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Seems the authors associated with WaiWai can’t get away from the outright hatred thrown at them over the past few months. Some of the authors published a series of tabloid books that talked about a lot of the crazy stories that appeared in Japanese tabloids and on WaiWai over the years. These books are now being put under heavy criticism just like the now extinct column.
There are 2 books in the series, Tabloid Tokyo 1 and Tabloid Tokyo 2, with the new Tabloid Tokyo XXX scheduled to be released in September. What I find funny, and a testament to this whole WaiWai argument, is that Japanese reviews on amazon were heavily negative, while American/English reviews on the books were generally positive. One has to remember that tabloid news in any country is not to be taken seriously. It’s one of those things people read to be entertained. However I do see the point that maybe WaiWai needed to be its own publication, and not associated with the respected Mainichi.
If you’re not familiar with WaiWai, the column first came under criticism in May of 2008. Many readers of the newspaper said the content was too vulgar and the stories talked about misrepresented the Japanese society. Mainichi then investigated the column and found inappropriate material, and removed what they found. However, criticism continued, and Mainichi was forced to remove the column all together.
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