Japan Navigator

What are the best blogs on Japan? Those providing real, tangible content, strong opinions, useful information – in a well-written format – and not to forget with frequent postings!

What Japan Thinks had a reader’s poll at the end of last year, with interesting results, but I feel challenged to formulate my own best ten – based on daily readings of numerous blogs on Japan. By the way, all ten are on the same level – a shared first place.

Blogs on Japanese society and politics (3):
- Observing Japan, also in the What Japan Thinks poll the best “serious” blog.
The author, Tobias Harris, does a terrific job with 547 solid posts in 2007 alone.
I would like to add
- Shisaku and
- Ampontan.
Shisaku is obviously a close one with 470 posts and on top of that, he is just as shrewd an observer of the political scene. When you read these two blogs, you do not need a newspaper anymore.
Talking about journalism, Ampontan (Bill Sakovich) is great for the sharp dissection of the nonsensical and biased stuff the English press usually produces in their writings on Japan (in addition, there are fun posts on matsuri).

(Runners up are Global Talk 21 and Global Voices. That last blog is especially interesting as the author Chris Salzberg translates opinions he finds in Japanese blogs.)

Blogs on art, design and film (2). I missed this category in the poll of What Japan Thinks. First place goes to:
- PingMag, the online design magazine (not really a blog perhaps, but…).
Itself beautifully designed, PingMag finds design in areas you would never have thought of. The second winner is
- Jason Gray, for the insights he provides in Japanese film.

Blogs on Japanese technology (2). Here a prize should definitely go to
- Pink Tentacle, for its solid articles and beautiful, original design.
I also want to put
- What Japan Thinks in this category – it is after all a blog on opinion polls, also something more or less technical… What Japan Thinks deserves praise for an original idea that is obstinately pursued and interesting content.

Blogs on Japanese culture (2)
- Japan Probe and
- Japundit are two of my long-time favorites – both sites have posts about all aspects of Japanese culture, including subculture, and often with a humorous twist.

Personal blogs (1).
Here I opt for
- Mari Diary (Watashi to Tokyo).
In her daily posts she demonstrates a very original take on Japanese culture and introduces websites you would otherwise never have thought of.

That is already ten, but I have one more blog/category. A special bonus goes to the category Humerous blogs in the form of
- Tokyo Times, tongue-in-cheek humerous notes on life in Japan by Lee Chapman. Runner-up (for posting less frequently) is An Englishman in Osaka.