Let us move on

I still get so many comments, e-mails and even phone calls about the mishap last Friday.

But as Elvis Costello sings "Accident will happen" and there are some bright sides to it, too.

First of all, that mishap generated so much interest about Japanese cell phone market.

Second, it generated so much traffic to this blog which sort of make me motivated to start writing what's going on in Japan right now.

Third and above all, I got this wonderful words on my facebook wall from Sam Furukawa, the guy who started Microsoft Japan (although he is the man behind Microsoft Windows success here in Japan, he is also one of the first Japanese to bring the original Mac back home to Japan and so with the iPhone):

Nobi-san, your qualification as a Professional Jounalist will never be changed with such a wrong quote. It is a good chance to ciculate your deep insights of the iPhone in Japan.
I had hundreds of such wrong quotes for last 30years, but the myth I learned was, not try to accuse the publisher nor poor writer, but to stick with what you belive in. 
I myself and whole of the audience are at your side!
Thx, SamF

(perhaps, by 'the myth I learned', he meant 'the lesson I learned')

 He may not be as well known as Bill Gates, but Furukawa-san has been running Microsoft Japan for almost 20 years and as being such, it would be very easy for us that how many times he had become upset by wrong quotes; this kind of incident happens around the globe all the time.

 I happened to be a victim this time but I am not a saint nor a journalist without a dirt.

 In Japanese, because Japanese has so many modes and our spoken language and written language are a bit different (especially in traditional print publications). Modifying quotes are done very often. And once you start doing that, journalists are tempted to modify quotes to match the story line they had drawn. 

 Of course, to avoid conflicts with the interviewee, I would interview people for long time going around the same question over and over and try to reach the real message behind. And we (I+the editors) would ask the interviewee for approval for that quote.

 Sometime, especially before the summer or winter vacation, these approval can take time to be responded and we waited making two versions of stories, one with the exact quote (with mode modification) and one with the slightly bigger modification.

 In anyway, there were bitter side but also brighter side of that mishap.

 It won't be a mishap, if it happen twice but for now let's just forget about personal attacks and focus more on what's going on in Japan.

 I will try to provide as much info as possible in the time allowed.

 That should be more constructive at least.