Portal talk:Japan/Archive 1

Invitation
This portal is a wiki. We invite the world to improve on it. To improve on the structure of the portal or the text at the top, click on the Edit tab at the top of the page. To improve on the contents of any box having an Edit link, click on the Edit link inside the box and edit the template. Thank you for your improvements! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fg2 (talk • contribs) 12:14, 3 September 2005 (UTC)

Spotlight
The article in the spotlight should change each month. If there are no objections, I will start replacing them on the first of each month. Of course, somebody else could do that, too. Recent events could also bring articles on the spotlight, such as the Tenno's birthday (12/23).

Former articles in the spotlight: Japan Post (10/05) - Hayao Miyazaki (11/05) - Hayabusa (12/05) - Imperial Japanese Navy (01/06) - Kiteretsu Daihyakka (02/06) - Amaterasu - Ran (film) - Japanese art

Candidates:

There are some japan-related Featured Articles: Japanese toilet, Bishōjo game, Super Mario 64, Nintendo Entertainment System and Attack on Pearl Harbor -- Mkill 22:52, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Japan in Pictures
The photos there should change with the seasons and recent events. -- Mkill 22:52, 23 October 2005 (UTC)

Imperial Japanese Navy
Currently putting up Imperial Japanese Navy as a candidate for "Featured article" status (Featured article candidates). Please kindly leave your comments and votes there if interested PHG 23:57, 14 November 2005 (UTC)

Categories related to Japanese religion, mythology, folklore
Over at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japanese mythology, we're trying to sort out the categorization tree for Category:Religion in Japan, Category:Japanese mythology, Category:Japanese folklore, and related categories. Please drop by; greater input is very desirable. — BrianSmithson 19:04, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

Linking to the main culture category from culture heading
Is there any reason this has not yet been done? Making "culture" into culture. I am asking as there are 57 pages that are not in any sub-categories, and currently they are not that easy to find from the main portal page. Thanks Clq 20:10, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
 * I went ahead and did it. If there is a reason not to do it, please revert it someone and educate me as to what the reason is. Clq 14:22, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Vote: Tsushima Basin or Ulleung Basin
Hi all. On Talk:Tsushima Basin there is currently a vote about the name of the Tsushima Basin/Ulleung Basin. The vote runs till 08:57, 19 June 2006, voters need 100 edits and 1 month at Wikipedia in order to vote. -- Chris 73 | Talk 07:01, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Vote closed, Tsushima basin is the primary name to be used on Wikipedia when referring to the ocean feature, with alternative names in brackets. -- Chris 73 | Talk 09:02, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


 * the result of the poll was inconclusive, with neither name getting the 60% consensus (WP:RM) at this time. previous to this dispute, the basin was labeled "ulleung basin (tsushima basin)" since november 2005. Appleby 06:59, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Portal talk is not the place for this discussion, because it receives little attention from the community. To address the general community of editors of articles on Japan, you can post notices at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japan and Wikipedia talk:Japan-related topics notice board. Fg2 12:56, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Military History task force
I am trying to establish a "Far East task force," or, if there is enough support, a "Japanese military history task force" sub-section of the Military history WikiProject. If you're already working on military history articles, then all you need to do is offer your support and add your name to a list of task force members. You're already doing the task force's work; we don't ask much more than that. The link to my task force proposal is here: Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Military_history. Thank you. LordAmeth 15:57, 1 July 2006 (UTC)

Update
I did a series of update for Portal:Japan. It's mainly technical stuff, to make managing easier. The previous layout was from a year ago, when portals were still under-developed. AQu01rius (User &#149; Talk) 04:19, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

On this day...
Part I I pulled a very extensive list of “on this day” items from the web in Japanese a long time ago and have slowly been translating them into English. I will work on adding them to this portal. I have about six month’s worth translated so far, including all of the days from January through April.-Jefu 07:28, 25 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Wow! This is a crucial part of getting the portal featured, which User:AQu01rius has said he wants to accomplish. Thank you! Fg2 07:38, 25 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Doesn't the CURRENTDATE function take into account the timezone of the user requesting the page? It's the 26th here in Japan but it is still displaying information from the 25th.-Jefu 23:04, 25 January 2007 (UTC)


 * Oh no, it reflects the standard UTC time at Wikipedia server. AQu01rius (User &#149; Talk) 20:04, 28 January 2007 (UTC)

By the way, a few caveats/requests about the information that I'm adding to On this day: 1. There is a lot of material that needs to be translated here, so I'm generally doing it in two passes: the first pass is to just get the information into English (i.e. favoring literalness over form), and the second is to make it a little less literal and a little more natural and grammatical. And some of what I'm dumping in here has only been through one pass, so feel free to edit the entries to make them sound better in English if you notice entries that I haven't gotten to yet. 2. The original source of most of this information is Japanese, and I notice a distinct lack of some of the more unpleasant events from Japanese history, particularly those related to World War II and the events leading up to it. Please feel free to add stuff that you think is appropriate. Similarly, I'm trying to eliminate some of the cheesier stuff that nobody cares about, but feel free to delete stuff that you just don't think matters very much. 3. Translating and entering all of this info is quite a job, so if anyone would like to come along behind me and spend time properly wikifying the text, I would be grateful. I'm trying to do as much as I can with limited time to spend on this, but if I get too bogged down wikifying the text, I'm afraid I might fall behind in adding the information in the first place. Thanks.-Jefu 04:29, 30 March 2007 (UTC)


 * So, anything new on this front? Where is this information being pulled from? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 15:55, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Part II

Is there a reason why the "On This Day..." section is showing up in Japanese? Does it just need to be translated? -JadeFox (talk) 14:52, 25 April 2008 (UTC)


 * The guy who added all of the current On This Day's was translating them from somewhere. They run out completely at the end of April. I translated one, but it simply took too long since I am not THAT proficient in Japanese. Plus, I can't get a hold of the user who was doing it before, so I'm not even quite sure where he was getting the info from. Sooo, this is a problem for us as we have 8 months left to go.


 * I like what you blokes have done with the portal. I like check out Country portals periodically, and I gotta say it's come a long way in a short amount of time from what I remember.   One comment though, I would seriously remove that On This Day block on the main page.  If no one is working on it, it'd be best just to remove it.  Also, that Geography section seems kinda pointless.  Wouldn't it just be better to let the wiki articles do the talking?

April article and photo
I added an article and a photo for April as the pages were blank. I also put an article in the queue for May. If you want to do something different, feel free to discuss it here. It looks like March was forgotton. I think we should fill up the next few months so we don't run into a blank month again. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihon joe 05:09, 16 April 2007 (UTC)

Tokyo subway
Can someone help with the correct annual number of subway passengers in Tokyo here? Thanks. Yury Petrachenko 22:15, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

BC/AD or BCE/CE for Japan-related topics?
For those interested, a discussion and vote are ongoing at the Talk:History of Japan page regarding the appropriateness of the BCE/CE or BC/AD dating systems for Japan-related topics. PHG 06:21, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

English expression for "元年 gannen"
I know my dictionaries don't say "start" is used as an adjective, but I translated "元年 gannen" into "the start year." And an IP editor kindly modified it to "the first year." I will change it to "the beginning year." Apparently either could make sense in this case; but there is a reason to discard "the first year," which some J-E dictionaries take.

"The first year" is ambiguous. Different from that, usually the word "元年 gannen" doesn't mean the first 12-month term, nor it include the term before the event of the same calendar year. This word is used to refer to a part of a calendar year with a new era name. For example, "昭和元年 Shōwa Gannen" consisted of 7 days, because the Emperor succeeded on December 25; however, "the first year" could mean the term Dec. 25, 1926 - Dec. 24 1927, or could include the term before the succession of 1926. I prefer " beginning" or "start" for the kanji "元" (origin) in the word "元年 gannen."--Dumpty-Humpty (talk) 17:39, 1 April 2008 (UTC) (Of course it's not a joke!)

The new look
So, I was bored tonight so I thought I'd mess with the look of the portal. The current portal is what I came up with. I thought about first running everything by people on the talk page, but its really hard to visualize without seeing it all put together. Plus it is incredibly easy to revert back if people hate this look. Overall, I wanted to try it out and see what people think. Yay? Nay? Comments? If it is universally hated, I will happily revert back. Just thought a little experimentation wouldn't hurt. Torsodog (talk) 06:59, 19 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I like the new color scheme and banner. I think it is a big improvement. My only comment is the rising sun pattern in the background. Personally I don't have an issue with it; however, I wonder if anyone would object to it due to its military association. The self defense force still use it as their insignia I believe. If no one else believes this could be a potential issue in the future, by all means leave it. -JadeFox (talk) 17:28, 19 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I actually thought about this when making it. The idea worked so well though that I decided to go ahead with it and see if anyone had any issues with it. I'll keep an eye out for any negative comments and remove it if it draws any criticism. Torsodog (talk) 18:19, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I took the liberty to create a new banner that is less controversial. I like both, but I'm going to stick with this one for now until I can get more feedback on the other one. Let me know if you like this one better, maybe we can just stick with this if everyone likes it. Torsodog (talk) 23:01, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Japan news
I also wanted to say that I think the wikinews bot is a great idea to keep on top of the Japan news section. I think it is a section worth having and the bot will make it easy and smooth to update regularly. Torsodog (talk) 08:33, 19 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I implemented the news bot, and it should be up and running. It updates every hours so I'll check on it periodically to ensure it doesn't go renegade on the portal :) -JadeFox (talk) 17:19, 19 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks, works like a charm and looks great! Torsodog (talk) 18:17, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Prefectures
So, I added a new prefectures section. I like it, but let me know what you think. Also, I noticed you added a little note about a Selected prefecture section. If we decide to do that, I think it would be a good idea to break off prefectures completely into its own tab, sort of how Portal:Africa has done. Otherwise the portal is getting a bit bulky IMO. Torsodog (talk) 19:59, 19 April 2008 (UTC)


 * Cool, I completely agree. I like having all the information readily available as gives an over view of Japan, but it is getting rather crowded. As far as tabs go, Portal:Japan/Header.  I think it's a good start, but the colors need work. Also, we need to come to a consensus on where it should be placed on top part of the page. My vote is to replace the headerbox on the intro with the tabs. Since you added the sweet banner, having the portal name repeated twice in succession is too redundant for my taste. Also, I'd like another opinion on what to call/do with the center tab. -JadeFox (talk) 21:53, 19 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I definitely think replacing the current header box with the tabs is a great idea because of the banner name now. As for what the center tab should be named, that depends on what we are putting on it. I assume the prefecture map plus a featured prefecture section will end up there. Maybe if we add some more geography info (e.g. the islands), it could be a Geography page? Could it solely be a Prefectures page? Torsodog (talk) 22:46, 19 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I've been giving it some thought and this is what I've come up with. The first tab is basically what it is now, a gateway into the featured content related to Japan available to Wikipedia. Also, I'd like to leave the manually created topics listing as a sort of directory of where to go from here. The second tab is more of a run down on the country of Japan: map, the prefectures section, key facts, etc...  I've also considered moving the topics section here since it is rather lengthy now. The last tab would be for those wanting to find out more about how they could help with working on Japan related content. Comments? -JadeFox (talk) 02:07, 20 April 2008 (UTC)


 * I like what you've done with the Geography tab. I just had a quick thought on how to possibly finish it off.  Since there is a Featured Prefecture, I'm wondering if it would make sense to have a Featured Landmark or something along that nature for the prefecture. If could even be a person, something like Honinbo Shusaku for Hiroshima.   If the columns become too uneven, we could fill the blank space in the small column with general facts on Japan (just a thought).
 * Also, the portal looks fine on IE7 again. I hope the next IE is better with css standards. -JadeFox (talk) 14:49, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
 * I think another featured section on the Geography page is a good idea, I was just not sure what the section should be called and what it should include. If we can pin that down, I'd be happy to set it up real quick. Torsodog (talk) 20:47, 28 April 2008 (UTC)


 * We have to be careful using the word "Featured" as the people who run the Featured Articles seem to think they have exclusive rights to the word, and they get really uptight whenever they find someone else using it. That's why we've used "Selected" for everything else. I'd recommend using that. Also, I think a "Selected Attraction" would work for the landmark idea mentioned above. It could include things like mountains, beaches, amusement parks, castles, shopping districts, etc. It may even be good to separate manmade attractions with natural attractions. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:55, 27 August 2008 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I got the featured comment as one of the first suggestions at the FPO page. I've changed all of the easy "featured" into "selected", but moving all of the sub-articles will take some time. I have, however, changed the current sub-article as well as a few that are scheduled to appear in the coming weeks. And the attractions component is a good idea, but the hardest part is finding high-enough quality articles that could be featured on the page... err I guess I should say selected, eh? We might want to start compiling a list here of articles that could qualify before we commit to anything? --TorsodogTalk 04:03, 27 August 2008 (UTC)


 * I think we could find enough for sure if we combined the man-made and natural attractions. If we get enough of them, we can split them. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:47, 27 August 2008 (UTC)

Randomization
I have been working mainly on Japan related-topic in vi.wiki and just want to add some vivid effects to the portal.Tojo&#39;Kami (talk) 06:47, 21 June 2008 (UTC)

Blanking of possible articles for portal
Why do you keep blanking article listings for the portal, Torsodog? You are giving no reason for these blankings, especially since the articles listed are perfectly legitimate. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:06, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I'm rearranging the list. When you added to the list a couple of days ago, you added 2 articles that were already in the queue. I replaced those two articles with the bottom two of the list and blanked those. I did no remove any article from the list that wasn't already on there to begin with. --TorsodogTalk 06:11, 26 August 2008 (UTC)
 * But now you're blanking pages again (32-36). And the list never had duplicates before (when I was expanding it). Please explain exactly what you're doing as it's a mystery right now. Thanks! ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:08, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
 * As I said before, the page did indeed have duplicates. You dupped Heian Palace and Kanō Jigorō if I remember correctly. And now I'm simply blanking pages because I've created a Selected biographies section and I have removed biography article from the selected article queue and moved them to the biography queue. --TorsodogTalk 03:11, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Thank you. That's what I needed to know. In the future, if you're going to do things like this, don't just blank the pages, but instead leave useful edit summaries so the rest of us know what you're doing. We're working together here, and edit summaries are the only way we have to know what you are doing. We aren't mind readers. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:32, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I understand. I usually do, but unfortunately these edits required a LOT of small, tedious edits and a chose to forgo the edit summaries. I planned to outline what I had done in the talk when I was finished (which is now), but unfortunately you caught me in the middle. --TorsodogTalk 03:34, 27 August 2008 (UTC)
 * Even posting a quick note here would have helped as I checked here before I started reverting your unexplained changes. It's important to remember that we're all working together. :-) ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:58, 27 August 2008 (UTC)