Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japan/Archive/April 2008

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Contents

Translation request for Christian Polak

I've removed a translated quote from the first paragraph of the article, put it on the talk page and explained why I'm concerned about the accuracy of the translation. If someone who is so far uninvolved could confirm the accuracy, that would be extremely helpful in the current AfD of the article, not to mention the accuracy of this bit of the article. The AfD will probably expire on April 4. Any help from someone who really knows the ins and outs of the Japanese language would be appreciated. Noroton (talk) 20:08, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

It won't help with the AfD after all. If the article is kept, please help with it. Noroton (talk) 16:39, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Several questions related to the Japan Air System article

Hi! I thought this article would need a boost. So...

  • 1. What is the reading of the kanji for Toa Domestic Airlines? (東亜国内航空)
  • 2. There was a documented Boeing 777 design contest involving several famous judges. Now, what are the kanji for the following judges? Masuo Ikeda, Kenshi Hirogane, and Yusuke Kaji. In addition, I would also like the kanji of the winner, Masatomo Watanabe.

WhisperToMe (talk) 22:47, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

I added the reading for 東亜国内航空 (Tōa Kokunai Kōkū). Douggers (talk) 00:51, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
Thank you very much :) WhisperToMe (talk) 01:45, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
Masuo Ikeda is 池田満寿夫. I think it's not Hirogane but Hirokane. And Kenshi Hirokane is 弘兼憲史. Oda Mari (talk) 15:03, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
I redirected Kenshi Hirogane to Kenshi Hirokane WhisperToMe (talk) 19:57, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

Anyway here is the archived Japanese page but I am not sure if it is still legible http://web.archive.org/web/19970131065504/www.jas.co.jp/new777/index.htm WhisperToMe (talk) 20:04, 3 April 2008 (UTC)

It was legible. Yusuke Kaji is 梶 祐輔 and Masatomo Watanabe is 渡部 真丈. Oda Mari (talk) 09:23, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
Thank you :) WhisperToMe (talk) 19:07, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Main page nomination for Manzanar

With the 39th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage coming up on April 26, I have nominated Manzanar to be on Wikipedia's main page on that date. Please add your support for that at Today's featured article requests. Thank you! -- Gmatsuda (talk) 21:14, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

"Seitō" - title translation help required

I am wondering whether the article currently named Bluestockings Journal should be moved to Bluestocking (journal); is "journal" really part of the title? Any help appreciated, Skomorokh 21:35, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

I know nothing about the article in question, but the word 青鞜 only means "bluestocking," and does not include "journal." Torsodog (talk) 21:48, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
Thank you very much for your prompt reply. Skomorokh 21:52, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
Should the title of the magazine being translated or left in Japanese, being a proper name? Also, what is the purpose of writing "journal" instead of "magazine"? Fg2 (talk) 22:15, 4 April 2008 (UTC)
The article refers to it once as a magazine and once as a journal - I don't have firsthand knowledge of the subject so I chose to stick with the precedent. As regards English vs Japanese titles, according to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (use English), the most commonly used English version of the name of the subject is preferred in general. Also, the difficulty of typing the name in Japanese on Western keyboards counts against the Japanese title. I'm not certain on the language issue, however, as we have lots of articles which use foreign titles (Die Welt, for example). Skomorokh 22:40, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Japan

I revised the subcategories of Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Japan to allow Wikipedian photographers to add their names and have others contact them for a photo request. Thanks. GregManninLB (talk) 23:28, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

CJKV taskforce

The CJKV taskforce has been created to assist in disambiguation of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese when using Kyūjitai, Hanja, Hán tự, Simplified Chinese, and Shinjitai (Kanji). If you wish to participate, please come and help out. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:56, 5 April 2008 (UTC)

Characters for the three airlines that merged into JDA?

I found another archived page from the old Japan Air System website: http://web.archive.org/web/19970131070913/www.jas.co.jp/jai1.htm

It should contain the kanji of the following airlines: "Nittoh Airlines Co., Ltd., Fuji Airlines Co., Ltd. and Kita Nihon Airlines Co., Ltd."

They merged into Japan Domestic Airlines - that airline merged with Toa Airways to form Toa Domestic Airlines, which became Japan Air System.

What is are kanji for Nittoh, Fuji, and Kita Nihon? WhisperToMe (talk) 00:07, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Hi WhisperToMe, The Japanese Wikipedia article ja:日本エアシステム has a section 東亜国内航空時代および以前 which lists the following Japanese: For Nittoh or NAL, 日東航空; for Fuji or FAL: 富士航空; for Kita Nihon or NJA: 北日本航空. Best regards, Fg2 (talk) 00:28, 6 April 2008 (UTC)
Thank you :) WhisperToMe (talk) 00:46, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

Image locations

Last July, we had a conversation about location maps, and the ability to overlay labels based on the gps coordinates. The map which was used was a standard 30-degree projection, which includes much more than just Japan. Nuclear_power_in_Japan#Nuclear_Power_Plants is an example that shows both how the overlays can be used, and the expanse of the map.

I tried to create a cropped map, with results at {{Japan nuke plant map3}}. The map is temporary, but, given the way the location map works, I had to put it the mainspace and not a sandbox.

I think the boundaries of the map could use some cleaning up; but, it may also be a limit of my methodology. Something niggling at the back of my head tells me that you can't just linearly crop a projection and have the math work out. There are way too many trig functions at Mercator projection for me1; and, I'm not even sure that the base map is in fact a Mercator.

1. When an engineer says that there is too much math.... look out

Should we just accept the fact that the map will be large, until WPJ gets a math major to sign on to the project? Neier (talk) 11:44, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

How reliable is "SamuraiWiki"?

WP:SOURCE tells us about sources:

[S]elf-published books, newsletters, personal websites, open wikis, blogs, forum postings, and similar sources are largely not acceptable.

(My emphasis.) Does SamuraiWiki qualify? I hazily infer that anyone can become an editor if they demonstrate a serious interest and look serious. This is more demanding than (and in my unfashionable, minority view a lot better than) Wikipedia, but it doesn't suggest the level of scrutiny to which conventionally published work -- let alone material in academic journals and books from university presses -- is subjected.

(The timing of this message was prompted by the new article Inaba Masanari.) -- Hoary (talk) 04:14, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I agree. Especially in light of the frequent use of this wiki by User:Exiled Ambition, and the fact that whatever errors they make, he retains in his paraphrases of the SamuraiWiki articles-- and by his own admission, he knows no Japanese, so he cannot cross-check with Japanese sources. I have to question the wisdom of duplicating data from SamuraiWiki onto the English Wikipedia, errors and all. This is not to belittle the work done there, it's just that if we're making an encyclopedia here, I think the point is to try to reduce inconsistencies and errors, not retain them. I think that it might be better to at the very least take SamuraiWiki with a grain of salt, and at most avoid using it altogether, since it'd just be duplicating stuff that's already accessible in English, if one only makes use of Google. -Tadakuni (talk) 04:21, 7 April 2008 (UTC)
Frequent use, yes. If citation of SamuraiWiki is a problem (and unless I misunderstand its nature it is a problem), then it's a big one. SamuraiWiki is already cited a lot. -- Hoary (talk) 06:10, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

I understand your consideration of the present circumstances involving SamuraiWiki, and I will admit that such a source has contradicted itself on a few claims here and there, but these are usually nothing more than a conflict between one person or another who share the same respective name. Even though knowing that such a source is a wiki, and forthwith making it unconventional and initially unreliable, this wiki's information had been established by means of its hosting site, Samurai Archives; and I have heard that the webmaster used the Nobunaga's Ambition video game series' index information for whatever claims he had allocated to Samurai Archives. Each article that is written on SamuraiWiki never possess any opinionated claims or information that seems out of context to the present circumstances that are stated; besides this, whatever is stated can easily be contradicted or backed by other respective sources, so if their claims denied any true level of credibility, you would be ensured that at least one or two would have either presented evidence in retortion to the articles that I am distributing or Samurai Archives itself. Knowing that such a case has never become existent, I wouldn't try getting too convoluted with the present: Only one or two other sources--either from an English or Japanese Google--would be needed as a verification. User:Exiled Ambition 7 April 2008 (EST)

First, I don't understand how a wiki's information (perhaps you mean the reliability of its information) can be established by means of its hosting site. Or what you mean by "allocating" claims to a website (making claims on it?). Or why anyone should trust as a guide to the real world information collected for or derived from a video game.
I don't fully understand your last sentence. Perhaps you're saying that what's written in SamuraiWiki is open to dispute; and that since there has been no dispute, we can infer that it is reliable. If this is indeed what you are saying, then I disagree. Whether out of ignorance, incompetence, carelessness or even malice, people can write junk in wikis; and every scrupulous editor of Wikipedia is painfully aware that some people do just this.
We're talking here about a large (and I think growing) number of articles on Wikipedia that purport to present the historical fact. For historical articles, the editors of Wikipedia are supposed to use credible historical sources. The relevant policy page of Wikipedia expressly disallows open wikis as sources. So one question is of whether -- or rather, to what extent -- SamuraiWiki is an open wiki. Additionally, of the extent to which what's written there is actually written by the webmaster, and of the credibility (historical expertise, etc.) of this webmaster. For a start, who is the webmaster, and what are his or her academic or other historical credentials? -- Hoary (talk) 23:58, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Evidently, it seems that Samurai Archives isn't comprised of a single webmaster; it possesses multiple heads that have regularly contributed to its foundation for almost an entire decade. The only individual from such an administrating group that I know of is a person who calls himself "Kuuzo"; and I don't believe he possesses many academic credentials towards Samurai Archives' information, nor does he contribute to it by any real means. Regardless of this, it seems that this site is reliable: Their associates have supported in the publishment of a book known as 'Japan and Her People'; they have also stated in SamuraiWiki that no random person can become an editor of their page, but must be approved by the administrating group. Having survived for such a long time and hosting additional means of inquiry such as Yahoo groups and forums I believe constitutes credibility, so I wouldn't worry. User:Exiled Ambition April 7 2008 (EST)

So how does somebody become a contributor to SamuraiWiki? I'm a samurai ignoramus, but given an hour to prepare I imagine that I can present myself as above averagely informed in such matters, can manicure my prose and check my spelling and (pardon my self-flattery) come off like somebody who'd be more helpful to SamuraiWiki than the average newbie is to Wikipedia. Would I be accepted as a contributor? (I hope not.)
Wikipedia too survived for quite a long time without any major embarrassment until the Seigenthaler incident. That problems aren't known doesn't mean there aren't problems -- which of course is also true of academic publications, but if a book is published by XYZ University Press then the multiple levels of vetting involved mean that chances are very high that the book is competent, sane and honest.
Amazon.com suggests that Japan and Her People is a book first published in 1902 and republished in association with Samurai-archives.com and Culturetype.com (Jetlag press) in 2007: the book sounds good and the republication sounds careful and commendable, but it really does nothing to support the expertise in much earlier matters of the people running the website, who you anyway say aren't the people contributing material to it. -- Hoary (talk) 01:22, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
Hoary: Try it. Do it as a test to see how the source works. WhisperToMe (talk) 04:00, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
I don't want to do so, for several reasons. And if I did do so I probably wouldn't be able to say more than LordAmeth has said immediately below. -- Hoary (talk) 06:08, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
As a contributor to the SamuraiArchives Wiki, I apologize to say this, but I really don't think it should be taken as a reliable source by itself. Becoming a contributor is certainly more difficult than on Wikipedia - I don't know the ins and outs of the screening process, but there is one - but even so, I get the impression that there are few of us who are professional scholars, and speaking for myself at least, I have rarely the time or resources to properly back up what I write with the fully appropriate number of cross-checked sources. It's a great site, and the people who work on it are serious, and work hard, but ultimately there's really not all that much making it that much more verifiable than Wikipedia. It strives to be, and Kuuzo aims to be far stricter on referencing, cross-checking, citing sources, but the project is still in its infancy, and I wouldn't say this has really come to pass. In any case, I think that while one should be able to read articles on there and trust them for one's own knowledge, it is not by any means a proper formal academic professional site, and cannot be regarded as a reliable source to be cited for Wikipedia. The danger of reproducing errors is too great, and the horrendous grammar, sentence structure, and word choice that continue to show up in Exiled Ambition's contributions, almost without exception, make the point moot in any case. It may be cruel to say it, and I apologize for that, but his contributions really only serve to lower the overall level of accuracy, professionalism, readability of the samurai history content of Wikipedia as a whole, on the average. LordAmeth (talk) 05:15, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I have tried to politely bring this to his attention in the past (see here, for instance), and while he has assured me that he would try to change, I have not seen any change. His reasoning is rather confusing, e.g. For the case involving the wording of many of my sentences, I suppose that a higher amount of simplicity could be enforceable, but only if it still elaborates a sophisticated presentation to the information being told, thus not ultimately following Wikipedia's pretentious views on generalization. I'm trying to understand his logic, but I can't quite follow it-- is it "yes, I should simplify my writing, but only if it still conveys the right information, but that would be breaking the rules"? Huh? Just thought I'd point all that out. -Tadakuni (talk) 05:32, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Exiled Ambition's prose is separate from the credibility of SamuraiWiki. I'd agree that the former is an issue, but it's not one that I wanted to bring up. Still, it has been brought up, so: Exiled Ambition, I can't believe that you talk like this, and I'd advise you to try writing in the same way that you speak (merely deleting repetitions, false starts, etc.). The result might be slightly odd, but it should be clear. -- Hoary (talk) 06:08, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
(Sorry for going off-topic there... -Tadakuni (talk) 06:11, 8 April 2008 (UTC))
I'll make one final comment/restatement of my views on this issue, and that pretty much will be what I have to say on this. In my opinion, aside from the issue of it being a wiki, I feel like there would be less of a problem with this resource, if people actually had easier access to references for cross-checking. Thing is, some of the people covered by Exiled Ambition's articles are so minor in history that there is not much that can be found on the internet, and one has to hope that someone with access to a good East Asia-related library will maybe, maybe plug in a suitable resource somewhere down the line. But in all probability that will take some time (and that's being rather optimistic, in my opinion). In a nutshell, my feelings on this can be summed up as: "quality, not quantity." Better a smaller group of better-cited, better-written articles, than a large mass of articles cited from pretty much one source (and a semi-open wiki, at that). Beyond this, I think that LordAmeth's comments above, which were appropriate as he is a contributor to SamuraiWiki, cover the issue of SW's credibility. And that, everyone, is all I have to say about that. -Tadakuni (talk) 06:19, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
I have to say I agree with you. Additionally, note that the content of SamuraiWiki remains freely available to anyone with a computer: conscientiously deriving material from it (e.g. via scrupulous summarizing) does little to make the material more accessible. The same thing wouldn't be true for a good book or three; I'm sorry that I can't make book recommendations for Exiled Ambition, but perhaps somebody else here can. -- Hoary (talk) 06:26, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I cannot agree with the fact that the articles that I write for Wikipedia denote any means of poor grammar: With the recent articles created, the information by itself is just as straightforward as its respective reference, and no additional means--original research, peacock terminology--are present at all; you could say that my articles are nothing less than fully generalized but at the same time apart from the reference that I used, and therefore presenting no evidence of plagiarism or unconventionality. Aside from justifying the safety of what I distribute from Samurai Archives by means of its presentation, I do agree with the fact that such a source does not constitute any true credibility, so the Japanese Wikipedia's corresponding articles should be analyzed first above all else, as they should, more than anything, fully rettain reliable referencing. User:Exiled Ambition April 8 2008 (EST)

The thrust of what's written above in this thread by everybody other than yourself is clear: SamuraiWiki is not a reliable source. (See in particular LordAmeth's comment starting As a contributor to the SamuraiArchives Wiki....) No matter how faithfully somebody summarizes the unreliable, it remains unreliable.
Although the articles in Wikipedia of any language should have good referencing, the facts are that (i) a very large percentage do not, (ii) many contain falsehoods, and (iii) en:Wikipedia explicitly disallows use of Wikipedia as a source: "Articles and posts on Wikipedia may not be used as sources." Please use reliable sources: those cited in the current version of Inaba Masanari may inspire you (although some of these strike me as disturbingly old). -- Hoary (talk) 23:51, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

In contrast to the credibility of Wikipedia's articles, you are correct; but when looking at the circumstances that surround the credibility of any random samurai page on the Japanese Wikipedia, wouldn't it be obvious that there exists a high probability that such information proves accurate? It would be nothing different from labeling variable figures that were present in a historical event corresponding to the history of America: Even with a need for accuracy, a larger incentive to ensure an absolute reference(s) to that material will be ensured, and for that reason it can be more initially valuable than another Japanese reference and easier to locate. User:Exiled Ambition 9 April 2008 (EST)

I don't understand much of your comment, but within it you appear to be defending the use of Wikipedia as a source. Yes, even if you're lucky enough to find yourself in a library with a good holding of reference works in Japanese, you may indeed find that an article on a given subject is easier to locate within ja:Wikipedia than in a good book in that library. You can call ja:Wikipedia "more valuable" than books if you wish, but doing so doesn't make ja:Wikipedia usable as a reference. Again, (1) Wikipedia explicitly disallows use of Wikipedia as a source: "Articles and posts on Wikipedia may not be used as sources." And SamuraiWiki is not acceptable as a source either: (2a) "[...] open wikis [...] are largely not acceptable" and (2b) LordAmeth's comments above starting "As a contributor to the SamuraiArchives Wiki". You haven't argued against (2b), while (1) and (2a) are both matters of policy and a challenge to either should be launched at Wikipedia talk:Verifiability (and would almost certainly fail). This thread has already gone on quite long enough; I trust that you will make no additional citations of SamuraiWiki. -- Hoary (talk) 00:30, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
If I might butt in at the tail end of this discussion for a suggestion... Exiled Ambitions, think of a Wiki article as only as good as its sourcing. If the Wiki articles you are using have good sources, forget about the article those editors have built up from those sourcies, but use those sources for your own editing. If the Wiki articles you are using have no sourcing, then, I'm afraid, they are basically about as valuable as a lecture from the pub know-it-all. Dekkappai (talk) 00:37, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

I first of all agree with the stated evidence that SamuraiWiki is conventionally unreliable and needs to be supplemented by sources that possess reinforced claims, and for that reason I have suggested to likewise use the Japanese Wikipedia's corresponding references of these samurai, as opposed to the articles themself. Second of all, we understand that as SamuraiWiki is itself unreliable, the information directly from its host--Samurai Archives--should be considered the replacement, as this information does hold greater weight on credibility when considering that it cannot be edited from anyone separate from the webmaster and his associates. Knowing this, you could hardly consider that such information could risk the probability to prove incorrect; and seeing that it is one of very few encyclopedias on the English Google that relate to Samurai history, we can confirm that the information it claims is more reliable than a variable reference taken from the Japanese Google, and for that reason it should be considered first above anything else. User:Exiled Ambition April 10 2008 (EST)

What makes you think that the webmaster of this site and his associates are experts? Whatever you mean by "a variable reference taken from the Japanese Google", use works from reputable publishers. It's that simple.
If you don't know which books to consult, borrow or buy, try asking in a new thread on this very talk page. (I cannot immediately make any suggestions because, as I have said earlier, I am ignorant of this subject area.) -- Hoary (talk) 06:41, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

As I stated previously, Samurai Archives is relatively the only encyclopedia of samurai history on the English Google; and in consequence to this, the webmaster and his associates must ensure that the information that they claim is absolute without any error, or otherwise others can easily violate their reputation and protest for change. Either way, why would the webmaster construct the site if he was initially unwary of his sources' credibility? Of course humiliation would only result, and that is why I press the evidence that only Samurai Archive's information is truly trustworthy, not SamuraiWiki.

In closing: Hoary, I am thankful that you have brought up this subject for verification and were willing to give your own time in consideration to it. Your actions have been noteworthy, and finding a source that retains greater credibility is indeed a definite necessity. User:Exiled Ambition April 12 2008 (EST)

As the only webmaster of samurai-archives.com, and the sole person responsible for letting anyone edit the samurai wiki (a closed wiki, there are no new editors - anything short of academic credentials or my personal knowledge of a person's work will not get someone in), I'll say that for the articles covered, I would be more likely to take wikipedia with "a grain of salt". (I'm also at a bit of a loss how Exiled Ambition could claim that I haven't done any of the work on my own website, but whatever). I would actually very much appreciate it if wikipedia stopped utilizing the samuraiwiki altogether, and would applaud the immediate banning of "Exiled Ambition" (Darin Fidika), who, as some here know, stole over 800 articles word for word from Samurai Archives.com and had to be deleted. That was a major event in wikipedia history - one author getting over 800 articles deleted for plagiarism. And yet here he is again. It should be a more well known episode in the history of wikipedia. The only reason he wants to be able to use samurai-archives.com is because it allows him to churn out horrible articles with bad grammar at an astounding rate (Am I the only one filled with the urge to slap him when faced with his poor grammar and haughty psuedo-intellectual writing style displayed in this thread? No? Didn't think so). All he's doing is taking my site and reproducing it without authorization. Now that we all know where Exiled Ambition (Darin Fidika) is coming from, I'll move on to the issue at hand. I officially request that samurai-archives.com and the samuraiwiki be deemed "not worthy" of wikipedia as an unreliable source. As such, I further request that all articles written by Darin Fidika that utilize the samurai wiki be deleted as unreliable. But, knowing wikipedia, his articles will stand as testament to both his inadequacies as a wikipedia editor, and as wikipedia's inability to act when bad articles are written. The theory that "some day, someone will edit this article to make it better" is fantasy, but whatever. That's just one of many things that wikipedia seriously needs to work on.
User:Darin Fidika (Exiled Ambition) has been a long time problem on wikipedia, has been banned twice, and used multiple sock puppets to get back in - now as "Exiled Ambition" (Yes, it is has already been officially established and accepted that they are the same person), and has always abused my website to churn out his shit on wikipedia. These issues that are being discussed now have been discussed over and over again with him. Nothing will change, things will continue to be stolen from my website from him, and he will continue to churn out shit articles because no one will take a stand. Admins User: Nihonjoe and User:Mangojuice are well acquainted with this menace - issues with him come up every few months, yet since it is always with different people and different admins, he always gets away with it. To allow Darin Fidika to continue on wikipedia in any capacity is criminal, and does little more than show how impotent and pathetic the "wikipedia community" is. As you can surely tell, I am so very sick of the problems that Darin Borat Fidika has caused me over the past two years, and am sick of no one doing anything about him. Please look at the Japan Military History page from early last year for details on Darin Fidika's plagiarism. I have no interest in looking for the links or continuing this discussion. Thank you for your time. C.West, webmaster, samurai-archives.com —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.91.223.120 (talk) 17:55, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
C.West, you seem to be referring to this discussion.
Plagiarism is a charge that is taken seriously hereabouts. Energy permitting, people here will look into it. But look, whether you think of Wikipedia as a worthy rival/successor to Britannica at the one extreme or merely a sick joke at the other, its policing (when there is any) is carried out by unpaid, tired, overworked people not so dissimilar to yourself. There's no reason to be polite to them/us, but a few diffs would be welcome. -- Hoary (talk) 15:33, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

The problem is open wikis - right? Well if it's by invite only then it's not open. John Smith's (talk) 23:14, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

The Wikipedia policy objection is to use of open wikis as a source, yes. But you may wish to consider the comment above by C.West/66.91.223.120 about plagiarism. -- Hoary (talk) 15:33, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
Is C.West's complaint here actually copyright violations rather than plagiarism? If so, we should look at the articles involved and make sure they are not copyvios. In any event, if we're not going to accept the Samurai archives website as a reliable source (and it sounds like we shouldn't), then the articles should be tagged with template:Citecheck or specific facts with template:fact as appropriate (at least some are already tagged). Are there enough of these that we need bot assistance? -- Rick Block (talk) 18:03, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
I know that Darin created a lot of copyright-vio articles in the past. I don't know how widely the wiki is cited/relied upon at the moment. John Smith's (talk) 18:18, 13 April 2008 (UTC)
Just to clarify everything: Fidika, now known as Exiled Ambition, was at one point indefinitely blocked for repeated violations of copyright. He evaded the block and started contributing under another name, but by the time it was brought to my attention, it had become clear that he had stopped violating copyright. Plagiarism is another concern, but E.A. has been diligent about crediting the source for his material... and it seems to me that if source credit is properly given, and the text is original, there is nothing to complain about. However, these articles are on such obscure topics that it may well be worth reexamining them from notability grounds... if only one reliable source exists, is that really sufficient? Mangojuicetalk 18:22, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Just want to jump in here. While patrolling the newly created pages, every so often, I see Exiled has created another article, and I generally tag the articles. We've gone back and forth a few times, but he always rewords or embellishes the articles enough that it evades copyvio. I've got a real problem with his embellishment and have so tagged the articles for OR. I've always sort of had a problem with the transwiki-ing from SamuraiWiki. Mango brings up a good point about notability, and I think that's something that this project needs to discuss. — HelloAnnyong (say whaaat?!) 05:17, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Wow, I have to say, this has been a very interesting story. I saw this topic a long time ago and paid no attention to it, only to come back to it tonight when I saw it was still being discussed. I read the whole topic, browsed many of the articles in question and looked at some user talk pages. Long read. Anyways, my 2 cents are these: There is no need for the influx of these one-source articles on the grounds of insufficient notability. Furthermore, the articles that ARE being created require a lot of clean-up in many different areas and end up causing more potential work for editors on topics that weren't notable in the first place. My advice to Exiled Ambition is to find topics in the samurai category that are indeed notable and have several references. Find/write the articles on these topics, spend some time on them and make them the best articles they can be. In my opinion, a much more noble effort than flooding wikipedia with mid-to-low quality articles not worthy of notice. Torsodog (talk) 06:21, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Alright, I will start off by using the references that Nihonjoe has laid out for me and forthwith use the http://tool.nifty.com/globalgate/ for any necessary translation of Japanese pages. If anyone knows of a translator that is reputed for greater accuracy--as GlobalGate does not possess an index for every kanji--then you have my thanks. User:Exiled Ambition 15 April 2008 (EST)

Please also try to write in real English, too. It's great that you're a master thesaurus user, but more than half the time you use the words incorrectly or improperly.
Please also keep in mind that simply rearranging words from another source (even one you clearly label as a source) is still plagiarism. In order to avoid plagiarism, you must have multiple sources (preferably 2 or more...more is better). You should then read all of the source material first and then write the article in your own words. Doing it this way makes it much less likely you'll be copying anything from any of the sources as your own words will be a mix of material from all of the sources. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Requested move: Utada Hikaru to Hikaru Utada

I have decided to make a move request for Utada Hikaru to Hikaru Utada. I do not know of any reliable sources that explicitly state that "Utada Hikaru" is more well known than "Hikaru Utada." Without these sources I would point to Wikipedia:MOS-JA and ask for a move to "Hikaru Utada." Discuss here: Talk:Utada_Hikaru#Requested_move WhisperToMe (talk) 22:24, 7 April 2008 (UTC)

Japan foreign marriage

Folks, there is a tag somewhere that requests an article put a section on a topic not covered by an article. In this case, it only covers Japanese men marrying non-Japanese women. A worthy counterpoint would be Japanese ladies with non-Japanese men. Anyone? Chris (クリス • フィッチ) (talk) 02:06, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

The article is an essay. It draws unsourced conclusions such as (in the lead section) "This is a largely a result of" based on cited facts about aging, fertility rate and availability of health care. While that may be true, it's not the function of a Wikipedia article to draw such conclusions. The next section opens with "It is difficult to identify a single direct cause for the practice of foreign brides because is it really the product of an environment. However, there are several factors which have contributed to the environment that fosters this practice." And subsequent sections also attempt to draw conclusions about causes.
The article also focuses on foreign women marrying Japanese men and living in Japan, specifically rural Japan. The topic is importation of brides. Missing or discussed less throughly are women who come to Japan for other reasons and marry Japanese men while there; women who marry Japanese men and live in urban areas or overseas; and as Chris noted men who marry Japanese women.
Lots of opportunities for rewriting. Fg2 (talk) 02:51, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
The article title is misleading. This should be at Mail order bride... TomorrowTime (talk) 07:37, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
Merge the non-essay stuff into the article on the mail order brides. User:Zscout370 (Return Fire) 07:50, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

JAL907 passenger list help

I found this web.archive.org page which has a list of passengers injured on JAL907: [1]

What are the kanji of the Japanese passengers? The names could be useful to find more testimony about the near mid-air collision. WhisperToMe (talk) 03:53, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I can't seem to get the page to come up. Can you cut and past the info here? ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:37, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
You may wish to try again in several hours - I'm not getting it either - For some reason web.archive is having issues... WhisperToMe (talk) 04:50, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
As of writing the page should be accessible. I think the characters only display properly on computers set to display Japanese or something - For some reason on English-set computers these archive articles do not display but other people say they can read the pages. WhisperToMe (talk) 06:33, 8 April 2008 (UTC)
It's in Shift JIS. Try forcing your browser to select it - there should be an "Encoding" item in the "View" or similar drop down menu in your browser. I'm putting the list here nonetheless, in case the server goes down again or something:

乗客負傷者

氏名（敬称略） 病院

　 　 　 1 飯田　朝美 タカノ病院

2 西　二見枝 蒲田総合病院

3 大内　昭子 蒲田総合病院

4 一力　敦子 市川第2病院

5 山崎　勝弘 市川第2病院

6 新妻　幸恵 北里大学

7 染谷　一夫 堀中病院

8 村岡　れいこ 東京労災病院

9 植村　冨美子 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

10 AMBROSE　ALLISON 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

11 WESCHE　MEGGAN 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

12 宮良　スエ 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

13 金城　仁 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

14 金城　雅美 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

15 金城　マオリ 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

16 高麗　千絵 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

17 細野　誠 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

18 坂本　昌子 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

19 山路　恭子 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

20 柴田　施子 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

21 上野　よし江 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

22 上野　賢一 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

23 城戸　二三子 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

24 清野　耕造 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

25 盛根　良一 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

26 西条　レイコ 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

27 染谷　美千子 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

28 染谷　喜代子 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

29 入江　美江子 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

30 野口　勝 治療後、ご帰宅またはホテル

Sorry about the length... TomorrowTime (talk) 07:29, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Thank you very much! This list apparently states (when I used Google translator) that eight people remained hospitalized while the other 22 were discharged. - It was released at 18:00 on February 1. WhisperToMe (talk) 16:25, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

I think I saw some testimony from a passenger here: http://saki.2ch.net/news/kako/981/981045603.html - I do NOT know if this was also posted in a reliable source (if so it should be mentioned in the article) - I saw this: "都内に入院中の主婦大内昭子さん（７２）（福島市）はベッドから身を起こし、長女の西二見枝 さん（５０）（東京都練馬区）と「もうあんな怖い思いはこりごり」" - Roughly translated on Google Translator it looks like testimony. If this is the case and *if this was published in a reliable source* this should be mentioned. WhisperToMe (talk) 22:34, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Shinpei Mykawa - Are there any records of him in Japanese?

According to this: http://www.heritagesociety.org/Hinton-Names%20of%20Houston%20Streets%20071907.pdf

"He was born in Aichi, Japan on December 1, 1874. He came to the U.S. as a naval officer representing his country in 1903 at the World’s Fair at St. Louis. Returning to Japan, he passed through Houston, and he noticed the countryside was perfect for growing rice. He immigrated to America, and he bought land near a little town called Erin Station, 10 miles south, and he established a rice farm. Unfortunately, on the April 24, 1906, he was killed when he fell underneath a piece of his agricultural equipment. He is buried in Hollywood cemetery. The tombstone on his grave is written in Japanese on one side and English on the other."

There is a picture of the gravesite - http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasGulfCoastTowns/MykawaTexas/MykawaTombstoneJapaneseInscription903.jpg - But is it of a good enough quality to get the kanji from it? WhisperToMe (talk) 03:45, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

I can't make out the first kanji, but the others are ??川真平の墓 (??kawa Shinpei no haka). Do you have any other pictures of the tombstone? ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:37, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
Hmm...I found another picture [2], but the first kanji is obscured (of course). I think it might be 前川真平, though, which would make sense for a Southern pronunciation to turn into Mykawa. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:47, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
Yes! See this article Fg2 (talk) 05:50, 10 April 2008 (UTC) which I located with this Google search Fg2 (talk) 05:52, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
Thank you very much! Do you think he is notable enough to get his own article? WhisperToMe (talk) 22:38, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
Given that they named a location, a street, and so on after him, I'd say so. He's also credited with introducing rice cultivation to Texas in the early 1900s. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:51, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
Here's another link to a pdf file: [3]. It seems to come from a source that is easier to verfiy. Douggers (talk) 03:07, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

I started Shinpei Mykawa - This website says that Mykawa attended Tokyo High School of Commerce, so surely this could be verified in a published source in Japanese, right? WhisperToMe (talk) 18:32, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Lakes and more lakes

Wikipedia already had List of lakes in Japan. On April 8 User:Manmaru started List of largest lakes in Japan with the same lakes. I suggest merging them. Fg2 (talk) 10:52, 10 April 2008 (UTC)

I agree. No reason to have two basically identical lists on the site. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:53, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Kanji of Hisaharu Yasui - Judge presiding over JAL 907 / JAL 958 case

What is the kanji of Hisaharu Yasui, the judge who presided over the JAL 907 / JAL 958 case. Hisaharu Yasui gave a ruling regarding the air traffic controllers involved, Hachitani and Momii. What is his kanji? WhisperToMe (talk) 08:52, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Yasui=安井 Hisaharu=久治 Torsodog (talk) 09:22, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
The not guilty verdict was overturned today. Fg2 (talk) 11:19, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the kanji! Man, it's strange how the verdict is now overturned... WhisperToMe (talk) 18:15, 11 April 2008 (UTC)
Turns out he has a Wikipedia article on JA, so I started Hisaharu Yasui on EN. WhisperToMe (talk) 19:10, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

Kanji of ANA Flight 61 pilot and copilot

What are the kanji of the pilot and copilot of All Nippon Airways Flight 61? Naoyuki Nagashima was the pilot and Kazuyuki Koga was the copilot. WhisperToMe (talk) 19:10, 11 April 2008 (UTC)

The pilot's name is 長島 直之. The copilot's name is 古賀 和幸. Oda Mari (talk) 14:03, 12 April 2008 (UTC)
Thank you :) WhisperToMe (talk) 17:17, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Sources for Samurai History

I have been using a site known as Samurai Archives for the sake of writing articles on samurai from the Sengoku Era; but seeing that the information it entails is quite generalized and doesn't elaborate some key credentials, I bring up the question as to whether there exist any other professional English sources that I could use. Japanese sources could also prove useful. Whoever can assist me in this cause will receive my utmost regards. User:Exiled Ambition April 12 2008 (EST)

You may find some useful sources at Wikipedia:WikiProject Japan/Reference library. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:51, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

You have my thanks, Nihonjoe. User:Exiled Ambition 12 April 2008 (EST)

Onna bugeisha

I have raised some concerns about the article over at Talk:Onna bugeisha. I would appreciate as many views as possible before I list for deletion. It may have potential, but I think it needs attention. Otherwise it might be best to delete it, as I don't see it really fulfilling any particular purpose. John Smith's (talk) 11:21, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Distinction between Kamakura and Kamakura-shi

While looking for material to expand the Kamakura, Kanagawa article I discovered that the Japanese site has two articles on the subject, one called "鎌倉市" which deal with the City of Kamakura, and therefore includes Ofuna and the rest of the territory, and another, longer article called simply　"鎌倉", which deals with only with Kamakura proper, the area within Kamakura's Seven Passes. I think it's a very good idea and that we should do the same, taking advantage of the copious material they have. I would start immediately working on it but, being new here, I would like to have some feedback on the subject. Urashimataro (talk) 02:39, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

If there is enough material to create two good articles, go for it. Be sure to include sources for the material (even if the Japanese articles don't have them). ···日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:28, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

OK, I will. Both articles are very long and detailed, have no references but those can be found. I think it would be best if I prepared both files offline and then upload everything at once. Thanks for the advice. Urashimataro (talk) 23:39, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

怪盜, kaitō - prodded

(怪盜, kaitō) Kaitō was on WP:PROD. 70.55.85.225 (talk) 06:38, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

Tanpopo

Apparently there was a recent launch from Tanegashima, and nothing here that I can find. JAXA needs to get their stuff more out there to the world, because almost all their stuff is in Japanese. I am told Tanpopo is the name of Japan's first manned spacecraft, which looks a lot like the old Mercury/Gemini capsules, but has a final stage built into the capsule. The mission logo apparently carries the images of the sisters from the anime Popotan, which is how kids mispronounce Tanpopo. Can anyone confirm/deny/write this? Chris (クリス • フィッチ) (talk) 08:53, 14 April 2008 (UTC)

I always use The Japan Times [4] to find this kind of stuff. But nothing related to this shows up when I did search with the keyword Tanpopo or JAXA. Are you sure you didn't just dream of this? because this would be such an incredibly great news :) -- Taku (talk) 09:01, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
Well, this one looks close to what you are talking about: "JAXA puts high-speed satellite Kizuna in orbit", 2008-02-24. . By the way, 2008 in Japan should be a place to put news pieces related to Japan. Unfortunately, the article is underused in my opinion. -- Taku (talk) 09:05, 14 April 2008 (UTC)
I looked for tanpopo and uchū, tanpopo and yūjin and some more combinations at academic and government sites and found a fair amount of stuff but it does not seem related to manned spacecraft. Fg2 (talk) 05:56, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Information about Teruzane Utada's career

Do Japanese articles written about Teruzane Utada that explain his career as a producer exist? The English articles needs a few more sources and I wonder what verifiable sources could be used to illustrate Utada's career? WhisperToMe (talk) 03:05, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Image:Mmodel.jpg

A rabid deletionist put this image up for deletion today "no rationale." Since the original uploader hasn't edited for two years, I put the rationale in myself, being a good sport. Within an hour this same rabid deletionist again tagged this for deletion, under "non-free use rationale is disputed." Whatever this guy's problem is, this is a useful illustration and I think it should be saved. Can anyone help? Chris (クリス • フィッチ) (talk) 00:50, 16 April 2008 (UTC)

Requesting feedback on updates Portal:Japan

I updated Portal:Japan by moving a couple of the sections around and enhancing the Topics listing. I got my initial start by referencing what was done over on the French Portal:Japan and went from there. I made sure that all original topics are included too in case anyone was wondering. I feel that some areas need resorting and possibly some are even too specific (military history around WWII). There is also some clean-up that I want to to like add FA stars next to qualifying articles and verify that none of the links are actually redirects. I'm also trying to even out the columns to avoid wasted space. On a side note, is anyone planning to monitor and update the "Japan News" section. I was wondering if it should just be phased out (or at least updated so the news isn't a year old). Let me know what you think. -JadeFox (talk) 05:18, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

I fully support this effort. I looked into editing and cleaning up the portal just days ago but got sidetracked. I'd be up for monitoring the Japan news section, but I'm not quite sure how it operates. Are they simply put there by someone who watches wikinews and then linked to the wikinews article with the older stories being purged? Let me know and I will happily do this task. Good luck with everything else regarding the portal. If you need any help let me know! Torsodog (talk) 05:28, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
Looks good. Keep up the good work. (^_^) ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:30, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
Agreed: Looks good. Thanks for doing this. I quit maintaining it when another user expressed the wish to make it a featured portal (I haven't had a lot of luck getting things featured). It'll be great to have it maintained again. Fg2 (talk) 11:32, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
I've started a Selected article page where Portal:Japan will grab new Selected articles to post on a weekly basis. It is a large task to fill it with 52 FA and GA articles, so feel free to add so we get get the queue filled ASAP. Torsodog (talk) 21:06, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the info, I'll probably work on that after I get the topics in a state that I'm happy with. I'll probably start by adding articles related to that week in the calendar year first and fill in the gaps after that. One side note, I added a temporary to-do list to the Portal:Japan talk page, feel free to add stuff that you're doing or would like other people to look at. -JadeFox (talk) 21:42, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Marusho

Found Marusho. It appears to be some sort of a project page but has a title that sounds like an article. Anyone know what should become of it? Fg2 (talk) 11:29, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

It looks as though it is a translation in progress; however, when I checked out the subpage on the Translation project, there was no indication it is being worked on actively. Since the history appears to indicate that the page was just created, I'd suggest adding an under construction banner to the top of the page and wait a week to is what happens. -JadeFox (talk) 21:49, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
I would suggest to simply put a speedy tag on it. Maybe the page was created by accident. In any rate, it's not an article in any Wikipedia sense. -- Taku (talk) 21:52, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
Looks like someone put a speedy tag on it — it's gone. Fg2 (talk) 23:50, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Katana

Someone seems to have massacred the katana article, and I'm not sure which version to revert to. --Starwed (talk) 11:09, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Eww, nasty. I'll have a bash at re-wording. If someone wants to try something else feel free. John Smith's (talk) 11:13, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
Ok, I've had a go. But the article needs some real work in regards to citations and expansion. John Smith's (talk) 11:25, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Shintaro Asanuma

I am working on Shintaro Asanuma on User:Kitty53/Test page. Can anyone help me, please?Kitty53 (talk) 19:41, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Samurai game images

While the broader topic encompasses much more than just samurai, recent additions to articles like Date Masamune#Masamune in popular culture and Oda Nobunaga#Oda Nobunaga in fiction prompted me to solicit views regarding the inclusion of copyright game images in articles about historical persons. Please add your comment to Wikipedia:Media copyright questions#Fair use of copyrighted drawings of historical figures if you are interested. Neier (talk) 09:20, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

My article

Okay, I created Shintaro Asanuma last night, and tagged it to be under construction, and I'm not sure if it is notable enough, yet, no one has tagged it for deletion. Does it seem obvious that it's notable enough?Kitty53 (talk) 15:07, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

I fiddled around a bit (wikified some, made some style corrections). Note that I have next to no knowledge on the subject, so I can't say anything about the article subject's notability. TomorrowTime (talk) 16:35, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

What is the most popular festival in Japan?

I'd like to place a picture of it on List of basic Japan topics, in the festival section.

By the way, the list needs editors familiar with Japan to look it over for quality and correctness.

The Transhumanist    20:47, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

One of the biggest in Tokyo is Sanja Matsuri, not sure about all of Japan, however. It does have some nice pictures to choose from though. And I see my Islands image made it over to that article. That didn't take long! Anyways, hope that helps. Torsodog (talk) 22:01, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
I have no idea what you mean with "popular". So my answer may vary depending on your interest. If you mean very known, either it is local or nationwide, a stats how many people visited would be a good reference.
And as such, Sanja Matsuri is one of the biggest and best known but it is anyway a festival of a local shrine. Not nationwide (Shinto has least nationwide feasts as other religions like Christmas or Ramadan). As such a local feast, I think one of the most famous one may be Gion Festival, a feast of Yasaka Shrine in Kyoto, cerebrated by the registered faithfuls of that shrine (compare with a patron saint feast of a parish in Christianism: it is valid but not widely cerebrated: the most of Shinto feasts attach to a particular shrine, not to their calender etc, so local).
If you would like to know nationwide feasts, I would love to say the biggest feast of Japan, as the country whose population believes in Shinto, is O-shogatsu (new year feast), following O-bon (Urabon'e), a Buddhist feast for the departed (the majority of Japanese believes both Shinto and Buddhism).
Hope the above helps you, cheers. --Aphaia (talk) 03:10, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
Thanks, Aphaia. Certainly, o-shogatsu brings enormous crowds of people to religious institutions for hatsumōde. It might be worth mentioning that hatsumōde is celebrated nationwide over a period of several days, and numbers of attendees are available. Fg2 (talk) 04:05, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Erm... What exactly is the point of that article? It just looks like a really confusing jumble of links. TomorrowTime (talk) 05:18, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Good article reassessment of Matsuo Bashō

The article Matsuo Bashō has been listed for reassessment of its Good Article status. Please see Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Matsuo Bashō/1. Fg2 (talk) 21:20, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Totoro and Shinto elements discussion

Anyone interested is encouraged to come participate in this discussion. Thank you. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:50, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Invite to help on Portal:Japan

JadeFox and I have been working hard on the Portal:Japan lately, trying to get it up to Featured status someday soon. I think it has come a long way and a lot of the mechanisms needed are now in place. I have created archives and templates for all of the weekly features and all that needs to be done now is they need to be filled out. I've added several entries that will last a few weeks, but more will be needed in order to make the Portal fully automated. Also, we have a lot of great Japan-related pictures on Wikipedia. As of now, the Featured picture section is only a weekly feature, but my goal is to make it daily. The problem is that it requires 360 pictures in the queue - a load I simply cannot handle by myself. Finally, the "On this day" section is in need of real help. We have run out of the queue (the rest through April are in Japanese). As it is a daily feature, it needs immediate attention. Any help on these matters are greatly appreciated! Torsodog (talk) 08:15, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Need help at Talk:Pellet drum

Is the pellet drum in Japan called den-den or den-den daiko (でんでん太鼓)? If so, what is the Japanese spelling? Badagnani (talk) 02:08, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

The description of a pellet drum sounds like a denden daiko. I copied and pasted でんでん太鼓 into the Search box of the Japanese Wikipedia and arrived at でんでん太鼓. Fg2 (talk) 02:21, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Thanks, I've added it. Is "denden daiko" better than "den-den daiko"? Badagnani (talk) 02:27, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm not aware of a formal guideline on it. "Chicago" recommends avoiding excessive use of hyphens in Japanese terms. On the other hand, the word's probably an onomatopoeia, like "bang-bang," which I'd hyphenate. Either seems OK. Fg2 (talk) 03:38, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
WP:MOS-JA also recommends against excessive hyphen usage, so I'd recommend against the hyphen. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:16, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Help needed with an inscription

Inscription at Kubota Garden, Seattle, Washington
Inscription at Kubota Garden, Seattle, Washington

Could someone translate this inscription? If so, please click through to the commons page and edit the description. Thanks. - Jmabel | Talk 03:52, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

If I'm not mistaken, 記念碑 is the kanji for monument. See the lead of ja:モニュメント. Badagnani (talk) 04:13, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
But how come the kanji on the left in the carving has only three lines rather than four over the box? Badagnani (talk) 04:16, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
There is a fourth stroke in 記, it's just smalled and angled upwards, the way it would be when written by hand. Jpatokal (talk) 08:17, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Name verification

I found Satoshi Akao while going through the Cat:Japan stubs. The ja: wiki says that his name was Bin, not Satoshi (the same kanji); and, they usually are pretty thorough about listing the proper name at the top. Both articles say that he was nicknamed "Bin"; so, I'm a bit confused (although, the Japanese nickname is hiragana, so, maybe that had something to do with it). I did a quick google, but didn't find enough to convince me either way. So, I'll throw it out there for anyone else who might be interested. Should it be moved, or not? Neier (talk) 14:18, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Originally Japanese aritlce claimed that his name was Satoshi, but it was modified by an IP user without explanation.
In my understanding, he is publicly known as Akao Bin and not Satoshi. It also seems he called himself Akao Bin, as announced in the introduction of his official speech for election campaign. I am not perfectly sure about the naming convention, but I think it should be moved. --Sushiya (talk) 14:48, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
Encarta JP says Bin, so it is probably safe to no only move the article, but remove all traces of "satoshi" as well. Neier (talk) 00:36, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

Deletion proposal

See Wikipedia:Templates_for_deletion/Log/2008_April_27#Template:Chinese. Badagnani (talk) 14:29, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

The result of the debate was Speedy Keep. ···日本穣? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:00, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Asama-Sanso incident

I think I've improved this article as much as it can be using English sources. I'm going to nominate it for Good Article. I notice that the Japanese version of the article appears to have much more information. If someone who can read Japanese is willing and able to expand the English version using Japanese sources, that would be very helpful. Cla68 (talk) 02:06, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

I'm rather surprised at that enwiki doesn't seem to have an article about Mt. Myogi Purge incident. Or does it? --Aphaia (talk) 12:02, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
Nope, there isn't one. There isn't much in English on the web about it, pretty much the same sources as listed for the Asama Sanso article. There probably also needs to be an article about Yoko (Hiroko) Nagata. I believe that she's the only woman on Japan's death row (unless the Wakayama curry poisoner, Hayashi, received the death penalty) as well as one of the prisoners who has been held the longest with a death sentence hanging overhead. I've heard, but don't have a source to back it up, that she hasn't been executed yet because no Japanese justice minister wants to be known as the one who ordered a woman's execution. Cla68 (talk) 12:39, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
The name is given as Nagata Hiroko in ja:永田洋子. See also 限界の思考: 空疎な時代を生き抜くための社会学 Shinji Miyadai and Akihiro Kitada, page 157, footnote 55, Google Books. Fg2 (talk) 13:21, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
Can the kanji in her name also be read as Yoko? Perhaps that is why Schreiber used Yoko instead of Hiroko. Since Japanese sources use Hiroko, I'll change the name in the Asama article. Thanks for the help with the article, by the way. Cla68 (talk) 00:42, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
Yes, "Yōko" is a very common reading of the name "洋子." (For an example, see Yoko Ono.) I bet you're right about Schreiber using that name for that reason (whether directly or indirectly). Fg2 (talk) 02:42, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
To Cla68. For Nagata Hiroko (yes her name is Hiroko) and why she hasn't been executed, I would add {{citation needed}} :) According to jawiki (no citation though)
  • She was the 6th woman death sentenced after WW2.
  • Japanese minister of justice tend not to sign in the order of death penalty execusion.

And her penalty was not determined until 1993. It is not rare execution was delayed for decades, e.g. Teigin incident (the alleged murderer wasn't executed and died in the prison after all). --Aphaia (talk) 04:28, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

Aphaia, that's a helpful explanation. Do you have a reliable web source (in Japanese is fine) that gives her story, such as her birthdate, the story of the purge that she led, the history of her trial, sentence, and current status? If so, I can start an article on her and use that link as a major source. Cla68 (talk) 04:37, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
Oh, I didn't notice that you got that information from the Ja.wiki article and that it wasn't cited there. By the way, I'm planning on adding a fair use image of the Asama lodge, scanned from Schreiber's book, to the article's infobox, but I'm going to wait until after the GA review because the reviewer might object to a fair use image. Cla68 (talk) 04:40, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
Sorry to say that, I tried to find, but results are not favorable.
I found two copies of an news website article (Sankei Shinbun)[5], now the original was expired. While they themselves are not reliable, but say the same things, and perhaps loyal copies of the original. They suggests jawiki statement is false. According to them, Nagata appealed the Tokyo Regional Court against her sentence and requested for review, and was rejected on 2006-11-28. It is impossible in Japanese jurisdiction to perform the execution with such a legal ongoing process like appealing. So I think it is rather an urban folklore "because she was female" ...
WWW seems not to help write an article about her. Nagata and other United Red Army people wrote many books. I didn't read them at all, but seems they and their supporters are not active online but rely on printed matters heavily. Japanese Wikipedia articles seems to refer to those books (some parts were cited, but not given the page or other details). --Aphaia (talk) 12:05, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
I'm not sure of its reliability, but an detailed account about female death sentenced prisoners available at [6]. The author claims to be a freelance writer (writing in profession). --Aphaia (talk) 12:14, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
Thank you for searching for the links. I'll try to start the article during the next several days. I understand that she has a support group. It's too bad that they don't run their own website. They might have a photo of her that they'd be willing to surrender the copyright to so that we could use it in the article about her. She's an interesting person, to say the least. Cla68 (talk) 13:28, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
OK, I started the article. Cla68 (talk) 01:59, 2 May 2008 (UTC)