Category: What’s New

Sadly, Nippon Camera magazine has ceased publication with the May 2021 issue (photo) being the last one. The magazine follows its former rival Asahi Camera which ceased publication in July 2020. Japan’s two biggest and oldest camera magazines are now gone. Nippon Camera started up in 1948. It has published 964 issues. The magazine thanks its readers for their support this past 73 years. Their official notice dated April 15, 2021 only says that, “It has become difficult to continue publishing the magazine.” Tokyo-based Nippon Camera-sha, the company publishing the magazine, will also be dissolved on April 30, 2021. The

» Read more

by Philbert Ono The Japanese camera industry’s struggles have gotten worse with the pandemic in 2020. The coronavirus resulting in stay-at-home requests, travel bans, and the cancellation of events (including the Tokyo 2020 Olympics) give people fewer reasons to take pictures and fewer reasons to buy a new camera. Worldwide camera sales for Jan. to May 2020 is only 50.4% of sales in the same period in 2019. With the prominence of smartphones, all camera makers have been facing shrinking sales of digital cameras. In 2010, worldwide camera sales peaked at 121.46 million units. In 2019, it shrank to one-eighth

» Read more

by Philbert Ono In 1922, Torii Shoten (鳥井商店), the forerunner of Osaka-based beverage maker Suntory, made this poster to promote its “Akadama Port Wine” in Japan. Dubbed “Japan’s first nude poster,” it became an instant sensation. It has become one of Japan’s most iconic and classic images. Any book about Japan’s advertising history or photographic history would include this historical poster. The nascent start of the “sex sells” concept in Japan. Needless to say, thanks to this poster, they sold a lot of this wine. The poster was also very controversial during a very conservative period in Japan. The “nude” model

» Read more