In a speech last year at the University of Digital Content (alternatively Digital Hollywood University) we just mentioned, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly spoke of the need to enlist anime in the promotion of Japan's international image.

One more good example of why we need to make students aware that manga, while they can be extremely informative, are still very subjectivity-prone media. An inflammatory mook called 'The astounding hidden files of foreigner crime' (驚愕の外人犯罪裏ファイル), whose publication caused a scandal among Japan's foreigner community and which was subsequently pulled off the shelves in several stores (see Debito.org for all details and follow-up), also contains some bits of manga.

Our Furl account, which we use to link to academic articles and links about manga research (and to a lesser extent anime and other forms of Japanese popular culture), saw the entry of its 1000th record today. A fine occasion for shining some light on the database again.