“Regarding the Power Report for May 3, there are other indicators of ‘woman power’ in Japanese go,” writes Roy Schmidt (in response to The Power Report: Woman power hits Japanese go). “The Ki-in’s weekly educational program on NHK-TV, ‘Go Focus,’ flipped format a few weeks ago. For years, the format has been a 7 or 8 dan men’s pro assisted by a low-ranking women’s pro. During problem analysis, the woman’s role was to ask naïve questions on behalf of the TV audience and to express surprise when the man revealed a clever solution. But now the analysis is provided by a woman, Ueno Women’s Kisei, and the junior role is filled by a man. In another segment of the show, Hei Jiajia is serializing an introduction to the game, starting with the basic rules. Two weeks ago, the focus segment featured a woman manga artist (face obscured) working on a new series about teen-age go players, and this past Sunday the topic was go-related You-tubers including Fujisawa Rina.”
