Posts Tagged ‘television’

Differences Between Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and American High School Students

The above video clip shows FTV’s coverage of a news story about a survey that asked a variety of questions to high school students in Japan, China, Korea, and the United States. Mainichi’s English edition has a good summary article on the survey’s results, and I recommend it to those of you interested in such a topic, since I’ll be passing it over for something I found more interesting.

This post is about the FTV news coverage of this story, specifically the artwork they use when presenting it:

In this screen capture of the survey results the question [Do you check the safety of food products when shopping?], we are given a close-up of the artist’s representation of a Chinese high school student. Rather than having large eyes like his Japanese counterpart, the Chinese student has slit lines for eyes. The Korean student’s eyes seem a little bit smaller than those of the Japanese student, but his eyes at least have pupils. In contrast, the American student’s eyes are about the same size as those of the Japanese student.

What, dear readers, are we to make of this?

Update: Matt Thorn’s “The Face of the Other” provides some related information on manga portrayals of non-Japanese characters. [hat tip to Ryry]

Video: The Sticky Wall Of Tape

The creative folks at Haneru no Tobira bring us another wacky challenge:

The participating comedians are expected to scale a wall covered with “magic tape” (velcro), jump from the wall to a rope, swing onto a platform covered with similar tape, and then leap onto another platform. Those that fail fall into a bit of flour!

Heart Cow

Today is White Day, so I guess that makes a cow in Kyoto with a heart-shaped mark on its head newsworthy:

Sick People Riding Trains Are Scary

A clip from the scare-mongering TV Asahi program Jekyll & Hyde lets us know just how far one sick person’s cough can travel inside a train car:

The program’s conclusion: when a deadly new strain of influenza reaches Japan, thousands will die.

Japanese Parking Champions

A few weeks ago, TV Champion had a special episode in which professional drivers competed for the title of greatest car parker. As is often the case with such shows, the producers made an amusing soundtrack choice.

Backing up and popping the balloon without hitting the wall [Danger Zone!]:

Parking a 170cm wide car into a 171 wide space:

Backwards Bowler in Japan

American James Cripps amazes Japanese television audiences with his backwards bowling technique: