Jero Receives Berkeley Japan New Vision Award

I’ve found out via a press release e-mail that American enka singer Jero will be winning this year’s Berkeley Japan New Vision Award:

Since his debut in Japan in 2008, Jero (born Jerome Charles White, Jr.) has transformed the Japanese music industry. After his single Umiyuki burst onto the charts his subsequent albums, Yakusoku (2009), Covers (2008), Covers 2 (2009), and Covers 3 (2010) have garnered critical acclaim and have been credited with reviving popular interest in enka music. Winner of the 2008 Best New Artist Award at the Japan Record Awards, he has also appeared regularly on Japanese TV and in commercials and twice performed at the prestigious New Year’s Eve Kôhaku Utagassen concert.

The Berkeley Japan New Vision Award was established in 2009 to award an individual who has, in recent times, dramatically transformed our vision of Japan. Singing traditional Japanese ballads in an American idiom, not only has Jero rekindled an interest in enka among the younger generation of Japanese but he has also opened up the possibilities for fluent Japanese-speakers from around the world breaking into the entertainment and other industries in Japan. Given his mixed-race background, he has also become a symbol for the acceptance of a more multiethnic society for 21st-century Japan.

The award ceremony will be held in April. (Last year’s winner was film director Clint Eastwood.)

Although Jero hasn’t been making many headlines lately, the press release mentions that he has a new album [Best & Rare (2011.3. 23)] coming out soon, as well as a biography entitle “Enka Transcends Borders: African-American Singer Jero and a Family History Spanning Three Generations” (Iwanami, March 2011).

He’s also been regularly appearing in instant noodle commercials:

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Jeffrey

By and large, the best Japanese television commercials are better than most made in the U.S. This young man is certainly an interesting cross-cultural phenomenon.

Anonymous

Well, of course “the best” is generally going to be better than “the rest”, but I get what you’re saying.

Ashleigh

Wonderful just wonderful.

Jero is amazing. =3
Shogun

Still with the du-rag and the flat brimmed hat? Come on now. It was always a dumb fashion trend IMO, but even that ended at least a decade ago.

Anonymous

You mad cuz he’s stylin on you.

Nanya

Nothing against his singing abilities or achievements, but he strikes me as a sell-out. Of course, the amount of endorsements a celebrity does is treated as an indicator of success in Japan, but I will always see it as selling away your integrity for a paycheck. A fitted cap and a du-rag with his hakama? He has allowed himself to be reduced to a caricature. Not to mention, letting his label name his album ‘Best and Rare’. His mother tongue is English, so he must know that that is the grammar of that title is incorrect. Its like I can actually picture him shrugging and signing off on it anyway. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but he comes off as a label puppet.
Marek Litwin

SLURP!

@Nanya
But he is a label puppet like most of enka singers. It’s pretty obvious that he’s the label’s link from imagined past to imagined present/future, so he must be wearing elements associated in general mind to that ideas. Try “Tears of Longing: Nostalgia and the Nation in Japanese Popular Song” by Christine Yano.

@Jeffrey
Well he is only part cross-cultural. I think he’s more likely to be accepted because he’s partially japanese. There is always a strong emphasis on his grandma in every tv show or presentation.

ponta

”I think he’s more likely to be accepted because he’s partially japanese”

　So why do you think, for instance, Sahel Rosa was accepted? Partially because Japan wants Iranian oil?

Shocantelle

There are various interesting comments to say the least. I especially love all the hating that is going on. As they say in the hood, “You aren’t doing anything right, if you don’t have any haters.” Clearly, this young man is doing something right.

Jero Receives Berkeley Japan New Vision Award

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