Britney and Shinzo

Shinzo Abe announced his resignation as Japan’s prime minister on Wednesday. Japanese mass media, which had been obsessed with attacking his lack of leadership and his fellows' scandals for many months, is now crazy about predicting his successor. I bet that many news related to his abrupt decision and the election for next president of LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) are filled with on TV, newspapers and weekly magazines in Japan.

But here, while news websites such as CNN reported it as a breaking news, TV news programs didn't report his resignation as far as I know. My roommate at our office, who seldom watch TV, knew this news on New York Time's website. I realize that Japan's presence is weak on US TV media (and perhaps for US people) as many Japanese in US lament. Outstanding on TV recently is not only Bush's Iraq policy but also Britney Spears' poor performance at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs).

I casually watched her at VMAs on last weekend. She was just strange. She was visually nervous. She was barely moving. As PM Abe had been for several months, She seemed lack of energy on her stage. It's a great pity that most popular pop star and our prime minister become like zombies.

As US people don't know much about the "big" news from far east island, Japanese people don't know how absorbing topic Britney's "disaster" is here, I imagine. Our world has not been flat yet. Media environment in different society constitute diffrent reality. Maybe I will experience counter culture shock when going back to Japan in future.

(You can move to the reports by CNN if click each picture.)