After having compared the business and economic news sections of both The Japan Times and Japan Today, I have come to the conclusion that The Japan Times is the superior choice over Japan Today for someone wanting to be in the know about Japanese business. While Japan Today does have more business and economic articles in its business section of the website in comparison to the rather sparse amount that The Japan Times has in its respective section, the articles of Japan Today often concern issues that are a bit more sensationalistic than those of The Japan Times, such as articles on new automobiles and fast food promotions. It’s quite clear that while The Japan Times focuses on providing concrete information on the most pertinent information for people curious about economics and business in Japan, Japan Today aims for perhaps a younger audience that does not necessarily need minute details on issues. For instance, on different articles reporting on the same issue, the postponement of the Bank of Japan’s short-term interest rate, The Japan Times article, written by staff writer Kanako Takahara, is much longer than the Japan Today article, using a “one-or-two sentences at a time” formula that appears to be commonplace among articles in the Japan Times. The Japan Today article, while successfully giving readers the gist of what’s important, is only a mere three sentences long, and the writer of the article is not identified. Moreover, the articles of some of the more sensationalistic stories on the front page of the business section of Japan Today, such as ones on McDonald’s Japan’s extension of its “Mega Mac” campaign and a new Mini Cooper from BMW Japan, lack not only the names of their writers, but also copyright statements at the bottom of the articles. In contrast, all Japan Times articles on the front page cite the source of the article, whether it be written by a staff writer or from an outside source, in addition to copyright statements.
In terms of presentation, The Japan Times again one-ups Japan Today by virtue of a more orderly business section. Japan Today’s business section contains articles from several past days, while The Japan Times only carries articles from the current day and the day before on its main business section. While articles on Japan Today are more easily accessible this way, it creates clutter on the site that is compounded by links to articles on the side of the business articles concerning other areas of interest. The Japan Times search engine allows readers to pinpoint older articles with accuracy, and therefore the search engine frees up some clutter.
Overall, I would give The Japan Times a nine on a scale of one to ten, while I would give Japan Today a seven on the same scale. Japan Today could improve itself by making its presentation a bit more orderly and avoiding more sensational stories to appeal to a more serious clientele for business and economics.
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Concerning Korean matters, I would recommend The Korea Times over The Korea Herald as the better choice for business and economic information. While both sites provide up-to-date stories that are well researched and free of grammatical and spelling errors, I find that the Korea Times is the better of the two by virtue of better, more captivating prose in its articles. While both sites tend to rely on a similar “one-or-two sentences at a time” style, the writing in most Korea Times articles flows better, managing to avoid sensationalism while at the same time using interesting words to describe what is going on in the Korean business and economic world. For instance, in similar articles on both sites regarding the surge of overseas property investment, The Korea Times article gives the story with a great wealth of raw statistical information in a style that flows from sentence to sentence. In contrast to this, The Korea Herald’s article is much more gloomy in nature, focusing on the potential risks of so much overseas investment, perhaps due to a bias the author may have. While the article has a good deal of relevant information about the subject from legitimate sources, the article almost appears to be a patchwork of quotes and bits of information that almost make it look like a list of interchangeable facts, making the article a bit state and unexciting. Both sites do a good job in providing the names of the authors of their business and economic articles along with contact information, but unfortunately both sites do not have copyright statements for their articles.
Presentation is another aspect where The Korea Times wins out over The Korea Herald. Whereas The Korea Herald's business section is rife with many advertisements that use flashy graphics to attract readers, The Korea Times has fewer and smaller sized advertisement links that don’t rely on so much flashiness, in addition to information on stock markets and foreign exchange rates that would interest people concerned with business matters. The Korea Times also features a more organized page for its articles, with better spacing between links and a better font for reading the text.
Overall, I would give The Korea Times an eight on a scale of one to ten, while I would give The Korea Herald a six. I would recommend that the Korea Herald strays away from copious amounts of advertisements in its business section while at the same time trying to improve the quality of its writers’ prose to spark and maintain readers' interest. It also would be nice to see copyright statements at the end of articles from these two professional news websites.
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