Posts Tagged ‘foreigners’

If you don’t want to appear nude on Japanese TV, don’t let them film you taking a bath

A TV Asahi news piece from 2006 about Eddie, an American in Tokyo who dreams of becoming a lawyer in Japan and living in an expensive apartment in the Roppongi Hills complex:

Eddie was living in an old public bath that had been converted into a Sakura House group living space. The wall of his room was covered with Japanese flags (including an imperial chrysanthemum flag) and photos of Aya Ueto (his ideal woman). To prepare for his dream of becoming a lawyer, he was reading weekly tabloid magazines for Japanese language practice.

Eddie, who uploaded this video himself to YouTube, provided the following description:

“When we went to the onsen, they promised me that they would only film me from the waist up, but they turned out to be a bunch of liars as i was practically naked in the first shot of the whole interview. The whole process was really awkward since my Japanese was great and the TV crew spoke no english. I had also just gotten back from America the night before so I was exhausted from jetlag. It is easily my most embarrassing moment (many kids came up to me the next day at school saying they’d seen me naked, and one of my bosses at the law firm I used to work at saw it by chance while in the hospital) So more or less I appeared naked and acting like a total douche clown on the Japanese equivalent of NBC Nightly News. “

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Foreigner feigns ignorance of Japanese to avoid speeding ticket

A clip from yesterday’s “Real Time News” in which a police officer in Kanagawa prefecture stops a Mercedes Benz that was traveling at 128 km/h (80mph), 58 km/h over the speed limit:

The driver of the car is a foreigner, and when the Japanese police officer starts speaking to her in Japanese, she pretends she can’t understand and speaks English. The officer cannot speak English and isn’t quite sure what to do. If he were to give up and wave off the foreigner without a ticket, his action would be caught on film and he would no doubt end up like the Tokyo police officer who resigned in shame recently for failing to enforce the law in a similar circumstance.

The officer continues to speak in Japanese to the woman. Eventually he notices that she seems to understand what he is saying, so he suggests that she can actually understand Japanese. She finally caves and and admits she can speak “a little” Japanese. He then informs her of that driving 128 km/h in a 70 km/h zone is a grave speeding offense that will result in a suspension of her license. The woman is shocked, so shocked that she suddenly develops the ability to speak enough Japanese to make the accusation that, “this country doesn’t treat gaijin like humans.” The officer says he is not treating her in such a way.

She starts to cry and say (in Japanese) that she will kill herself. The officer calms her down, tells her to drive carefully, and sends the woman away with a ticket. The woman will have a chance to dispute the ticket in court. Hopefully the judge will have a chance to see the video footage of the incident and get a look at how she tried to weasel her way out of taking responsibility for her violation of the law.

I don’t believe this woman’s action to be an isolated incident. I’ve met quite a few foreigners who swear by the “I don’t speak Japanese” method of avoiding traffic tickets, and anecdotal evidence across the internet seems to support the claim that this kind of thing is very common. When police officers are not on camera, many prefer to let foreigners off without a ticket instead of going through the hassle of dealing with the language barrier.

Note: This is just a short clip from a segment that included several other lawbreakers, all of whom were Japanese. Its primary focus was not on foreign criminals.

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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New LDP attack ad: The DPJ makes disgusting ramen

Japan’s ruling party has released a follow-up to is popular proposal attack ad. This time, the DPJ character prepares a delicious-looking bowl of ramen (his party manifesto) for the woman:

As Mr. DPJ is readying the ramen, he hears complaints and suggestions from a variety of people and tries to respond to all of them. The final product is a ugly mess that doesn’t at all resemble the nice ramen he started with. Text appears on the screen reminding viewers that if you try to hard to please everyone, you’ll end up satisfying nobody. The clip ends with a reminder that the Liberal Democratic Party has solid policy plans.

Like the previous attack ad, it was no doubt produced by advertising mega-company Dentsu. It looks like it was expensive and it seems to have been worth the investment: the video is already at nearly 15,000 views on YouTube and is bound to get attention from TV news programs.

Update: They also have another attack ad making fun of the DPJ’s flip-flopping on the refueling issue, free trade with the United States, and decentralization of government authority. It also looks like Taro Aso took a ride on the Keihin Tohoku line.

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Side rant: Is the presence of a foreigner in the commercial a swipe at the DPJ’s view on non-citizen voting? [Not just a joke about their stance on the refueling mission.] Also, what’s the deal with the cartoon foreigner speaking with an appallingly fake gaijin-san accent?

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Korean men vs. Japanese men / opinions on ugly girls

A couple subtitled clips of shouting foreigners from the classic Japanese TV show “Koko ga Hendayo, Nihonjin“:

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Foreign shoplifters in Japan

Last week, NTV’s “Real Time News” aired a special hidden camera report on shoplifting. Most of the shoplifters featured were Japanese, but one foreigner was caught in the act:

The shoplifter in this clip was a Chinese student, apparently stealing some food he wanted to eat. After he is taken away by police, the narrator announces that in the case of foreign criminals, there are “many” instances of groups working together to shoplift from Japanese stores.

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Two foreign families struggle to make ends meet

The following clips are from a TV news report about foreign residents living in a public housing complex in Misato, Saitama Prefecture. (I cannot recall the exact channel the report aired on, but I think it may have been TBS. ) English language summaries can be found beneath each clip.

The woman in the clip is Ms. Takamatsu, who came from the Philippines 16 years ago to work as a dancer/hostess in Japan. After facing sexual harassment (being forced to wear a bathing suit), she ran away from her dancing job and eventually married a Japanese man, whose last name she took. Takamatsu and her husband had two children, but he liked to fool around with other women, and one day he left and never came back.

Takamatsu now lives in the Misato housing complex with her children, and even though she has trouble making enough money to support them, she has no plans to return to the Philippines. Having lost a brother to gun violence in the Philippines, she wants her children to grow up in a safe environment.

She believes that if she works hard enough, she can support her four children and have an enjoyable life in Japan. After studying hard and passing a nursing exam, she now works as a nurse helper at a local hospital. Both the patients and the hospital management are open and welcoming towards Takamatsu and the other three Filipino nurses working there. The hospital only pays about 130,000 yen a month, but combined with child support payments from her former husband, it is enough for them to scrape by. It will be a difficult future for them, especially for her two non-Japanese-speaking older children from a previous marriage in the Philippines, but Takamatsu and her family are determined to work hard for a better future.

The second part focuses on a Pakistani man named Mohammed who is facing terrible difficulties and does not share Ms. Takamatsu’s positive outlook.

Mohammed came to Japan in 1988 during the height of the bubble economy, a time when companies were eager to hire workers regardless of qualifications or language ability. He found work in a lumber yard and founded a car exporting businesses, but when the bubble burst, his company failed and he could not find work. He had become able to speak Japanese and even had some qualifications, but companies and employment agencies turned him away because he was a foreigner.

He eventually found a decent job at a factory, working there for 8 years and earning enough money to live comfortably. However, the company that operated the factory was hit hard by the new financial crisis and was forced to shut down the factory. This report was filmed on his last day of work before the factory closure. Many of the people working at the factory were foreigners, and quite a few of them have not found new jobs. One of Mohammed’s coworkers tells the reporter in clear Japanese that employment agencies have turned him away because he is a foreigner.

With no job and a family to support, Mohammed’s savings will soon be gone. He wishes that the government would do more than just tell those who are struggling to “work hard,” because he has been working hard his whole life and needs help now.

The last couple minutes of the news report focus on the Misato public housing complex. Guarantors are not necessary and rent can be as low as 41,500 yen for a 2DK apartment in the complex, so it is a very attractive place to live for some foreigners. The total number of foreign residents has more than doubled in the last 15 years, and there are now more than 1,000 foreigners living in the Misato complex. It has its own international community group to help foreign residents move in and adjust to live there, and there are also free Japanese language lessons run by volunteer teachers. The area has plenty of schools, hospitals, and shops around, so it is very convenient.

The report ends with reactions from Japanese residents of the Misato housing complex. One woman admits she was a bit frightened at first, but she has now gotten used to having so many foreigners around. Another woman happily describes how she can respond to questions from foreigners by saying “I don’t understand English.” There are sometimes cultural misunderstandings, as one man describes the time some foreign residents that didn’t realize that it is common for deliverymen to return and pick up dishes food was delivered in. A shopkeeper says that both foreign and Japanese customers occasionally have bad manners, but she doesn’t discriminate when explaining problems to them. The last word is given to a man who thinks it is a good thing for foreign residents and Japanese to have more contact with each other.