Posts Tagged ‘gaijin’

Foreigners complain about Japan

On September 15th, ATV aired a Takeshi Kitano “World Summit” special that examined how other countries view Japan. Much like the infamous “Koko ga hen da yo, nihonjin” series, it included discussion with a large panel of Japanese-speaking foreigners.

Below are two clips from a section in which foreigners named problems the Japan needed to fix.

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Clip 1: A narrow mindset / Asking stupid questions

An Bangladeshi and Brazilian both bring up interesting issues. Unfortunately, more discussion time on the program was devoted to the complaints aired in the next clip.
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Clip 2: Pornographic Manga / Sexual Harassmen

A Vietnamese woman complaints about the existence of so much pornography and erotic manga in Japan. She fears that it will have a negative impact on her home country. She thinks it is great that Vietnam outlaws pornography.

Next, an American woman starts ranting about sexual harassment in Japan, condemning Japanese men as the most perverted in the world. Another American representative agrees with her statements and declares that he would never want to raise children in Japan.

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Just like “Koko ga hen da yo, nihonjin,” most of the show was spent listening to the loudest and most annoying panelists make stupid rants and sweeping generalizations about other nations and cultures. At least a few of the foreigners must have been hoping that saying outrageous things on TV might earn them some fame and income as a foreign tarento.

The full program was 2 hours in length. A lot of clips from it have been popping up on YouTube, so I will try to find some of the other interesting parts and share them in a few other posts.

[huge thanks to Miss Igirisu for informing me about this program!]

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

Foreigners only eat chocolate

A cute clip from a segment on “Katakuri TV” that put a Hanawa‘s two sons in charge of a shop:

The foreign “customer” who shows up is no doubt a paid actor (who seems to understand their Japanese), but the kids probably don’t realize it.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

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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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Earthquake safety tips

September 1st was Disaster Prevention Day, so FTV’s “Mezamashi TV” morning show took the opportunity to remind viewers of earthquake safety precautions through a segment about how many foreign residents of Japan have no idea what to do when an earthquake strikes.

Here it is, mostly subbed in English.

A couple notes on the video:

• If a Japanese TV show stops you on the street and asks you what you think of earthquakes, just saying that they are “omoshiroi” (funny/interesting/amusing/fun) isn’t a very good idea. Since there are occasionally big earthquakes in this country that cause death and destruction, Japanese viewers might think you are a douchebag.
• The American guy who tells them about his big screen TV appears to be Jonathan Underwood, the mega otaku that tried and failed to win TV Tokyo’s “Foreign Otaku King” competition back in 2007.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)