to a global audience some video games are being written in scratch in English as opposed to relying on awkward translations from the original Japanese. The questions remains as to whether Japan can still produce star characters who can become the next Mario or Sonic.
On the political side, the second article talks about a dispute between Japan and China over a Chinese fishing boat captain recently being arrested by the Japanese Coast Guard in an area where there are competing territorial claims. Tensions are flaring as a seemingly small incident has had a huge spillover into other areas, leading to “mass cancellations of trips to Japan by Chinese tourists, as well as tensions over the possibility of drilling for natural gas in contested waters in the East China Sea.” It has become a test of will between the two neighbors as well as a symbol of Japanese anxieties regarding China’s increasing power and boldness. The captain is being held to be tried in Japanese court, and in response this weekend some Chinese gathered in front of Japanese diplomatic missions to commemorate the 79th anniversary of Japan’s invasion of northeast China.
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