There is a program that I like to watch with my family here in Japan. If you know me, you know that I lost the love for Japanese TV over a decade ago because of boring repetitive story lines, too much senseless humor, and the lack of maturing of the industry in general. However, There are a few shows that I like to watch, or at least watch and put up with the stupidity that pervades the content. One program I like is "Tokyo Friend Park II" when sports teams are on it, NOT comedians or "talents". Shows like that air only 3-4 times a year at the most. Another one is "Kinniku Banzuke" Usually only at new years. And then there is SASUKE, which airs only twice a year. But SASUKE is treading dangerously close to the ideas that I hate to see. The big one is comparisons to America.
For over 10 years, I have seen a nationalistic attitude of the Japanese media that boarders on narcissism. It started with programs like "Koko ga Hen Dayo Nihonjin". I really liked that program when it aired in the mid 90's. It was on air for about 3-4 years and the first two years were great. The last year or two, I could barely stomach to the point that I just stopped watching. Then in domino-type fashion I started to stop watching Japanese TV all together. What happened to that program was this: They started focusing on foreign countries rather than on Japan. When I say foreign I mainly mean the USA. And it basically became a forum for people to bash the USA.
Now, NHK produces programs that focus on getting foreigners to praise Japan and say how great Japan is. That may sound harmless, but if you have ever watched the show, it is extremely narcissistic in its presentation. They have a group of foreigners from several foreign countries who watch a little video clip of some aspect of Japanese culture and then the hosts of the program, a few Japanese, basically asks the foreigners to say how great Japan is because of what they saw. It makes me want to hurl. There was one time recently that I saw as I was surfing the channels that they were doing a story on how Japanese make people in their companies clean, and how kids at school clean. And how other countries now, BECAUSE of Japans example, have their employees, and the elementary school students clean, too. The reporter, who was a foreigner was just singing the praises of the Japanese cleaning idea. But the, "WE SHOWED THE WORLD HOW TO CLEAN" message was as blatant as the noon day sun.
Anyway, what does this have to do with SASUKE? SASUKE is starting to go down that path of comparing Japanese to foreigners, mainly Americans. The most recent airing of SASUKE was two weeks ago. Oh, for those of you who don't know SASUKE, the American version is called "Ninja Warrior". Basically people go through a physically taxing obstacle course in 4 different stages, with each stage becoming more difficult. Over the eight year of the show, only 3 people have completed all four stages. Anyway, about 3 years ago, SASUKE producers brought the top competitors from NINJA WARRIOR to Japan and a few Americans have been participating ever since. This year, a group of 9 Americans came, the most yet, to compete. Out of the 9, 8 made it past the first stage. and 4 made it past the second stage. Of the Japanese competitors, out of 91 competitors, only 17 made it past the first stage, and only 5 made it past the second stage. This is what kills me about the show now. The announcer starts up with comments like, "17 Japanese made it past the first stage, ONLY 8 Americans made it. Japanese are made to be successful as SASUKE! Japanese are great people!" WHAT? Japanese are great because they made SASUKE??? What idiotic logic! Then after the second stage, the announcer again spouted off, "More Japanese than Americans made it past the second stage! Japan is winning the competition!" When did SASUKE become a competition between countries? Even the some Japanese contestants said, "I have to get through this stage to keep Japanese pride." In an interview with an American competitor, an American said, "I just want to do my best. SASUKE is really fun." No hint at the USA vs. Japan issues, just a guy that wanted to do his best and take his physical strength to the limit. SASUKE is more about man against course, not country against country.
Another thing that really irritates me is the MLB vs. JBL baseball series. MLB players come to Japan for a series of games with the JBL players. I think they play like 3 exhibition games, and then one game against a pro-team. When Japan wins a game, announcers are like, "Japan is great, our level of baseball is just as high as the Americans!" and go off on how much better Japanese style is better. When the MLB wins, the announcers like, "Yeah, MLB is strong." THAT'S IT! What I would like to see is the JBL All-Stars go to America one year and see how they like battling jet lag and playing in front of a hostile crowd. Not once has Japan's All-Stars gone to play games in the USA. What, are they afraid? This is of course not talking about the WBC which Japan has won twice. Kudos to Japan on that.
Anyway, that is my rant for today. Glad I could get it off my chest, FINALLY!
CAVEAT: I love Japan! If I didn't I would be living here for more than 21 years. But there are things that I do not like, just like there are some things about the USA that I don't like. No country is perfect.
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