just to say, americans, westerners in general, all judging another countries culture while safely ensconced in our own is pretty obviously exercising a double standard, eh?

Sleeping in separate rooms? Cure your snoring in 2 weeks 100% naturally…

STOP MAKING A BIG DEAL ABOUT EVERYTHING. THE WORLD IS NOT OUT TO GET US.

STOP MAKING A BIG HAIRY DEAL ABOUT EVERYTHING. THE WORLD IS NOT OUT TO GET US.

“BASICALLY this whole song is poking fun at stereotypically uninformed foreigners, e.g. those who think Japan is still swarming with samurais, knows nothing about the country beyond sushi and miso soup, etc. The italised words are originally in katakana; which implies that the speaker has a weird accent / only knows how to pronounce that word but not what it actually means / looks like.”

And come on most people are just that.(well the stupid ones)

Out of interest, not being remotely black myself (hell, I don’t even tan well), just how do you get “routinely attacked for [your] culture, looks, and ethnicity”? I have been places in Japan with black people (including some fairly rural places), and haven’t noticed anything amiss (maybe a bit more staring, but that’s normal). However this may not be representative.

As an African American who speaks Japanese and has many Japanese friends, I’ve had my share of fending off ignorant questions and stereotypes. It’s part of living abroad. At the same time, African Americans or any other group should not “gaman suru” through repeat offenses or racism and discrimination, especially when it comes to television and the media.

Japan has been trying to internationalize for many years now, and this collective thinking, “us verus them” mentality has got to go. You are NOT doing us a favor by becoming the noble gaijin, okay? It’s not white people who are routinely attacked for their culture, looks, and ethnicity, okay? You may get a few “Wow, this gaijin is white but he speaks Japanese!” comments, and maybe some guy wouldn’t want you dating his daughter, but your white skin gives you access that many black people will not get. There is a lot of discrimination that you’re probably not even aware of.

:/

Do they not realize that kaiten-zushi is not unique to Japan?

if you read my post carefully, i stated that i enjoy comedy and do not have a problem with tunnels and dj ozma dressing in drag. I used live in shinjuku 2-chome by goodness. what i took issue with was the story (stripper, teen pregnancy, dad ran off, stereotypical a.k.a. “typical gaijin” questions “visitors” ask).

i have spent time in front of the camera for NTT, Bandai, and other companies for television, internet, and print advertising. having worked with, worked at (contract), and getting to’ up from the flo’ up (drunk) with junior and senior employees at dentsu and hakuhodo; i can tell you that i am 100% sure that both of these agencies employ non-japanese full-time workers, contract workers, foreign ad planning companies, and foreign crews to produce domestic and foreign ad campaigns.

stop making excuses for the japanese (collective) and believing that you can “think” for or understand where “i” or those that “you” feel are victimized. a frickin’ comic has nothing to do with this conversation, the ad copy does. stay on point and stay in your lane!

now you are entitled to reply to my opinion!

@ moderator: let me know (online or offline) if you feel my post is inappropriate.

For the rest of us, it is about three men dressing up as women performing an act. Absolutely no disrespect was intended, so why do you feel yourself victimised?

Compare this to the Muslims that felt insulted by the Danish cartoon depicting their prophet. Do you feel all cartoonists everywhere should refrain from making jokes about anything that could insult anyone anywhere? What a bland, boring world you desire.

You are joking, right? You drinking the Jim Jones punch or something?

“when you befriend someone they will soon learn to understand a lot more about the world outside of Japan and about other cultures, as long as you take the effort to teach them.”

So what excuse does the advertiser or multinational company have?

“It takes effort, and as a minority that is your responsibility, sista.”

News flash, a “person” does not have to put up with crap. Smells like an Anonymous condescending attitude!

See the thing is you brought up the right point when you said “why would they this” because I am wondering that myself. If this happened after the movie “Dreamgirls” premiered in japan I can kind of see it as sort of spoof. Or its not like japan ever have an era of “90s” tv sitcoms like the USA did with nearly every comedy show having that one token black female that was loud, often saying “girlfriend” and full of ‘tude. ugh.

I found comedy to be all about timing or following whats the most popular way to get a cheap laugh but the use of drag and change of race to achieve that always came of as weird to me. Even when black comedians in the US did it too.

[trackback]

It’s like you have to actually ‘educate’ people, because society in general and skits like this (however unintentional) seek to put people in these neat little boxes, however unattractive they may be. It gets burdensome and irritating to deal with the ignorant person who really honestly thinks that all black women are some really rank loud ghetto oversexed, babymaking broads, then when they meet a black woman, who’s not like that (and no, we are not the exceptions) go into culture shock, because it’s not what they saw ‘on the tv.’ or ‘what they heard’. You get over that hurdle and then your co-worker comes up to you and makes some rank comment and you sigh and think (here we frackin’ go again) It may not seem a big deal to non-blacks, but then again, you don’t have to be confronted with this type ignorance in the form of attitudes and comments in your everyday life.(work, school, etc.) It can make you want to scream, sometimes, because it just seems soooo hard for a lot of people to grasp that black people are not just some black monolithic blob that you can attribute certain things to all of us. We are surprise, surprise, shock and gasp INDIVIDUALS. We act different, think different, don’t all live the same way, don’t all like the same things, and no, we all don’t live in the ‘ghetto’, no, you may NOT touch my hair, please PLEASE stop calling me ‘sistagirl’. Be yourself and speak the way you normally would, and NO, I don’t know ‘what black people think/feel about ________’, because I’m not all black people, I’m ONE black person so quit asking me that dumb question! (yes,I’ve been asked/confronted with this crap and I’m bloody sick of it) etc. (you may say ignore those people, but you can’t when it’s your teacher, your boss…OMG, the corporate world is FULL of these attitudes…it’s a PURE MESS. I wonder, ‘have you ever bothered to venture outside of your 4-6 blocks???? You CAN’T be that sheltered…)

It also makes me wonder what’s the deal with dressing up like black women so often? What weird thrill derives from this? From the Japanese to the Bubble Sisters in Korea to that idiot who dresses up like ‘Shirley Q Liquor’ (who I believe really wants to be a black woman and hates himself for feeling that way. He spends more time as what he THINKS is a black woman than he does in his own white skin. Al Joelson would be oh so proud) in the States? That REALLY makes me uncomfortable and frankly it puzzles me. I’ve never had the impulse to dress up as another race for some laughs or whatever. What impulse says, ‘OOH! I’M GOING TO DRESS UP LIKE A BLACK WOMAN TODAY AND _______!’ I TRULY don’t get it.

Look, I have a hard enough time in this world dealing with ignorant (and downright stupid) preconceived stereotypes about black women from ignorant people.(let’s not even talk about the stereotypes about black women that permeate U.S. tv. ARRRGHHHH! *pulls hair*) This crap right here doesn’t help. Not one bit. As a matter of fact, it just piles onto the ignorance that’s already out there.

Sorry if it seems like I’m ranting. I just get sick of stupidity and wanted to share my view on it. That’s all.

Do you think that sounds blunt? If so, you might want to consider purchasing a bunch of holy books (Qur’an, Bible, that Jewish thing) and invest in a study of Anthropology before you ever make another joke.

To see DJ Ozma come out of retirement to do this gig is disappointing. I have been a fan of his since he was a leading the band Kishidan.

Now unlike the Gosperats, no black face is involved in this current CM but what I find extremely distasteful is the description of the faux black women, the implied teenage pregnancy and the husband that left the US (his family and his business) to return to Japan. What’s up with that?!

“Some” black women may find the video cute but when you read between the lines, the same ol’ lame azz stereotypical song about sistas keeps on playing!”

http://www.blacktokyo.com/2008/09/29/yajima-biyoshitsu/

[trackback to Japan Probe]

This is a parody. Not an especially funny one, IMHO, but not because they are dressed up like black women.

I mean when someone dresses up like a red neck sitting on the couch watching wrestling, I don’t get offended.

I think the world needs to lighten up a bit.

Why are they so blissfully unaware that they could be offensive to other races?

Why is Japanese popular culture so irritating?

Answers on a postcard to:

Four Unique Seasons of Chumpery A-304
Gormless-machi, 2-10-17
Happy Incestuous Family-shi
Japan

Or call: 0800-FOUR-SEASONS now!

Still can’t believe I didn’t think of Kon Ichikawa… Thanks for the correction anyway!

So I totally agree with you that a large portion of Japanese entertainment is rather stupid and forgettable (as it is in any nation) but I think your comment lacks perspective.

Oh, and I don’t know if it was a slip of the fingers, but Kon Satoshi (who I assume you’re referring to) is still alive and well.

Why the hell does the black mother played by DJ OZMA must be set up as an old former nude dancer?