Government of Japan has released guidance for agencies to certify that their Twitter accounts are truly the official accounts. I see some references to “the Japanese version of Twitter” and hope that they do not Galapagos that thing into an unworkable, walled-off, useful-only-to-Japan-and-therefore-useless “hinternet” system. So far, so good.
In fact, I have been pleasantly surprised by the recent development of high-quality, well-populated information in English from the Japanese government, at least in matters not directly pertaining to (ahem) the violent and menacing death throes of the stricken nuclear powerplant at Fukushima. Even there, I am finding that better information than what we think of as official and public is indeed available. The government seems to make lots of raw and evaluated data available online.
The government spokesmen may be of an older breed, stuck in that sing-song not-quite-lying this-conversation-is-over mode of communication which westerners over here find infuriating. The news media of course won’t call them on it; read about the Japan Press Club elsewhere. But even while the Kabuki of Dishonesty and Incompetence plays out on television and in print news, the online face of the Government of Japan is quietly approaching things from a far more open angle. And in English, even.
They are learning to draw dogs, at last.
