Posts Tagged ‘blackface’

More impersonations of black women on Japanese TV

FTV has shown me that Yajima Beauty Salon, the comedy group that impersonates black women from Nevada, can do more than just sing. A clip from last night:

Things that they did inside the FTV building:

• Spoke in stupid fake broken Japanese with random Engrish words thrown in.
• Tried to steal a digital television.
• Pulled out a gun and shot a Japanese comedian.

Update: A lot of the comments on this thread have shown offense at this comedy act. I suggest that you make your voices heard by sending complaints to the Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization (BPO). Use the online form on this page.

1. Click the check box next to

○　BPO 「視聴者意見送付に関するお願い、注意事項」に同意する

2. Go the the complaint form by hitting the grey button that says:

送信フォームへ

3. Fill out the information about the channel, time of broadcast, and program name as follows:

番組名 – とんねるずのみなさんのおかげでした
放送局名 – フジテレビ
放送日 -　　2008/10/9
放送時間帯 – 21:00-21:54

4. Enter your complaint inside the ご意見(入力必須) Box. Here is an example complaint:

DJオズマととんねるずが演じる矢島美容室は黒人女性に対する偏見を形成・助長する点で極めて不愉快であり、人種差別的でさえある。

5. Fill out the information on your age, sex, and location. This is a translation of the form:

氏名 (Name – optional)

性別(入力必須) (Gender) 男性(male)　女性 (female)← check one of these boxes

年代(入力必須) [age] 歳代
※半角英数で入力してください　例）40

郵便番号 (zip-code – optional)

都道府県(入力必須) ← select a prefecture from the list

住所 (address – optional)

電話 (Phone number – optional)

メールアドレス (e-mail address – optional)

6. Hit the 送信する　button at the bottom to send the complaint.

-Thanks to Ponta for providing the information on how to send a complaint!

Spotted in Shibuya: Japanese “black woman” handing out fliers

Jordan recently spotted this guy in Shibuya:

Judging from his brown-painted skin, dress, and Afro wig, it appears he has something to do with the Yajima Beauty Salon / Lotte promotion.

DJ Ozma and Tunnels dress up as black women

The image above is taken from the official site of Lotte’s new Splash gum. It shows comedy group Tunnels (the guys behind “human tetris”) and musician DJ Ozma (the “bounce with me” dude) dressed up as Yajima Beauty Salon, a new comedic musical group. Yajima Beauty Salon consists of a three “American” characters, the mother Margaret and her two daughters Strawberry and Naomi. According to the backstory on the group’s homepage on Avex, the Margaret character is a former nude dancer from Las Vegas, and she has brought her daughters to Japan to search for their father, a Japanese beautician named Yajima. The mother apparently has the dancing nickname “black bolt.”

I’ve only seen them in the Lotte commercial so far, so I’m not entirely sure how far they take the fake American comedy act. I did, however, find this YouTube video of them performing:

The song begins with an announcement that they came from Nevada, and the lyrics include phrases such as, “Is Kaminarimon nearby?” (a popular tourist site) and “Where can I meet a samurai?” and “There are no Kabuki theaters in Kabukicho” (Tokyo’s entertainment/red light district). It seems like they are attempting to entertain audiences from a cute faux foreigner’s perspective.

They may not be covering their faces with dark black shoe polish, but some foreigners seeing this will no doubt be reminded of blackface minstrel shows. Its members are likely totally unaware of the fact that their act could offend anyone, and there doesn’t seem to have malicious intent. However, seeing entertainers put on make-up and afro wigs to look like a different race for comedic reasons always leaves a bad taste in my mouth. DJ Ozma and Tunnels have made some really funny stuff in the past, but this act is quite lame.

[via TokyoGraph]

Barack Obama on Japanese TV

During Friday’s news coverage of Barack Obama’s speech at the DNC, one network decided to compensate for its lack of access to the real Obama by interviewing a Japanese Barack Obama impersonator.

Here’s the video clip:

In his comments, he says that an American Obama impersonator looks much more like the real Obama, that Japan’s Prime Minister will change, and that he didn’t pick Hillary as a running mate because it would mean Bill would be in the White House too.

The impersonator looks like the same guy from an earlier post about an Obama impersonator in Japan.