BBC’s Japanorama - what the West want to see of Japan?
Was just browsing the interweb at work today, due to having little work to do (no students and relatively few teachers) when I got to the BBC homepage. Was about to look at the news headlines when I saw a
link to a TV programme on BBC3 tonight called Japanorama. Intrigued, I clicked the link and read on…
The series of programmes follows Jonathan Ross as he travels to Japan in search of “what’s big” in Japan. In this, the 3rd series, the areas to be looked at by Ross are: Gaijin (outsiders), Ai and Koi (love & romance), J-Art, Densetsu (legends), Kaidan (Horror) and Gyaru (bad girls). Now I have no problem with Jonathan Ross, and I think the little I have seen of him on TV in the past 4 or 5 years has been good, but the content of this show should certainly be questioned. Firstly, the first episode is called Gaijin. While this literally means “outsider”, if you ask anyone in Japanese what gaijin means, they will say it is a foreigner. To illustrate this, just look at the 4 people below. We have a Japanese celebrity/comedian, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and iconic film-maker Akira Kurosawa:
If you ask anyone in Japan which looks looks like a gaijin then 100% will answer that’s it’s Mr Blair. I’ve just spoken to a few students who mysteriously appeared and a few teachers, and they have no idea of how the people described in the gaijin show could be described using that word.
The last show of the series is going to cover Gyaru, or “bad” girls. There are many types of these, but it looks like to focus will be on ganguro and yamamba (literally meaning “mountain witch”). Both types of women use a very dark makeup (not dissimilar to brown shoe polish) to make their skin a dark brown colour, before using white makeup to highlight areas of their face they wish to show off. It says in the preview that their “love of Californian fake tan and bleached blonde hair have made them symbols of modern Japan”. In fact, this style went out of fashion in all areas except Shibuya in central Tokyo by around 2001 or 2002. And it was not because of the love of Californian fake tan that inspired their makeup choice; it was actually because of Japanese (indeed, Okinawan) pop singer Namie Amuro’s use of this style of makeup that influenced the girls. But they can’t really be called “bad girls” as most of the girls who do this are harmless. From what I have learned, many of them are/were bullied at school, and dressing up this way gives them a new identity and people they can group together with. In a society where conformity means everything and a slight difference will single you out, these girls dare to look different from the norm.
I suppose my main issue with this show is that it claims to be portraying what is big in Japan today. In fact, they are showing things that were popular 5-10 years ago, and sometimes more. The Gyaru show also looks at Reiko Ike, an action star who was famous in the 1970s. But a straw poll of my office shows that only one person has heard of her, and my co-workers cover a variety of generations. Admittadly, this may not be representative of the whole of Japan, but I would suspect this woman’s popularity with the general Japanese population isn’t so high.
What is being promoted here is the Japan that westerners are spoon-fed by western media and which they lap up. Millions of people watched Takeshi’s Castle and saw crazy Japanese TV shows on Tarrant on TV, and then believed that Japan was just full of people trying to hurt themselves in order to be on TV. While this is the case on rare occasions, the vast majority of what is portrayed is way out of proprtion.
Since I have been writing this, I have had a couple of other teachers come up to me, ask what I’m doing (on account of the photo above) and then commend me after I explain to them. They want Japan to be shown in a good light, which is what I will try to do here. I like to highlight the funny and maybe stranger sides of Japan, but these are always the exceptions rather than the rule. Take care, and dive safely.
or Discuss this Article
Hi Dave,
I must admit I am not a fan of Jonathan Ross at all. I find his manner and interview style belittling and base. Unfortunately he does get some decent guests on his “chat show” but most tend to sit there with a look that says “what am I doing?” or “I am going to kill my agent for this”.
That aside, I haven’t seen Japanorama, so couldn’t comment, but hopefully anyone who does, given its presenter, would take it all with a pinch of salt, realising that it is not a realistic image, only another attempt for the BBC to find something shocking to make Ross’s salary package pale into insignificance!
But, come on, don’t knock Takeshi’s Castle. It’s great fun and although some of the contestants appear to be a little on the crazy side, it does show they are a very happy people!
I think the articles you note and issues you raise give a very positive/fair view of Japan. Certainly the respectful culture is something that could be learned over here. The UK continues to slide into chaos and ruin with a culture of intimidation and people believing the world owes them a favour. It’s not good, you’re definitely in the better place right now.
okay, rant over. Speak soon.
Bim x