japanamerica

I ask that question in my latest column for The Daily Yomiuri , out today, writing about Sony's booth at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, the JAL bankruptcy, political shenanigans and stagnancy, and the ongoing troubles in the anime and manga biz. Now I learn of yet another Toyota recall in North America . Yeesh. SOFT POWER, HARD TRUTHS / Is this the year Japan jumps the shark? Roland Kelts / Special to The Daily Yomiuri "Jumping the shark" is an American idiom describing the point at which a television series, a career or just about anything that has developed popularity or momentum blows its own credibility and heralds its own demise. The phrase was coined after the Fonz, a character in the long-running TV series Happy Days, known for its rosy vision of postwar American life, literally jumped over a captive shark while water-skiing. Many now see the shark-jumping episode as an omen of the program's decline into cancellation. The expression came ...

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Here's my segment, called "This is their Youth."