TV announcer forced to resign over condom photo
scandalous!
The above photo of 25-year-old TV announced Miku Natsume holding a box of condoms was recently printed in a weekly tabloid. Apparently the scandalous photo has caused her to lose her job:
The implication that she was having sex, and even enjoying it, has proved fatal for her career and it has now been announced she will be leaving the broadcaster in December (Japanese). When she was advised she could no longer stay on her main show, a TV insider says that she tearfully begged for a second chance. She was told, however, that her image had suffered irrevocably with housewives who are regarded as a key part of the audience. One of her other shows was discontinued and it became clear she was getting the shove. Natsume was a rising star on the network and a “Save Matsume Group” even formed within the company as the storm broke. They initially tried to claim that the photo came from an AIDS campaign which was in the planning stage but this explanation was believed by no-one. Her supporters quickly realized they were fighting a losing battle and Matsume herself probably realized the game was up when the group dissolved.
Pretty damn ridiculous.
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Those housewives are a mean bunch, or so they say.
The running joke, though like backed by truth, is that married women are the nastiest and meanest bunch on 2ch. There’s the usual bunch of guys who bash whatever things they find objectionable, but story goes that the people from the “married women” segment part are primarily driven not by a sense of self-righteousness or moral outrage, but a darker impulse based on a collective sense of envy and jealousy for the younger, more beautiful, and more successful. And they have all day to go online and vent.
Hence, their given slang nickname is pretty fitting.
Married Women = 既婚女性 (kikon-josei) That’s shortened to 既女 (kijo), and the kanji is substituted for one with the same pronunciation, 鬼女 (kijo) with the characters meaning “Ogre Women”.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Sucks to be this person.
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That is real damn unfortunate…
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I’ve never fully understood Japan’s incredibly broad definition of “scandalous behavior.” I’ve read about other celebrities being scorned/fired/forced to retire for just being seen in public with another person of the opposite gender and it just boggles my mind.
Can anyone provide any greater insight for me? I don’t really pay much attention to the general Japanese media but I’m curious how much this ties into their incredible penchant for typecasting (if at all).
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It might be a bit misleading to say it was scandalous because the photos implied she had sex and even enjoyed it.
It seems to me that the idea of discouraging or encouraging to enjoy sex sounds too westernized:there are sexual discourses and codes in modern Japan that are different from another culture.
I don’t pay attention to tabloid either, but my guess is it is scandalous if it is largely inconsistent with the images and the role a person is expected to play.
I didn’t know this announcer, but reading some articles on Natsume on the internet , it seems that she established herself as an pure and innocent(清純派) idol for everyone.
Pure and innocent means, in Japanese context, that she doesn’t smoke,she does not date with a particular man, etc.
If it was a female comedian, it wouldn’t be scandalous.
And, as helical said, the sense of envy and jealousy by housewives must have played an important role to make her leave the main show.
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Yea this is ridiculous, she should be praised for promoting safe(r) sex!
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Well, the employer-employee relationship is somewhat different in Japan than in the West. I suppose the broadcaster didn’t want to be associated with condoms or something.
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It is a damn shame
that I wasn’t the lucky guy on the other side of that camera.
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Those condoms are great! But at 1000 yen for a six pack, they really have to be 002-worthy. She’s definitely 002-worthy
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Because we all know that housewives don’t have sex.
In fact, no one has sex, and even if they did, they wouldn’t do it safely with condoms.
What the hell is wrong with people? This shouldn’t even be an issue. It’s like firing someone for drinking coffee.
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Actually you are probably right: those housewives probably aren’t getting any, and resent those that are.
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Housewives and 教育ママ are the bane of Japanese society
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I think I remember reading somewhere that 1/4 of Japanese people in their early thirties are virgins… Can’t remember if it was on Wai Wai or the NYT
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Grrr, that’s wrong. That’s unmarried ppl in their 30s and even then its questionable
http://www.mutantfrog.com/2009/07/27/nemutans-revenge-some-fact-checking-and-reaction-to-the-nyt-story-on-anime-fetishists/
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Adamu,
I am quite familiar with your post. I was trying (and apparently failing) to make a joke. Hence, the little winking smiley at the end.
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The funny thing is according to recent studies, they really aren’t. Haven’t sex, that is.
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once again we the asians care too much about prideful image.
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and people wonder why Japan’s fertility rate is on the decline…
Nihon TV (owned by Yomiuri Shimbun) is just a conservative mouthpiece anyway; that they’d fire her over a personal photo doesn’t surprise me.
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I dunno… I think this photo is pretty bad form.
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Same. If I were trying to run a respectable business and one of my most exposed employees took a picture like this (and it went public), I wouldn’t be too happy about it.
Besides, people are judging from their own cultural perspectives. I work for a public school here in Japan, and if I do something illegal, or even something legal that the neighbors complain about, the school (and maybe even the board of education, depending on the severity) has to apologize on my behalf. It’s embarrassing for them, because people will talk about how a teacher at such-and-such a school did whatever, and therefore such-and-such school isn’t doing a good job training/choosing its employees. Convenience store workers are disciplined or fired if they’re not polite enough to customers. Employers have a lot more power over here, and employees are held to a higher standard. As I said, the relationship is different.
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Your comment makes the assumption that pre-marital sex and the use of contraception are immoral or shameful.
That is a reasonable attitude for some cultures, such as strict Roman Catholic, however it is far from universal.
It is interesting that the presenter’s “image rights” have clearly been abused, yet she is not treated as a victim but as a perpetrator.
The case is another manifestation of the Japanese media business control over the ‘talent’ in front of the camera.
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The only thing “bad form” about any of this is the tabloid’s act of printing something that’s obviously private and personal.
I find the hypocrisy of those people who reads tabloid news that exploits public figures a hundred times more appalling than the picture itself.
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Agreed that if this was meant to be private then part of the blame should certainly rest with the tabloids.
However it doesn’t matter if “pre-marital sex and the use of contraception are immoral or shameful” or not. If a company doesn’t want to associate itself with pre-marital sex or contraception then they don’t have to employ someone who public promotes those things. If someone who worked for an adult entertainment company entered the public eye with a statement proclaiming abstinence to be the best lifestyle, I wouldn’t be at all surprised or shocked if they were fired.
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…The implication that she was having sex, and even enjoying it…
If she actually was indulging the pleasures of the flesh, wouldn’t the cellophane wrap be off the box? I think she’s bluffing.
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Hypocrisy.
Japan is the most liberal country in the world when it comes to sex, yet it is considered a scandal when a young announcer appears holding a condom box in a photo.
Double standard that shows the conflicts between the real and the idealized Japan existing in the mind of conservative people.
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The most liberal? you can’t even see genitals in their porn! Most perverted yes, but not too liberal.
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Dunno. Germany’s got some crazy stuff too…
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Yep, but it’s mainly bdsm.
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“most perverted”
Yes. I think this word describe better Japanese sexuality.
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Or Japan looks liberal when it comes to sex for enthusiastic Korean fans of J porno.
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Now a smart bussiness person would use this situation to sell condoms, with this scandal story as a media stunt to gain more popularity, well i would, atleast with something so rediculus as this.
My personal opinion on this matter though is that she actually uses her tv star power to commericialize for safe sex.
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This isn’t about “those backward Japs” and their views on sex. It’s about a company that wants to maintain a good image. It makes perfect sense to fire someone that could bring down the image of your company. Sure, it’s not good for Natsume and tabloids are a waste of paper, but that’s business.
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Well Japan was a sexually very liberal thinking Country, then came the GIs in ‘45 and McArthur with hypocrite thinking in US-Style.
Since then shared bath at Sentos were forbidden and any detailed nudity n magazines or porn.
They couldn’t do it at home so they obstructed it to another country.
For example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Japan
“However, SCAP abolished the licensed prostitution system (including the RAA) in 1946…”
And they did not stop there. Unfortunately you find very little written documents in English on the net on this topic.
Here another example how the influenced.
http://www.midnighteye.com/features/a-history-of-sex-education-films-in-japan-part-2.shtml
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Who wrote:
>>This isn’t about “those backward Japs” and their views on sex. It’s about a company that wants to maintain a good image.
There is nothing (neccesarily) bad about safe sex. Relating a photo including a condom to bad- or good-image can only be done from a backwarded mind / company.. So sadly enough people like ‘Who’ respect businesslike this. Has probably also to do with placing money highrt than morale.
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Pretty damn ridiculous.
I prefer the term “Totally fucking stupid”.
But I get a potty mouth when dumb stuff appears in front of me.
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The people who agree that it was a good idea that she got fired are really fucked! You have some problems that you need professional help with! This is why I left Japan. You can’t cough in Japan without there being severe consistences… It is the most uptight society in the world, and repress it’s people to the point of childlike ignorance.
This (very beautiful young) woman, was doing something that the WHOLE FUCKING WORLD does. Having sex. And not only was this picture a sign that she is actually a human with a life, but that she is a responsible one! She should be praised, not fired!
Japan has some very beautiful points, and there are many things I love about the country, but on the whole, it is a country with a society rotting from the inside. It is so sad…
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People on 2ch dont like seeing other people potentially getting more than 0% sex like themselves.
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Sacrificing one announcer over a nothing scandal is worth it if it means preserving stability and control over the juicy, profitable airwaves. Those unhappy housewives control the budgets of every Japanese household, so if there’s an uppity ho who displeases them, watch out.
http://blog.goo.ne.jp/ikedanobuo/e/dce87ecf00380d09026693ba8c17a253
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Somehow I doubt anyone here would have been as charitable towards the station if this was an American announcer and an American story.
Chose whatever position you want on an issue, but don’t be inconsistent just because it happened in Japan.
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I bet it could have happened the same even in a Western television.
The sin is not in what the photo suggests, but in associating the star’s face with a non endorsed-paying sponsor..
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Remember when that American Newscaster got fire for being in a well photographed wet t-shirt contest?
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That does bring up an point, I’m sure a newscaster on my local network, if found to have taken nude pics or something of that sort, would be forced to resign. Heck in Florida some school teacher was fired for posing in bikini’s on a boat. Last I read she was doing porn as she supposedly couldn’t find a job. These kinds of things happen all over.
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A 25 year-old having sexual intercourse? SCANDALOUS, I say!
I think another station should pick her up. Nihon TV is pretty shit anyways.
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I bet there wouldn’t be this much of a hoo-ha if it was a guy with a box of condoms. I mean, there was that guy from SMAP the other month who was running around drunk and naked. He’s still got plenty of work going for him and wasn’t fired by his agency.
There’s a billboard about 10m tall in Shibuya with a rather famous young lady that says something equivalent to “wear a condom, stop the spread of AIDS”
Matsume can come stay with me if she likes.
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Actually those are some pretty great condoms, if u read the box when u get it, it says “korewagamujyanai,KONDAMUDA”, pretty funny. but yea my coworkers gave me the Sagami LSIZED (its a joke cuz im white and i have a big nose), its definitely a weird feeling condom, comes in almost condiment type package, so it looks more like a container of buttermilk than a condom.
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As I live in scandinavia with my Japanese wife, we have a lot of good opportunities to compare ’scandals’ in both countries. One is known as very open society and one is closed.
Here, the sex scandals are nothing. They happens, then disappears. Life goes on.
But what my wife was really shocked was that on last week, the one top bosses of the Audi car importer got fired – just because he had said during some long interview some facts about women, or what he likes in women and compared women to the cars (like “I like that woman looks good, like my car should also”, “The good woman uses high heels, it’s important that woman has good chassis like it is important for cars”, ….).
That would not had happen in Japan, I heard.
But it happens here…
Just some foods for thought
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Yeah, but the Scandinavian guy was sacked for being sexist, the Japanese girl was sacked for being sexy.
In the developed country with the world’s lowest birthrate, Japan needs all the sexy in can get.
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Nihon TV is run by a bunch of scumbag back-room-smoking-cigar fascists. that they would axe a fine young lady for something so lame comes as no striking revelation.
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Wow… Just wow…
A famous TV personality is advocating safe sex. Let fire her ass. How dare she imply that condoms are something positive and extremely important.
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