Shukan Gendai
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese weekly magazine
Shukanshi
is a Japanese term for any weekly magazine, including controversial weekly tabloid newspapers.As noted by Watanabe and Gamble in the Japan Media Review, the genre is "often described as bizarre blends of various types of U.S...
published since 1959 by Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
. Published simultaneously with Weekly Post
Weekly Post
The Weekly Post was a weekly newspaper published in Rainsville, Alabama by Southern Newspapers and serving the DeKalb County, Alabama region.The Weekly Post was founded in 1986 by the editor and former employees of The Sand Mountain News, the previous Rainsville newspaper which had ceased...
(another weekly magazine published by Shogakukan
Shogakukan
is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, manga, non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan.Shogakukan founded Shueisha which founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hitotsubashi Group, one of the largest publishing groups in Japan...
), it includes articles about political scandals, sports and celebrities; nude photos; movie information; book reviews; and other articles of interest to middle-aged salarymen
Salaryman
refers to someone whose income is salary based; particularly those working for corporations. Its frequent use by Japanese corporations, and its prevalence in Japanese manga and anime has gradually led to its acceptance in English-speaking countries as a noun for a Japanese white-collar...
. Along with Weekly Post, it is credited with coining the pseudo-English term
Wasei-eigo
are Japanese pseudo-Anglicisms: English constructions not used in the English-speaking world or by native English speakers, but that appear in Japanese. This should not be confused for foreign words gairaigo, which generally refer to words from European languages, especially American English...
"hair nude", meaning nude photography that shows pubic hair
Pubic hair
Pubic hair is hair in the frontal genital area, the crotch, and sometimes at the top of the inside of the legs; these areas form the pubic region....
.
The magazine is probably best known outside Japan for its role in the scandal which led to Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n gymnasts Corina Ungureanu
Corina Ungureanu
Corina Georgiana Ungureanu is a world-class Romanian artistic gymnast who competed internationally between 1993 and 1999...
, Lavinia Miloşovici
Lavinia Milosovici
Lavinia Corina Miloşovici is a Romanian Olympic gymnast. An exceptionally successful athlete on the international competition circuit, Miloşovici, also known as "Milo" in the gymnastics community, is considered to be one of Romania's top gymnasts of the 1990s and one of the most prolific female...
and Claudia Presecan
Claudia Presecan
Claudia Maria Presăcan, is a world-class Romanian artistic gymnast who competed at the senior international level between 1994 and 2000...
being banned from competing or coaching in their home country for five years, as it was the first to publish images from their nude photobook
Photobook
A photo-book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. The most critically acclaimed photo-books celebrate the creative work of an individual photographer, but can also result from the collaboration between a photographer and a writer, an...
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s, which controversially featured the gymnasts wearing their official leotard
Leotard
A leotard is a skin-tight one-piece garment that covers the torso but leaves the legs free. It was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard ....
s.