Masako book cancelled by Kodansha
02/17/2007 @ 10:00 pm
Kazunobu Kakishima, editor at Kodansha, denied the company was scrapping the Japanese translation because of the government’s protest.
The decision, he said, came after Ben Hills refused to acknowledge making factual errors during an interview with a Japanese TV station.
“We have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to maintain trustworthy relations with the author and thus we were forced to cancel the book.”
Three other publishers in Japan have contacted Hills, according to the AP report, and one of them might publish the book later.
Stay tuned.
Not surprising. Sucks, though.
February 18th, 2007 at 12:27 amAnd those factual errors wouldn’t be the references that the kunaichou was so pissed off about, by any chance?
February 18th, 2007 at 2:08 amBen Hills! - http://www.benhills.com/info/profile.html
are you retro-searching a tome on the Land of Wa?.
I think that your eminent self and Andrew Cornell..should collaborate and concote another sleep-inducing,muddle-headed,misguided..and all the other misses I might have mist.
…(and by the way, grab a bus ticket,pull up yer trousers!..and get-out-in-the-real-world).
It’s waiting for you Benjamin.
*whoops!!I almost tripped over the spelling of concote and cocotte*
http://www.answers.com/topic/cocotte
very un-remora-like.
but then..there is a certain similarity between the world’s oldest profession and the 4th estate.
yours sincerely.
remora.
February 18th, 2007 at 8:22 amit’s also interesting to note that Benjamin..is originally from Yorkshire - the home of that wonderful quote.
Where there’s muck there’s money.
Origin:
Originated in Yorkshire, England where brass is a slang term for money. Hardly used nowadays, although writers sometimes call on it when they want to establish a character as a blunt Yorkshireman.”
So based on the fact that Ben is probably just a typical muck-raking journo.
He’s right in his element..(nee.- STY).
February 18th, 2007 at 8:54 amI find it funny when so many people (not necessarily here) have defended this guy. The Kunaicho is 100% correct about this guy, he needs to get his facts straight before trying to write a book about a topic he clearly knows nothing about.
February 18th, 2007 at 11:40 amWhat’s strange about this case is the way the PR was mis-managed. Whether readers like the man’s book, or whether it is best to keep it out of Japanese readers’ eyes, that is for the government to decide. but the global PR fallout on this has not been good. But maybe govts in general don’t care about PR. The big test now is whether some Tokyo publisher will bring out the book in Japanese later this year. It looks like it will happen, but then again, it might get crushed too. Does the public have any rights here? I guess that’s an important question.
February 18th, 2007 at 12:11 pmThe discussion has now moved here:
February 19th, 2007 at 11:03 amAn interesting follow up link to this:
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070219/kyodo/d8ncp0600.html
February 19th, 2007 at 10:48 pmIt’good to see him cornered
February 20th, 2007 at 6:10 am