Japanese Ads on Al-Jazeera

[Khash Najib]

Dear Ann,

In March I just missed the ads so I haven't seen the exact
contents, but I was told that the were formed of clips
showing Japanese ODA operations in the Arab region as well
as around the world. Nospecific mention has been made of
Japanese forces in Iraq (as far as I have been told).
The Japanese government seems to insist that Iraqis should
perceive armies from the other 29 countries as armies, and
the Japanese SDF forces as nurses.

When it comes to other media, no one in the Arab World now
can write about japan in a newspaper without expecting a
reply from the embassy of Japan in that country. The
Japanese diplomatic missions have been so overwhelmingly
sensitive and obviously panicking about the changes of the
Japanese image in the Arab media. But there media activism
has been mostly in the form of replies rather than
initiations, and in the few instances where they did
initiate action like on Al-Jazeera, unfortunately they
failed to offer answers to the Arab bafflement that Mark
mentioned.

I mean, Arabs already know that Japan is a giant aid
donor. That is THE image of japan and the source of
bafflement with the SDF dispatch. The Japanese government
so far is content with stressing old notions and thus is
failing to offer satisfactory answers.
On the other hand, at least some Japanese NGOs and other
groups I know of are contemplating ways to address Arab
public opinion directly. I am very excited about seeing
what kind of reactions will form in the Arab World to such
approaches.
Cheers,
Najib El-Khash




--- anne mcknight <akmck at sympatico.ca> ????????
?
> Thanks for the info, Najib, it sounds really
> interesting. 4 or 5 months back
> I heard from my neighbors, who have grey-market
> Arabic TV, that the SDF was
> running advertisements on Al-Jazeera. I'm not sure
> of the exact format, but
> they said that the message was to differentiate SDF
> forces--peace-keeping
> civilians--from both the military and the military &
> infrastructure
> contractors. I wondered if anyone had seen those
> ads, and what they thought
> about either the composition, the strategy, or the
> effects...?
> 
> Anne
> 
> 
>
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> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Anne McKnight
> Assistant Professor, Department of East Asian
> Studies
> McGill University
> 3434 McTavish, #405
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> 
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> 

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