Japanese Television
Already : Hatachi Archives
Japanese Television Sunday July 6
I just can't understand Japanese television. Sure, the little bits that make it on to YouTube about folding a t-shirt in 3 seconds end up crossing over and convincing everyone that television here is wacky, entertaining, and different; there definitely are some redeeming aspects. Human tetris was also entertaining, I can't take that away from them.
However, as a discerning consumer, I fail to see the overall value proposition on Japanese television. This morning, Adam and I were sharing breakfast and coffee, and the programming consisted of the following scene:
(1) Old Japanese male show host (required for any Japanese show),
(2) Cutesy but not hot female co-host (required, usually half-Japanese or holds an otherwise interesting trait),
(3) Gallery of attractive, young Japanese women whose role is to overreact to any item discussed on the show,
(4) The particular "main event" for a given show.
(1) and (2) will introduce (4), who will thereby interact with (3) about the topic that (4) is knowledgeable about. Today's theme, and no, I am not lying, was that (4) was holding an electric guitar and playing, at the request of (3), various commercial jingles that he had penned for a marginally-well-known bean sprout producer in Japan. Apparently, he had written over 100 jingles, all of which were rejected by the president of the bean sprout company, but they were nevertheless assumedly entertaining, so he was playing them for (3).
I'll put this one out there so I don't need to repeat myself: bean sprouts. What? I mean, seriously, what the...?
Second, Japan really needs to outgrow this idea that company presidents control everything. This comes from a deeply-rooted cultural instinct that normal people like you and me cannot start our own company, we cannot be successful, and that only company presidents and directors are allowed to lead the special, privledged lives that they lead. I am not sure if this is a by-product of WWII or even the class system of the pre-Meiji era, but it's definitely very evident in modern culture.
The whole thing is a sham, I am sure that the marketing department of the bean sprout company is paying the television channel for this sham they are calling programming, and that the whole thing is ridiculous product placement (which is the key to any television show in Japan).
Maybe it is possible, though, that the president of this company himself personally insisted on approving every jingle to be used in a commercial. It would fall in line with the news we've heard recently about the ex-president of Nova, the shady English school, who was arrested. There were reports that he was in such tight control of the company that even wastebasket purchase orders had to be personally signed off by him.
Why, you ask, would I choose to live in such a city?
