Japan Prime Minister Noda and the Half A Million Dollar Website
Japan’s prime mininster’s office has spent 4.5 million yen (nearly US$550,000) on an overhaul of the Prime Minister’s website. The redesign was done to improve communications. A new section of the site was also designed for kids. The site, titled” The Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet” can be found at http://www.kantei.go.jp/ . It includes links to Prime Minister Noda’s twitter account, blog, and various other items of interest to politically minded folks. There are also rotating headlines and pictures including one of Prime Minister Noda shaking hands with Mark Zuckerberg. The kids’ site features quiz games, most of which are about the political process or different areas of Japan, and includes a virtual tour (via slideshow) of the cabinet and Prime Minister’s official residence and offices.
Although there’s no denying the page has been updated and expanded, one has to wonder how the half a million dollars. One of the best comments I saw on the web about this was the idea to offer a $10,000 prize for the best website and how much better a design might have come out of that.
There are some screenshots below of the site and the kids site which can be found at “http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/kids/index.html” if you want to go directly there.
You are one prime minister behind the times. Pictured with Mark Zuckerberg is Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko.
MTC Thank you so much. And heartfelt apologies to anyone who was confused by this… I even remember when the English language news media would accidentally refer to him as Yoshiko Noda by mistake.
Wow… at least I didn’t say it was Prim Minister Hashimoto hanging out with Bill Gates… but I wouldn’t put it past myself.
Corrections have been made above changing Kan to Noda. Cheers to you MTC.
Just want to say out loud of what the Japanese citizens are thinking about this is that, the Japanese citizen’s are not pleased about this.
It costs half a million to renew a website!?
I thought the country was bankrupt so Noda and his dumb people’s are trying to double the tax rate from what is from now.
When a leader of your country is just plain dumb, the people are the one who are getting sacrificed for their stupidity.
It’s pretty silly Maki, but it kind of reminds me of a few years back when the committee responsible for managing the transportation taxes, tolls, and so on built new facilities for themselves including massage chairs and karaoke and things.
Of course, since I wrote that story, this one came out in the US!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/new-gsa-chief-calls-las-vegas-spree-completely-unacceptable/2012/04/10/gIQAJt8x8S_blog.html
Craziness.