J-ENT
Encyclopedia
J-ENT is an abbreviation of "Japan
ese entertainment" (not to be confused with the website J!-ENT, which covers worldwide entertainment). It refers to popular forms of Japanese entertainment but more specifically a shortened term to encompass popular Japanese television dramas, variety shows and music shows from Japan. Also, to correlate popular Japanese music (J-Pop
) with television shows and film. The term J-ENT was coined by entertainment journalist Dennis A. Amith on the BBS (Neo-Tokyo BBS) in 1993 and used on the J-POP Mailing List in 1995.
The term has been used freely to include import video gaming, anime
and sports from Japan.
When asked about the creation of Bonsai's J-pop Pages, Byron Kidd said, "The JPOP Pages came to life in 1993 not for J-Pop
, but as a project to help me to learn html. The web was just starting out, maybe fewer than 1000 sites. Personal homepages were unheard of. Anyway to make a homepage I needed a topic and I chose Japanese stuff in general. As the web grew keeping track of all things Japanese was impossible, I looked at the stats my J-pop pages were the most popular ones I had so I scrapped the rest and made it a JPOP only site. As people came online with their own sites they started mailing asking if they could put their link on my pages. They knew my site and knew if they had a link there they would get noticed, get visitors. In those days if you were online and you liked JPOP you knew Bonsai's JPOP Pages was the place to go but once the web exploded JPOP sites sprang up everywhere."
Byron Kidd who ran Bonsai's J-pop as a student in Australia to his adult career life closed the Website back in 2000.
J!-ENT has now become a Japanese and Asian entertainment and pop culture website that features news and information, interviews and articles with Japanese and Asian entertainers (in English) and remains one of the longest running, volunteer supported Japanese entertainment (in English) website on the Internet. Also, working with Japanese record labels, TV, film and radio companies to promote latest projects and working with event coordinators to bring and promote Japanese artists coming to the United States and Europe.
In Nov. 2008, the website J!-ENT has changed to incorporate worldwide entertainment and pop culture.
The website underwent several interface changes over the years. Eric Trammell states "At the time, I was a fledgling graphic designer, so I used the site as a playground to test out everything I was learning. While many Jpop sites at the time were quite minimalistic and more content-based, I wanted the style of my site to reflect the intense style of Tokyo".
The final iteration of Eric's site was created in 2000, when the site was integrated into a content management system, and the interface was redesigned to appear more professional and futuristic. The topics of the site remained the same, featuring sections for music, style, fashion, architecture, and art. In the next couple of years, the site would eventually be taken down due to a lack of time on Eric's part.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese entertainment" (not to be confused with the website J!-ENT, which covers worldwide entertainment). It refers to popular forms of Japanese entertainment but more specifically a shortened term to encompass popular Japanese television dramas, variety shows and music shows from Japan. Also, to correlate popular Japanese music (J-Pop
J-pop
, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
) with television shows and film. The term J-ENT was coined by entertainment journalist Dennis A. Amith on the BBS (Neo-Tokyo BBS) in 1993 and used on the J-POP Mailing List in 1995.
The term has been used freely to include import video gaming, anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and sports from Japan.
Bonsai's J-pop Pages
Japanese entertainment (in English) was started back in the early '90s. The first website on the internet dedicated to Japanese music and Japanese entertainment was created by Byron Kidd of Australia who created the Bonsai's J-pop Pages website.When asked about the creation of Bonsai's J-pop Pages, Byron Kidd said, "The JPOP Pages came to life in 1993 not for J-Pop
J-pop
, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
, but as a project to help me to learn html. The web was just starting out, maybe fewer than 1000 sites. Personal homepages were unheard of. Anyway to make a homepage I needed a topic and I chose Japanese stuff in general. As the web grew keeping track of all things Japanese was impossible, I looked at the stats my J-pop pages were the most popular ones I had so I scrapped the rest and made it a JPOP only site. As people came online with their own sites they started mailing asking if they could put their link on my pages. They knew my site and knew if they had a link there they would get noticed, get visitors. In those days if you were online and you liked JPOP you knew Bonsai's JPOP Pages was the place to go but once the web exploded JPOP sites sprang up everywhere."
Byron Kidd who ran Bonsai's J-pop as a student in Australia to his adult career life closed the Website back in 2000.
The drama mailing list
In the early 90s, a large group of fans of Japanese television dramas (aka Dorama) watched Japanese dramas on their local international channel that featured the dramas subtitled in English or rented from a Japanese video rental store. As more and more people became excited about Japanese dramas, John Leo created the first mailing list which brought people around the world to discuss Japanese dramas. The drama mailing list was passed on to Rick Frankum in 1997 but with more and more country and language-specific mailing lists and message boards flourishing on the internet, the dorama mailing list closed down in 2000.J!-ENT
In June 1993, Dennis A. Amith ran a BBS on Wildcat titled Neo-Tokyo 2099. The BBS was dedicated to anime and Japanese entertainment with a large Japanese entertainment area on the BBS called J!-ENT. Featured on anime publications and not able to handle the phone lines for user access, Amith created the J!-ENT website in 1996 to coincide with the popularity of Japanese dramas, variety shows and music shows.J!-ENT has now become a Japanese and Asian entertainment and pop culture website that features news and information, interviews and articles with Japanese and Asian entertainers (in English) and remains one of the longest running, volunteer supported Japanese entertainment (in English) website on the Internet. Also, working with Japanese record labels, TV, film and radio companies to promote latest projects and working with event coordinators to bring and promote Japanese artists coming to the United States and Europe.
In Nov. 2008, the website J!-ENT has changed to incorporate worldwide entertainment and pop culture.
T's Kawaii J-pop Pages
Ryosei Takeda created T's Kawaii J-pop Pages back in the mid-'90s and was one of the intiial promoters of ongoing fads with Japanese fashion and pop culture in English on his website. Featuring the latest in pop culture on his website, Takeda went on hiatus to restructure his website at jpop.com - a portal to Japanese pop culture.Eric's Tokyo World (AKA KidTokyo.com)
Eric Trammell, based in Florida, created this site in 1995 as part of the first-wave of English language websites which focused on Japanese pop culture. Its focus was broad, and included topics such as Japanese fashion, architecture, music, art, and more. He deliberately excluded anime from the content, since there were already a large amount of anime websites on the web. The site was not updated very often, but nonetheless attracted a large number of viewers due to the colorful graphics, descriptive text, and photos of Japanese musicians. Japanese pop and rock was downloadable on the music page in a RealMedia format, and eventually MP3.The website underwent several interface changes over the years. Eric Trammell states "At the time, I was a fledgling graphic designer, so I used the site as a playground to test out everything I was learning. While many Jpop sites at the time were quite minimalistic and more content-based, I wanted the style of my site to reflect the intense style of Tokyo".
The final iteration of Eric's site was created in 2000, when the site was integrated into a content management system, and the interface was redesigned to appear more professional and futuristic. The topics of the site remained the same, featuring sections for music, style, fashion, architecture, and art. In the next couple of years, the site would eventually be taken down due to a lack of time on Eric's part.
Popular J-ENT shows on Television
Because J-ENT is about trendy Japanese entertainment, the following television shows tend to feature popular actors and actresses or Japanese music stars on the following shows currently airing in Japan].- SMAP×SMAPSMAP×SMAPSMAP×SMAP is an ongoing weekly Japanese variety show on Kansai TV and Fuji TV starring the members of SMAP. The show began on April 15, 1996 and it airs from 22:00 to 22:54 every Monday...
(Fuji TVFuji Televisionis a Japanese television station based in Daiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, also known as or CX, based on the station's callsign "JOCX-DTV". It is the flagship station of the Fuji News Network and the ....
) - Gakkou e Ikou (TBSTokyo Broadcasting System, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
) - TETSUWAN DASH (NTVNippon Televisionis a television network based in the Shiodome area of Minato, Tokyo, Japan and is controlled by the Yomiuri Shimbun publishing company. Broadcasting terrestrially across Japan, the network is commonly known as , contracted to , and abbreviated as "NTV" or "AX".-Offices:*The Headquarters : 6-1,...
) - Mecha Mecha Ikitteru! (Fuji TV)
- Sanma no Sanma (Fuji TV)
- MUSIC STATIONMusic Stationis a Japanese music television program. It began broadcasting on October 24, 1986 and continues to be broadcast weekly in High-definition from 8PM-9PM on tv asahi...
(TV AsahiTV Asahi, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....
) - HEY! HEY! HEY! MUSIC CHAMP (Fuji TV)
- UTABANUtabanwas a long running Japanese music variety show, broadcast weekly from October 15, 1996 until March 23, 2010 on TBS. The name of the show is an abbreviation of , meaning "music program"...
(TBS) - Count Down TVCount Down TVis a Japanese late night music television show, originally broadcast on TBS from 1993 onwards. The program is shown weekly, and features a Japanese music video hit chart countdown, live performances from musicians and music information...
(TBS) - Sokuhou! Uta no Daijiten (NTV)
- Music Fair 21 (FUJI TV)
- UTABANUtabanwas a long running Japanese music variety show, broadcast weekly from October 15, 1996 until March 23, 2010 on TBS. The name of the show is an abbreviation of , meaning "music program"...
(TBS) - Sokuhou! Uta no Daijiten (NTV)
- Music Fair 21 (FUJI TV)
- Channel AChannel AChannel A is a Japanese musical variety show produced by Avex and East and Television Kanagawa.-History: started on October 1, 1998 at 10:00 pm as a 54-minute show...
(syndicated)
Japanese Television Networks
- Fuji TVFuji Televisionis a Japanese television station based in Daiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, also known as or CX, based on the station's callsign "JOCX-DTV". It is the flagship station of the Fuji News Network and the ....
- TBSTokyo Broadcasting System, TBS Holdings, Inc. or TBSHD, is a stockholding company in Tokyo, Japan. It is a parent company of a television network named and radio network named ....
- NTVNippon Televisionis a television network based in the Shiodome area of Minato, Tokyo, Japan and is controlled by the Yomiuri Shimbun publishing company. Broadcasting terrestrially across Japan, the network is commonly known as , contracted to , and abbreviated as "NTV" or "AX".-Offices:*The Headquarters : 6-1,...
- TV AsahiTV Asahi, also known as EX and , is a Japanese television network headquartered in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company writes its name in lower-case letters, tv asahi, in its logo and public-image materials. The company also owns All-Nippon News Network....
- NHKNHKNHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....
- TV TokyoTV Tokyois a television station headquartered in Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Also known as , a blend of "terebi" and "Tokyo", it is the key station of TX Network. It is one of the major Tokyo television stations, particularly specializing in anime...
- Kansai TV
- GyaO
- Fuji- TV - English subsidiary
- KIKU-TVKIKUKIKU-TV is an independent television station based in Honolulu, Hawaii. Currently, KIKU broadcasts on DTV channel 19, Time-Warner Cable 9/Digital 89 , Time-Warner Cable 10/Digital 89 , Time-Warner Cable Digital 89 , Hawaiian Cable 12, and Hawaiian Telcom Cable 20...
- Hawaii - Video ResearchVideo ResearchVideo Research Ltd. is a Japanese marketing research company conducting audience measurement for television and radio. Since its foundation in 1962, Video Research has created its own nationwide network of branch offices and founded two international subsidiaries. Video Research USA, Inc. was...
- Japan source for television ratings
Japanese Music Labels
- Avex Entertainment, Inc.
- Sony Music Entertainment JapanSony Music Entertainment Japanis Sony's music arm in Japan. SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Corporation and independent from the United States-based Sony Music Entertainment due to its strength in the Japanese music industry....
- EMI Music Japan
- Toy's FactoryToy's Factoryis a Japanese record label founded in 1990 as a VAP subsidiary, based in Japan. It has since become an independent company.-Sub-Labels:* bellissima!* Carnage* Deep Blue* Idyllic* Kimi* Meme Tokyo* -Artists:*Aobozu*Armageddon*Bump of Chicken...
- Warner Music Japan
- Pony CanyonPony Canyonis a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966 , which publishes music, DVD and VHS videos, movies and video games. It is a subsidiary of Japanese Media Group, Fujisankei Communications Group.-History:...
- Giza StudioGIZA studiois a Japanese record label....
- For Life Music Entertainment, Inc.For Life Musicis a Japanese record label founded in 1975.-Artists:Its artists include Yōsui Inoue, Abe Fuyumi, Takuro Yoshida, Shigeru Izumiya, Under Graph, Utaibito Hane, Yōsuke Eguchi, Double, Tomoyo Harada, Shinji Harada, Yo Hitoto, Bennie K, Miss Monday, Sayuri Sugawara and Glay.Chihiro Onitsuka left...
- Victor EntertainmentVictor Entertainmentis a subsidiary of Japan Victor Company that produces and distributes music, movies and other entertainment products such as anime and television shows in Japan. It was formerly known as...
- DreamusicDreamusic Incorporatedis a Japanese record label also working as a subsidiary of TY Limited Incorporated.Its chairman is Tom Yoda, ex-chairman of Avex Group.-Domestic:* Funky Monkey Babys* Yōichi Aoyama* Yūzō Kayama* Hiroko Nakamura* Ayaka Hirahara* Ryoko Moriyama...
- TAISUKE
- PS Company
- Sounday
- ORICONOricon, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc...
- Daily and weekly sales charts for Japanese music albums, CD singles, DVDs and more.
External links
- AsianDrama.info
- J!-ENT
- Jpop.com A Portal into Japanese Pop Culture