Bobby Ologun profits by betting against Japanese tolerance for international marriages
August 15th, 2009 by James
Last night on NTV, Nigerian-born Japanese talento Bobby Ologun took his children onto a quiz show in which they had to guess how Japanese viewers voting by phone would answer certain questions. Here’s a clip that shows how Bobby correctly guessed the outcome of two particular questions (one asking viewers how they would feel if born into his family, another asking their views on marriage with non-Japanese):
In both cases, Bobby bet that the audience would vote negatively and he was correct. Only 39% of viewers responded by saying they would be happy to be born into the Ologun family and 63% expressed insecurity/fear over the idea of marrying a foreigner. The results may have been skewed by the fact that Bobby was using the 2 minute voting period to tell stories that made his family life sound strange or bad. It was a pretty sad display of pandering for money and it worked: Bobby won a whopping 300,000 yen (about 3,000 USD).
Other questions not shown in this clip revealed that 90% of viewers thought Bobby intentionally made mistakes while speaking Japanese and a plurality (35%) of viewers liked Bobby more than Dave Spector, Konishiki, or Girolamo Panzetta.
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You’re right – anyone appearing on a game show is nothing more than a sad display of pandering for money, but I don’t see anything wrong with what Bobby did here in particular. They offered him money and he was smart enough to know that most Japanese people err on the safe side given any unfamiliar situation. What baffles me is how the game show creators thought these questions were challenging.
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Okay, so who is this 10% that thinks that Bobby’s mistakes in Japanese are real? It’s the most obvious act in the world, LOL.
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Probably the margin of error in the survey….
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He’s got a family to feed, so I don’t blame him for his TV antics. Beats teaching English.
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Those poor kids…
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That is pathetic and shameless exploiting your kids like that. Hard to gauge public sentiment with a brief question and answer, but really, I’m sure there are plenty of stupid bigots out there in the world who wouldn’t be ‘tolerant’ of Bobby’s “kind” marrying “their kind.” Hardly unique to Japanese.
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Ugh.. I’m not sure who I’m more disappointed in, Bobby or the Japanese public who voted like this.
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it is just like to put your kids in front of tigers hoping they get moved and don’t eat them
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Celebrities keeping the winnings for themselves is unheard of in the UK. They’re always made to give it to charity. They generally get much more to be on the program, anyway…
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after the first 2 comments: what is all the commotion about? :S
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Rose-chan is very cute.
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Bobby’s children insisted on A. Bobby’s marriage and relationship with his children must be really good. Japanese public voting mostly B is because of the fear of unknown. My international marriage is great! Bobby’s children are very cute.
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I tuned in to this one late, so I missed the depressing marriage question (seriously Japan, international marriages are fuan?) but I was also alarmed by the last question concerning “foreigner talent.” Bobby isn’t a foreigner anymore, he’s a citizen. Same with Konishiki. Labeling them as “foreigners” ignores the work they have done to integrate themselves into Japanese society.
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I dunno – asking “How would you feel about marrying a foreigner?” and giving answer choices of “A. As long as we have love, we’ll be fine” and “B. Nervous/uneasy” and NOT having the majority of people, any people, anywhere, answer “B” would surprise me. Hell, anyone who seriously answers “As long as we have love…” to a question on their views on marriage, be that to a foreigner or not, would concern me. That is a remarkably simplistic and starry-eyed view of marriage that will probably result in that person ending up as an “ex”.
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I watched the show, and found the segment where idol Aki Hoshino was asked to guess whether people thought her boobs were real or fake (with “before/after” photos from over the years) a perfect complement to show the shallowness of these programs.
But I still watched it.
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What was the result of Aki Hoshino’s boobs?
Enquiring minds want to know.
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She correctly guessed that about 70% (I think) of people think her boobs are “ayashii” (suspicious) rather than “zettai honmono” (definitely real).
But that’s the problem. She doesn’t have to reveal anything. She just had to guess what the majority opinion is. Though she insists they’re real and a result of eating bananas or something.
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That was a pretty safe bet. The bookies in Vegas have always given 50-1 or greater odds against Japanese tolerance for anything different.
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Did you catch Bobby on Sekai Ichi Uketai Jigyou on Saturday? He was exceptionally lucid talking about refugee issues (no-one else on the panel offered anything more than gasps and sobs) and he gained some respect from for for that appearance (which will probably be lost on the next show he appears on!)
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i can’t believe that black ass guy appears on japanese tv. i’ve looked him up on wiki, and it seems as if people WANT to see him because he screws up his japanese? what? if that’s the case, then i’ll sign my ass up right now and become the next foreign idol in japan. wtf…
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This is a very depressing view of Japanese people. EVERYTHING I have read on the internet makes Japan seem very very racist against blacks and foreigners. I feel sad that Bobby would put his children on television and make them publicly learn about how racist Japan is towards them. What is really sad is that the word Ologun is related to the japanese word shogun. In fact, Bobby- I can tell just from his last name- is a Yoruba man. Shogun, also written as Segun, means warrior in Yoruba. Ogun means war or iron in Yoruba. If you are following my thought, I am saying to you that Japanese are related to Nigerians in general. It is sad to see people who supposedly care so much for history insulting their own ancestry with hatred. Does anyone understand why there is so much racism in Japan? It makes me very afraid to visit as I am very sensitive to hatred and racism. My point is that Japan needs to realize that its people are already ALL mixed race. The human race has been mixing since it began in Africa.
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”What is really sad is that the word Ologun is related to the japanese word shogun.”
？？？？？
”EVERYTHING I have read on the internet makes Japan seem very very racist against blacks and foreigners.”
Do you mean everying you have read in English, right?
Perhaps some expats really hate other foreigners and blacks to come to Japan.
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