Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Japan/Archive/August 2007

Categorization of Japanese people by prefecture or city of birth
Don't know if this is a good suggestion, but I've recently started undertaking the task of categorizing all Japanese people articles by prefecture or city of birth. As part of this, I've also been diffusing the categories within "Japanese people by prefecturual origin" by city(if several people are born in the same city). I've started in the south, but it's far from done: I've only finished with Fukuoka and am working on Oita. Any other takers? Ranma9617 06:31, 31 July 2007 (UTC)


 * I would suggest limiting it to larger cities. This may already be happening, though, since fewer people will be from smaller places. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:13, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

I might be a "minority opinion" on this subject, but I have always considered this to be overcategorization. I personally think that it is easier and of more utility to look at "Category:People from Oita Prefecture", rather than to search through each and every single city, town and village in Oita, for example, to find the person I am searching for. The issue is made more complex with the recent mergers of towns and villages, which means that categorization by current city may not necessarily be historically accurate. Since "wikipedia is not a paper encyclopedia" I see no reason why we cannot have "People by Prefecture of Origin" as well as "People by City of Origin", without diffusion of the parent category. Yes, I know: per Wikipedia:Categorization “Articles should not usually be in both a category and its subcategory.” (I am, after all, a member of WP-Categories). The very next line in the MOS states “However there are occasions when this guideline can and should be ignored”. Under WP:Overcategorization, we find “Avoid subcategorizing items by geographical boundary if that boundary does not have any relevant bearing on the items' other characteristics,” as well as “Intersection by location is appropriate if it represents the best option for splitting a large category: for example Category:American writers by state”. Since none of the categories of people by prefecture of origin are that large, I must ask a). Is splitting into city of origin really helpful and useful? and if so b) Is it really necessary to diffuse out of prefecture of origin parent category? --MChew 16:08, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * That's why I suggested limiting it to larger cities. For example, there's likely a whole pile of people from New York City, and marking them as all being from New York State seems a bit absurd as they would drown out all the other people. The same can be said for many larger cities in Japan (such as Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Sendai, Fukuoka, etc.). If the city is large enough to have a decent number of people in that category (I'd say 50-60 is a good starting point for splitting it out), then it's fine to do so. Anything less than about 50 is likely too small. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:50, 9 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree with your point on the larger cities, should the prefecture level category get to 50-100 people. At present, we have categorization down to small-town level in Kyushu, containing 2-3 names. Although I can appreciate the efforts of enthusiastic categorizers, I would like to see these upmerged until such time that such a level of diffusion would be useful.--MChew 04:59, 17 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree that anything that small should likely be upmerged in this case. I'd say a cat would need 20-30 as a minimum for splitting out here. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:42, 17 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I also agree. So, is it ok to go through and up-merge and CFD the biggest offenders?  Someday, I think we need to address the disparity between Categorization of people and the Japanese penchant for making sure that everyone knows what prefecture someone was born in.  But, for the time being, this is a good step. Neier 06:29, 17 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't see why not. If a cat has about 20 in it, it may be good to leave it alone as it will likely get more. Anything less than that should likely be upmerged. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 07:01, 17 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Done. Neier 08:58, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Otsuchi!
Sorry, it's kind of funny looking when you add an exclamation point to it. Can anyone confirm or refute the existence of such a word as otsuchi (other than as a town in Iwate Prefecture)? Something about this article got me suspicious. I realize that the kanji given are those for "big" and "hammer", but that doesn't necessarily make it the word for big hammer, or mean this is how it is pronounced. Thanks, Bradford44 00:05, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't have any particular information about it, but it seems to be just a big mallet. In depictions of forcible entry into castles or through gates, there will often be a big mallet. See, for example, the prints that are in the article Forty-seven Ronin at right. Fg2 00:14, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks! I appreciate the response. Shouldn't the page be moved to Ōtsuchi, though? Bradford44 03:35, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Page has been moved. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:45, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Speaking of page, do you think this requires its own article, or should it be merged somewhere? Fg2 07:19, 4 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Seeing as it's a war hammer, it may be worth a section in the War hammer until there's enough to make more than a stub. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 08:25, 4 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Hmmm... It seems to have been used in war, but war hammers appear to have been used against people, whereas the ozuchi was used against castle doors. Still, maybe enough resemblance for a merger? Fg2 08:09, 5 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Perhaps a mention in battering ram as well, then? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 08:38, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Another request for attention: Jutsu
As it currently stands, this article should be deleted as not meeting the standards at WP:DAB, and otherwise consisting of only a dictionary definition (and a poor one, at that). I was wondering, however, if anyone here can think of anthing that could be written about the term "jutsu" that exceeds a dictionary definition. For example, is it ever used as a stand-alone term, or only as a suffix? I'm only familiar with its use in martial arts (as a suffix), so I was just wondering if there was enough to say about it to make it worthy of an article. Otherwise I'll AfD it. Thanks, Bradford44 03:31, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I think the page is fine as it is. It gives a brief meaning, and then links to multiple "術". Yes, it has a little more information than most dab pages, but I don't see anything wrong with that if it's useful information. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:43, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * The problem is that the list consists solely of things that are not permitted by WP:DAB, and that an article consisting solely of a dictionary definition is prohibited by WP:NOT. I'm here searching for some content that is allowed, because the people here tend to be far more knowledgeable about the Japanese language than the good folks over at WP:WPMA. Bradford44 03:52, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, given that there's not even an article on the ja wiki, I'd say it's fine to delete it. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:58, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Since we have only one article called "jutsu", you may want to turn it into a redirect to Jutsu (Naruto) and then attempt to pull that page to the plain title through Requested moves. Dekimasu よ! 04:02, 1 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I converted it to a redirect, and left an explanation on the talk page. Thanks for the input, it is much appreciated. Bradford44 15:34, 1 August 2007 (UTC)

Article request, that is if it doesn't exist
Do we have an article for an Image character? I was writing articles on the electric power companies, and they almost all have an image character. There might be other names for this as well, which is why I'm asking here first. Do we have any article on this topic right now?

I'll go ahead and put in a stub and research a little if there's not something out there that I don't know about yet. It's certainly notable enough of a topic and probably has further implications throughout the world. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 18:00, 3 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Wouldn't it be the same thing as mascot? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:21, 4 August 2007 (UTC)


 * While I personally haven't thought of a person as something that could be a mascot, I see nothing in the definition that would exclude such cases. It would be fine by me to say that an image character is a type of mascot, but it doesn't change the fact that there's no coverage on Wikipedia about them, and I would maintain that it would be best suited for a separate article. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 05:07, 4 August 2007 (UTC)


 * You didn't say anything about a person, just an "image character". All the image characters I've seen are cute little characters. Do you have some links to examples of what you're talking about? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 08:30, 4 August 2007 (UTC)


 * It (people as image characters) happens all the time:, , . It is more like a spokesperson without much of the spokes.  Neier 06:24, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Hakudo Maru
Does anyone have further information about Hakudo Maru? I can't locate a corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia. Fg2 07:52, 5 August 2007 (UTC)


 * All the English references I can find don't give any sources, and I can't find any Japanese references at all (I tried searching under just kana, too, but no dice). Knowing the kanji would be helpful with this, I believe. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 08:11, 5 August 2007 (UTC)


 * A Google search -wiki and -wikipedia seems to turn up mostly unattributed copies of the Wikipedia article. Fg2 08:13, 5 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Hmm...I've found a tiny bit using 白童丸 or はくどうまる, but still no reliable sources. Neither is found on the Japanese Wikipedia. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 08:17, 5 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Does this help? It seems to be a Chinese god.Oda Mari 16:42, 5 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for finding that. It's very helpful! That seems very close to the contents of the English Wikipedia article: 「中国の伝説上の皇帝・黄帝が、白童丸という天人から船のつくり方を教わったという言い伝えからきているという説などもありました. 」 An important difference is that this identifies Hakudo maru as coming from Chinese legend, not Japanese. It doesn't seem to belong to Japanese myth or folklore. Fg2 21:05, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

Project deletion
Please go participate in Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Gaijin tarento. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:33, 7 August 2007 (UTC)


 * On a related note, I've absorbed Mythology, Owarai, and Shinto as taskforces into WP:JA as there were no objections raised on the talk pages and I don't want these projects deleted for lack of participation. Hopefully they will get more exposure as taskforces. I will be working on getting them incorporated into the WP:JA article talk page banner. If anyone wants to help with this, feel free. (^_^) ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:06, 7 August 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject Japan taskforces
(for anyone not listed as a participant, and for the stray wanderer who just happens to stop by this page)

In order to encourage more participation, and to help people find a specific area in which they are more able to help out, we have organized taskforces at WikiProject Japan. Please visit the Participants page and update the list with the taskforces in which you wish to participate. Links to all the taskforces are found at the top of the list of participants.

Please let me know if you have any questions, and thank you for helping out! ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 02:26, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Assessing the importance of Japanese municipality articles
With over 7000 unassessed articles, I wouldn't be surprised if a number of them were articles for Japanese municipalities. Many of these articles are probably Stub- or Start-class and do not have the proper template on the talk pages. I'm not too familiar with assessing the importance of articles, but my opinion (at least right now) is that they should be consistently rated as "Mid" unless there's a reason that they should be placed at a higher level. Both "Low" and "Mid" categories, according to the main project page, have about the same number of articles. I know that most municipalities may not be "Important in Japan", but I also don't think that they should be considered "peripheral knowledge". Opinions before going through all of the municipality article templates? -Nameneko 05:30, 8 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I think any currently-existing municipalities should be at least Mid, and any defunct/absorbed/dissolved municipalities should be Low unless there is some reason for being higher. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:37, 8 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Sounds good. I'll start on templating the articles then. -Nameneko 16:27, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

Concerning Template:Politics of Japan
Can anyone assess which, if either, of the two images being fought over is the correct one for the head of the template? 68.39.174.238 00:29, 9 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Image:5-7kiri02.jpg is the correct image to use there. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:46, 9 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I'm confused, why? One is the house crest and one is the imperial seal, is that right?  Neither of these seem to represent the topic of Politics of Japan, neither of them seem like it should clearly win out over the other one. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 16:25, 15 August 2007 (UTC)


 * The one I indicated is the Seal of the Japanese Government, which has much more to do with politics than the Imperial Seal. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:52, 18 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Alright, as long as it's for the whole of the government in some sense that's fine. I think the imperial seal might be a little more recognizable, but hey, that's what we're here for, to educate people. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 02:59, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Template:History of Japan and Japanese History articles
User:PHG has recently introduced period dates to the above template. As they are BCE/CE, I changed them to conform with the overwhelming majority of Japanese history articles (which use BC/AD).

I also would like to harmonise Japanese Paleolithic with the other articles in the series to BC/AD, but PHG has resisted this change in the past. So I have two questions:

1. Do you support the use of BC/AD or BCE/CE in the above template.

2. Do you support the change of the date terms in Japanese Paleolithic to BC/AD to conform with the rest of the series?

John Smith&#39;s 16:16, 12 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't really care one way or the other, and I think people who do care are spending way too much time trying to be politically correct. They both mean the same thing, so I see no difference. I do agree that all Japan-related articles should use one or the other. This may be a good discussion to bring up on WT:MOS-JA. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:13, 12 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I have started a discussion here. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 21:17, 12 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I've added my thoughts. John Smith&#39;s 21:19, 12 August 2007 (UTC)


 * A related matter has come up regarding History of Japan. There are two discussions here and here. John Smith&#39;s 14:28, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

New taskforce notice
Greetings,

The consensus at this MfD suggested making "WikiProject Gaijin tarento" a taskforce under the auspices of WikiProject Japan. The content is now here: WikiProject Japan/Gaijin tarento taskforce and the project may do whatever it sees fit. Thanks and best wishes, Xoloz 01:25, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Font changes?
Not exactly Japan-related, but has there been some site-wide change recently in fonts? All the macron characters (e.g. ū, ō) look really ugly right now. Formerly the main body of the letter was at the same height and face as the unmacronned equivalents, and the macron appeared at a higher height; now they're shrunk (and seriffed). I'm using Cologne Blue skin, if that makes a difference ... Cheers, cab 03:50, 15 August 2007 (UTC)


 * No, nothing has changed (though not sure about the skin). Have you recently updated your browser or operating system? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:53, 15 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Nope, same as always, and I get the same issue logging in from different boxes. Any other ideas? Cheers, cab 10:59, 15 August 2007 (UTC)


 * It may just be the font your system is using. I know some Mozilla-based browsers used to display the macronned character (and anything else with a diacritical mark above it) all wonky, especially when editing. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:50, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Add article to project
A couple of us over at WP:WPMA recently got Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu promoted to GA. Just thought you guys might like to add it to your project, and your list of recognized content. Bradford44 14:55, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Barnsensu syntax
Anyone up to trying to figure out why the WPJ-Barnsensu doesn't like having the ~ inside it? I know others tempaltes like it contain them, so I can't figure out why this one doesn't like them. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:19, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Kyūketsuki
I... considered bringing this up at the J-myth TF talk page, but there is very littly activity there lately. This article in its recent incarnation is little more than a wiktionary article - the only real piece of information in it is that vampires first appeared in Japanese cinema in the 50s. Does anyone have any more information on this subject, besides that shinso nonsense that I had to google to even know what it was about? If not, I'll consider putting this up for deletion, or would even apreciate if someone else did it - I've been pretty limited in my internet access lately. TomorrowTime 17:13, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I don't have anything to add to it, but I'd certainly support others' contributions to the expansion rather than deleting it. Surely there are things to be said on the subject (maybe if the article were renamed "Vampires in Japan" or "Vampires in Japanese popular consciousness" or the like). LordAmeth 22:18, 16 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, the Japanese article interwikis to Vampire, so it may be best to redirect there and perhaps add a section about vampires in Japan (along the lines of LordAmeth's proposal, but within that article). If there gets to be enough for a separate article, then we can fork off that section. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:34, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

Thing is, the article is a magnet for anime-lore - just check out what it looked like two or three edits ago. And there really isn't much to say about vampirism in Japan, it's an entirely novel concept. The closest one gets to vampiric creatures in Japanese folklore is harionago and jubokko; the word kyuketsuki itself, on the other hand, is intended as a translation for the western vampire. I like to see articles expanded rather that deleted myself, but there really isn't much to merit an article here in the first place, IMO. TomorrowTime 19:43, 19 August 2007 (UTC)
 * TomorrowTime summarizes the issue well. Vampire is not an element of Japanese myth. Such an entity doesn't appear neither in the ancient documents (Kojiki or Nihonshoki) nor in the Japanese folklore. You can only find them in modern works, novels, manga or anime, and they are not parts of "myth" (a collaborative creation through history). I recommend you to make it into a redirect. --Aphaia 20:12, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Hm... There is further mess on this subject. The vampire article has a tiny section on Japanese vampires that only gives a link to the (as the article says, fictional) concept of shinso. Furthermore, seeing that all of the other national sections in the vampire article deal with countries and nations that actually have vampire lore, it seems silly to even have a "Japanese vampires" section in the main vampire article. To say what? "Vampires first appeared in Japan in the cinema of the fifties"? I think I'll simply make kyūketsuki a redirect to vampire, as has been suggested, and throw out the shinso nonsense out of the main article, too. To me, the issue is simple. Kyūketsuki = (western) vampire. TomorrowTime 05:04, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure "Shinso" (eh, 真祖) can be threw out. As setting, it is interesting. But it is a certain author's idea, not from the Japanese myth. The article suggested it knows this notion from Blood+, iirc, 2006 anime work or so. --Aphaia 07:18, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree, and the shinso article is honest enough to state quite clearly that the concept is one used in modern time fiction alone (a quality often lacking in articles such as this), but consider the context - you have a brief overview of the Slavic vampire (where the vampire originates from), the Roma vampire and the Greek vampire (two more cultures with a long history of belief in vampires), and then the Japanese vampire (where the concept is no older than 50 years, and with a link to shinso as the main article, a concept which in itself is probably no older than two decades, perhaps). See what I mean? I think the shinso article would deserve more links from articles about fiction that utilizes the concept, but I don't really think it merits mention in the main vampire article. It's just too minor, in light of the other types of vampires discussed there. TomorrowTime 09:14, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Request for cooperation
Hello, I am a member of the WikiProject Council. I wanted to know if you may consider placing the banner on your project's page? You may include there projects as i.e. WikiProject Martial Arts or other you cooperate with on a routinely basis. By doing this you may be contributing to inter-project cooperation and understanding. Thank you  Dao  ken  21:52, 19 August 2007 (UTC)

Obama stuff
If anyone wants to help expand these articles, it would be appreciated: Obama Castle (Fukui), Obama Castle (Mutsu), and Obama Onsen. I've gotten them started, but they need further expansion. I appreciate any help! ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:49, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
 * By the way, is there a confused name convention? a comparison of Fukui/Mutsu is a bid weird to me (Fukui/Fukushima or Echizen/Mutsu sounds natural). --Aphaia 10:55, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
 * IIRC, I was using similar titles to the ones on the JA wiki. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:52, 20 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I just checked, and that's the way the Japanese articles are as well. So, yes, that's what I was doing. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:38, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Ohama and Kohama
I would greatly appreciate some help in creating the articles listed on these pages. Most of them are on the Japanese wiki, most of them have a decent amount of content, and I've included the Japanese for each one (I think). Thanks! ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 02:28, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Sure, I'll help you out on that. -- Hirohisat Kiwi 02:47, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * As an "Osakan", the place that the "Ohama Branch Line" goes is a neighborhood called Ohama, but there's no way that anyone would ever call the line "Ohama", so I don't think it really belongs on the dab page. Dekimasu よ! 12:31, 28 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, it's been common practice to list train lines and stations that have a particular name on that disambig page. We have to keep in mind that the disambig page is written mainly for those who don't know exactly where they are going and need a little prompt. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 02:42, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Prefectures taskforce
I've been trying to organize the taskforce a little bit, and have reworked this page in order to give a quick overview of what needs to be done. Most of them are Start class, with a few stubs, and a few B class articles among them. I think we could get all of them to at least GA status if we systematically worked through them. They could be expanded quite a bit just translating material from the Japanese Wikipedia articles, and finding sources for things shouldn't be a huge chore for prefectures. Anyone interested in helping improve the 47 prefecture articles is welcome to help. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:09, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Possibly useful map
This map may be useful in some of the older history articles. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 18:37, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Red bean soup
Could someone resolve the Japanese being used at the article Red bean soup? Is is "oshiruko", or "shiruko"? What is the difference (besides the number of google hits, which is 800ish for the former, and 14000 or so for the latter)? This will hopefully take only a moment for someone familiar with the subject. Bradford44 20:32, 20 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Done. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:25, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

I personally think it should be refered to Shiruko basically, since oshiruko is a polite and therefore colloquial form. But they are not different things and assuredly both can go through. --Aphaia 00:37, 21 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Done. Fg2 00:51, 21 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I agree. Thanks for the additional cleanup, Fg2 and Aphaia. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:39, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Another map
Nihonjoes post just reminded me, I made this image of the electric utility coverage regions. Troubled by not being to find such an existing map, I went through the articles and moved the borders to where they need to go by what prefectures are listed in each companies respective article. There are also some exceptions and touching up that I need to add (ie one utility provides power to a few cities outside their area).

Anyway, there's certainly a lot that could be done on the topic of Energy in Japan. I'll probably get some stuff made for that eventually, but I would love it if anyone wanted to help out! -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 01:23, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Japanese art and Junichiro Koizumi articles to FA status
I've started discussions on the Japanese art and Junichiro Koizumi talk pages. Please come participate and help us get these articles up to FA status. I think they are both pretty close, so there shouldn't be too much work involved. Thanks! ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:03, 22 August 2007 (UTC)
 * While we're on the subject, I think that adding the missing section on Japanese art to Japanese people would be enough to bump that article from start class to B class, if anyone has the time and inclination. Dekimasu よ! 05:51, 22 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I wrote a few paragraphs on Japanese art for Japanese people. Honestly, I don't know if that's what you wanted. If not, please feel free to edit away or even delete it. But I hope it helps. Fg2 12:23, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Mergers
I was taking a look at articles on prefectures, and found that they are basicly timelines, and I would prefer to move those to lists like List of mergers in Shimane Prefecture. Any thoughts? --H| H irohisat  Talk 02:31, 23 August 2007 (UTC)


 * They should probably stay in the articles as well. We're already made placeholders for all the tiny places in Japan, and most have just a sentance or two, and a merger is pretty well as relevant as one can get.  I don't think there's a problem with the list - I'm sure it's accurate for now at least, which makes it useful information to the reader by any measure. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 03:32, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Um...I think it's not a sentence or two, and we could make it like this if you don't mind... --H| H irohisat  Talk 07:44, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Oh, never mind, I was talking about the articles on towns and cities, of which, most are stub-stub class. But I don't have much of an opinion on what to do with the prefecture articles. -Theanphibian (talk • contribs) 22:02, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

Shinmeiaishinkai (神命愛心会)
Shinmeiaishinkai is up for deletion here, although sourced, not much has been done with this article, and and those of us participating in its Afd are not too sure of its notabliity. Can anyone with a knowledge or interest in the topic help enlighten us, as I for one would be loathe to reinforce Wikipedia's systemic bias, by deleting articles on topics that are notable but of which we are ignorant of. Thanks in advance.KTo288 19:33, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

New related MOS: Manual of Style (Anime- and manga-related articles)
Please note the existence of this new Manual of Style for anime- and manga-related articles. This area of Wikipedia is getting large enough that I thought it was time to create a separate MOS so the Japanese MOS didn't become too cluttered with less general stuff related to this, so I took the existing guidelines on the [WP:ANIME page and created WP:MOS-ANIME.

Alsp, I've started a discussion on a proposed guideline addition over there. Anyone interested in participating is welcome. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 19:03, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Gappei taskforce merged with Districts and municipalities taskforce
I did this because Gappei was basically just a small decent-sized part of that, and I thought it would give it more exposure since the Districts and municipalites taskforce has more participants. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 20:18, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Better image of Ushiku Daibutsu
Can I draw to your attention my comments on the Ushiku Daibutsu talk page about the need for a better image to illustrate the Ushiku Daibutsu article. Unfortunately, I don't have the skills to be able to do this for myself, so was hoping that someone on this project might like to lend some help. Many thanks. Astronaut 23:15, 27 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Thanks for a quick response. I saw 日本穣 ? flagged it as needing a photo.  Astronaut 18:37, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Obama (disambiguation)
Just my opinion, but I think it may be best to just let this one go. We certainly have better things to do than waste time on semantics on a DAB page, and since there's a disambig link at the top of Barack Obama, there's no reason to blow this any bigger than it is. There are some in that discussion who will never bbe convinced of anything other than what they already perceive, so I suggest everyone from WP:JA just drop it for now. After the election, depending on the outcome, we can revisit it if necessary, Until then, we'll just keep dancing in the same circle. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:44, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Bots
Does WPJ have a bot? Just wondering. -- Hirohisat Kiwi 05:25, 28 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Not as far as I know. If you want to create one to do various tasks, that would be nice. One task that would be useful is marking all the articles which have stub templates as stub class in the talk page template if they are not already marked as such. Another would be to add the WPJ template to articles marked with Japan stub templates or that are in sub-categories of Category:Japan with the WPJ template. I'm not sure how bots work exactly, so I may be getting too complicated. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:09, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Hokay, I'll try to get to work on that. Takk! -- Hirohisat Kiwi 00:39, 29 August 2007 (UTC)


 * I want a bot that updates the names of municipality articles from, say
 * Town (タウン町; -cho)
 * to
 * Town (タウン町)
 * I was sort of doing this semi-automatically with AWB's regex search-and-replace, but it was kind of inconvenient. The regex I was using was:
 * Search: ^'{3}(\w*)'{3}\s\((.*);\s-(\w*)\)
 * Replace: $1 ($2)
 * That is, after replacing -cho with -chō when appropriate. I'm sure you regex wizards can come up with something better.  -Amake 01:05, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Tangentially related: I made a local PHP script for swiping coordinate info off of Google Maps using their API:  User:Amake/gmcoords.php.  I don't know how easily this could be adapted for use with a bot, and I'm not sure of the legality of it, but in case you're interested please take a look.
 * If you were interested in making a bot for adding Japan-specific geodata (there is a more general bot doing something similar), please let me know as there are special cases involving infoboxes and whatnot that I happen to know about. -Amake 02:20, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Photo taskforce
I wonder if it would be good to have a photo taskforce of editors in the project who are in Japan and willing to take photos? Thoughts? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 00:11, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Erm, I don't really have an opinion on that. I think people could just request it on this page and some one can get to it. -- Hirohisat Kiwi 00:42, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, we have Category:Wikipedia requested photographs in Japan that lists all of the request. I'm just trying to come up with good way keep track of who lives where in Japan so we can try to take care of some of the requests. There are quite a few of them. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:03, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Okay, I think that's a pretty organized way. Then I'm inclined to make the taskforce. -- Hirohisat Kiwi 08:49, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * How about collaborating with a similar project on Japanese Wikipedia? Though I myself have enough time to cope with, ja:Wikipedia:画像提供依頼 seems relatively active. --Aphaia 09:02, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
 * That would be fine too I guess. -- Hirohisat Kiwi 00:27, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree that it would be good to keep an eye on that page to see if there are any photos we can use. Since the JAWP requires images to be free, if the images are not uploaded to Commons, I strongly urge anyone who wants to use one of the images to port it over there so any wiki can use it more easily.
 * Now, we need to make a list of our members who are in Japan. I'm pretty sure Fg2 is in Japan as he's contributed many images from Japan. Who else lives there? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:54, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I do. -Amake 02:21, 30 August 2007 (UTC)


 * Okay, I've created a photo taskforce. I've added you, Amake, to the list of participants (I hope you don't mind) to give an example entry in the participant table. Anyone who lives in Japan (or has a bunch of pictures from a trip or time living in Japan), please add yourself to the list so we can more easily contact people who may have a photo in a particular area. Thanks! ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 04:18, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Attention Userbox Lovers
Just a notice that may interest some of you: I have created location userboxes for all 47 prefectures in Japan, similar to the way it's done for the US states, Canada provinces, German states, etc...  This is the full list that is linked to from the official userbox page. Why did I choose prefectures instead of regions? Good question. I think region boxes would be a cool idea as well...but for now it's just prefectures. Every prefecture is called " Prefecture" except Hokkaidō. I think a valid argument for removing the "Prefecture" from Okinawa could be made as well, but I left it since Wikipedia lists it as "Okinawa Prefecture". Instead of choosing pictures of prefectural seals or things like that, I think to English-speakers the most definitive "image" to represent a prefecture is the kanji characters themselves, so they are used instead. Enjoy! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Manmaru (talk • contribs) 09:53, August 29, 2007 (UTC)
 * Was there not a "user Japanese" userbox? There is not one under Wikipedians by nationality, but I could swear there was. Chris 20:24, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Japan-related discussions at WikiProject Council/Proposals
Please put in your 2 yen at the below proposals, whether they would float and whether they should be projects or task forces. Domo, Chris 05:59, 30 August 2007 (UTC) Please make your comments at WikiProject Council/Proposals as well

Japanese Rock

 * Description : [This WikiProject will mostly deal with Japanese rock musician pages such as those of Gackt, hyde, Dir en grey, and X Japan. Other musicians similar to those will also be included.]


 * Interested Wikipedians
 * 1) SeventhHaido 09:10, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
 * 2) L337p4wn L337p4wn 11:29, 1 June 2007 (UTC)

We need this quite badly. The pages for some of Japan's greatest musical acts on the international stage are a gigantic mess.

Japanese Royalty and Nobility

 * Description : This WikiProject will focus on the unique and timeless institutions, customs and people as it interacts with this most modern nation.


 * Interested Wikipedians (please add your name)
 * 1) Chris 09:55, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
 * 2) Hirohisat 07:21, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

How wide is its scope? As for nobility, since 1947 Japan has no classes except the royalty, while ex-nobility and also ex-royality are still now considered high society, and the earliest historical records about them are found in 8th Century. --Aphaia 13:34, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Comments
 * Personally, I believe that both of these topics would be best handled as task forces. We just recently took steps to reincorporate a number of small sub-projects into the larger one - since it's just a matter of semantics, really, why not work it within the project? Both of these subjects need a lot of work, but I don't think they quite warrant full WikiProjects. LordAmeth 13:54, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I agree with LordAmeth that these would be better handled as taskforces instead of separate wikiprojects. I also think that the Japanese rock one would be better expanded to be Japanese music. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:43, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
 * I would enthusiastically support a task-force level structure for this, just wanted to see if it would be worthwhile. :) Chris 05:49, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
 * Now that this has kind of been worked through, what's the process? Chris 07:33, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I suspect we'd put them at WikiProject Japan/Music and WikiProject Japan/Royalty and nobility. Just use one of the other taskforces for a template. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 07:56, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
 * I've created these two taskforces. Feel free to update the contents as needed. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:26, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm very surprised to read the opening statement, which seems remarkably PoV. (I'd thought that the monarchy was largely a Meiji invention, with bits of earlier mumbo-jumbo. Not that I'd rush to present that as a neutral summary.) -- Hoary 01:10, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
 * The opening statement of what? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:26, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Of this section. This WikiProject will focus on the unique and timeless institutions, customs and people as it interacts with this most modern nation. Putting aside various other questions (e.g. of the modernity of Japan), the monarchy arguably underwent a dramatic change in the late 19th century in anticipation of foreign expectations. (Not that I'd expect any WikiProject to announce this at its outset.) -- Hoary 08:10, 6 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that wording was a bit over the top (IMO), but the wording on the actual taskforce page is much more down-to-earth. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 01:28, 7 September 2007 (UTC)
 * Consider the audience at that page. Most are pushing for entire projects based on their favorite videogame or TV show of the minute, and I wanted this immensely more substantial proposal to stand out. Must we really critique it at this point? Chris 04:02, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Language Articles
Specifically, the Kansai-ben article could use some fixing up. The content is mostly fine (though some could be added/clarified around various spots), but some of the grammar could be reworded, I think. -- Masamunecyrus(talk)(contribs) 15:23, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Jōmon period
I think it fairly takes air that the first Jomon ware extends back over 16500 years. See this book, Habu Jinko, "Ancient Jomon of Japan", Cambridge Press, 2004, as well as these pages and. Zone101 21:32, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
 * What does "it fairly takes air" mean? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 03:42, 31 August 2007 (UTC)
 * The edit in question is here. I made a comment on Talk:Japan, where this conversation should probably reside. Neier 06:18, 31 August 2007 (UTC)