Archive for July, 2011

Choya Pulls Giant Gaijin Nose Commercial After Receiving Complaints

A couple days ago, I blogged about a Choya Umeshu commercial that put a giant fake nose on a Japanese woman (similar the Hello Gaijin-san nose). Some readers of this site followed the links to Choya’s homepage and used their contact form to complain about the commercial, and the company has read those comments. The commercial is now dead!

Here is a copy of the reply that Choya sent to people who contacted them in English:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you very much for sharing your views with us. We sincerely apologize
for any discomfort about our television commercial that you had.

Please allow us to explain in more detail the scene in question.

The product in the commercial is Kokuto Umeshu, a major characteristic of
which is its smooth and velvety texture, or “torori” in Japanese. To
communicate this to the public, we had the idea of making a play on words of
calling someone who likes this “torori” a “tororisuki (torori lover)”, and
suggesting that you will gain like-minded “tororisuki no hito” (friends) by
drinking the product.

Because of the sound of the word “tororisuki”, we introduced the word as a
foreign character, and thought up the story of three female Japanese friends
drinking Kokuto Umeshu and becoming “tororisuki friends”, and therefore
foreigners, themselves.

The first two characters do transform into “tororisuki”, but in the
performance of the commercial, the third character failed to turn into a
tororisuki. Instead, her theatrically oversized “blue eyes” and “eminent
nose” illustrate that she has not been able to become a tororisuki.

In other words, the theatrical “blue eyes” and “eminent nose” represent that
she has failed to turn into a tororisuki and are not an attempt to portray
an actual foreigner. It is certainly not a case of making fun of any
particular country, race or person.

However, we do take your comment very seriously, and after internal
deliberations the company has decided to change the commercial. We ask for
your kind understanding.

Choya Umeshu strives to delight our customers with our products, and we are
making every effort to ensure our advertising and marketing delight as well.

Best regards,

Masa Kondo
CHOYA

And here is their Japanese message, which says something similar:

こんにちは、チョーヤ梅酒ホームページです。

この度のメールとご指摘、有難うございました。

ブログ拝見させていただきました。

ＣＭの演出上の表現でございまして、決して海外の方や特定の国、

人種を揶揄したり差別するものでは無いのですが、ご意見、ご指摘を
真摯に受け止め、社内で検討の上、ＣＭの作り変えも考えたいと思って
おります。

この度のご指摘本当に有難うございました。
弊社と致しましてもこれからも皆様に喜んでいただける製品造りはもちろんのこと、
広告制作におきましてもより喜んでいただけるよう努力する所在でございます。
今後ともご指導ご鞭撻の程賜りますよう宜しくお願い申し上げます。

A quick check of the CM archive section of Choya’s site shows that the commercial is question [とろける黒糖梅酒 トロリスキー友達篇] has been completed deleted. The same product now has a new “tororisuki” commercial that does not use rubber noses.

[hat tip to Joseph Tame and odriew]

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99-Year-Old Woman Plays Nintendo Every Day

“Nanikore” travels to Sendai and meets Umeji Narisawa, a 99-year-old woman who plays video games every day:

Narisawa’s game of choice is Bomberman for the original NES. She started playing it 26 years ago, after noticing how much fun her grandchildren were having when they played it. Playing Bomberman for a couple hours a day soon became part of her daily routine.

Her years of bombering have made her an expert at the game; she’s cleared all 50 levels of the game countless times. Some days she beats the game twice.

Playing Bomberman every day helps keep her mind sharp. Pressing all those buttons has also kept her fingers nimble (and capable of threading a needle).

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Shiba Inu Joins Okayama Police Department

A Shiba Inu will be joining the police force in Okayama prefecture:

Futaba, a 5-year-old female, is apparently the first dog of her breed to ever work for a police department in Japan.

Most police dogs in Japan are German Shepherds, but there have been other cases where smaller dogs have passed the police dog exam.

Last year, a Chihuahua named Momo received worldwide media attention:

And here’s a video about a Miniature Schnauzer that became a police dog:

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Japanese Court Interpreters Lack Necessary Language Skills

When Japanese courts hear testimony from a defendant or witness who does not speak Japanese, the law requires the use of an interpreter with the language ability to accurately translate what is being said. In other fields, translation errors may not amount to much, but in the criminal justice system, errors could seriously impact the result of trials. Having a skilled interpreter is crucial.

Unfortunately, it seems that there are serious problems with Japanese court interpreters. Today’s Japan Times has an article that examines the accuracy of English-to-Japanese translations in the Lindsay Hawker murder trial. They’ve found some pretty embarrassing errors:

When questioned about the impact of her death on the family, the mother said she blamed herself for allowing her daughter to come to Japan. “I couldn’t take a bath for two years,” she said, apparently because of how her daughter was found.

But the court interpreter translated the phrase into Japanese as “I cannot take back the two years.”

A few moments later another misinterpretation was observed. When a prosecutor asked Julia Hawker how the heavy coverage of the case influenced the British people’s perception of Japan, she testified that it had a negative impact and many now feel “Japan was a less safe place to come.”

But the nuance of her testimony was changed when it was interpreted into Japanese: “Japan was the most unsafe place to come.”

When asked whether she knew that Ichihashi wrote a letter of apology to the family, she said that “we didn’t think he would apologize to us. We thought he was sorry for being caught.” But her testimony was interpreted as saying Ichihashi wrote the letter “as a preparation for his trial.”

These errors are not big enough to have a serious impact on the outcome of the trial, but they do show that the court interpreter is not providing accurate translations. Foreign language testimony was not particularly crucial in the Ichihashi trial, but it could be in other trials. I pity all the foreign defendants whose testimony could only be translated into Japanese through a court interpreter who lacks the English proficiency to understand the difference between “back” and “bath.”

The Japan Times also interviewed Professor Makiko Mizuno of Kinjo Gakuin University, a specialist on the issue of court interpreters:

The courts are naive in believing that unless there is a dispute of guilt or innocence, a loose interpretation of testimony won’t pose a major problem, Mizuno said.

According to her mock trial experiments, the buildup of errors such as differences in nuance can influence the decisions of lay judges. “The interpretation can result in a difference of two to three years in the prison term,” she said.

Edit: Richard Lloyd Parry of the London Times thinks the Japan Times was unfair in its criticism of the interpreter:

[hat tip to Japanjin]

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McDonald’s Japan Opens Flagship Restaurant in Roppongi Hills

McDonald’s has opened a stylish upscale “flagship” restaurant in Roppongi:

The new 650-sq.-meter store has 301 seats, the second highest number among McDonald’s stores in Japan, including comfortable sofas that give the store a classy atmosphere. Seats are placed with plenty of space between them.

President Eiko Harada said at a press conference that the company closed 433 smaller stores last year that were losing money because customers had to wait to enter.

He said the company will make its stores bigger so they can serve more customers.

The restaurant apparently has its own special dessert counter, offering customized McFlurries to customers(for a limited time only).

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Japanese Tea Ceremony at Pearl Harbor

A Japanese tea ceremony was held yesterday at the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor:

About 150 dignitaries and Pearl Harbor survivors gathered at the sacred site to observe 15th generation Grand Teamaster, Dr. Genshitsu Sen of the Urasenke School of Tea, who served in the Imperial Navy, perform the ceremony to honor those who died in the Japanese attack nearly 70 years ago.

The tea ceremony initiative was led by former First Lady of Hawaii, Jean Ariyoshi who served as Mistress of Ceremonies for the hour long service that included the 20 minute ancient Buddhist-Zen tea ritual in the spirit of reconciliation and peace.

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