Won't Miss #50 - anime-style advertising (reflection)

I have to admit that I have an enormous personal bias when it comes to the sort of animation that is all over the otaku (geek/nerd) parts of Japan like Akihabara. The infantilized and sexualized imagery really irritates me. It's not only freaky, but creepy. If real people looked like the women in that artwork, they'd look like hideous alien creatures. It's so distorted that I view it not as art, but as a form of advertising/recruiting for body dysmorphic disorder. The fact that girls in Japan will do cosplay to look like such characters including freaky contact lenses to make their eyes look enormous only supports my sense that this is so. That Ukranian "living Barbie" woman only strengthens my sense that there is a toxic nature underlying what appears to be innocent "art".

This is my issue. Maybe I'm an old fuddy-duddy. Maybe I just don't "get it" (though I can say that my brain is open-minded enough to "get" most modern art). However, I still don't miss anime-style advertising and dislike seeing it in the U.S. when it sneaks up on me on occasion.

Will Miss #35 - Japanese political advertisements (reflection)

MacArthur famously called Japan a nation of children. Over the years, this has been interpreted in various ways and one cannot know what he truly meant by this because MacArthur wasn't called on the carpet for this ethnocentric and possibly racist remark. He was around in the day when the press didn't dissect everything or grill the speaker for saying idiotic things.

I can see, to some extent, why someone may say such a thing, though I believe it's a gross misrepresentation of something which I observed in Japan. That is, there is a certain naivete which can be sweet or sour depending on how it manifests, which is a part of the culture in Japan. I think it's part of being a small country of people who perceive the rest of the world through a particular filter. It can make them look like unsophisticated dorks to outsiders because they don't possess the perspective that says it's not "cool" or "mature" to do a certain thing. It's actually a type of innocence and it sometimes results in things like the ridiculous political ad pictured above. These guys don't know they look silly, because they are lacking the sort of perspective that tells them that this is so contrived a pose that they look silly. Just as a kid deeply absorbed in a role play such as pretending to be a superhero or a cowboy may be oblivious to the way adults may find him amusing, sometimes Japanese politicians are unclear on how funny their presentation is.

I miss these political ads both because they are funny from my point of view and because they do reflect something which is rather unironic and, yes, even "innocent" about Japanese culture. In America, we're all so concerned about looking like enormous dorks that we examine our presentation and make fun of the way others offer themselves. Sometimes, I think we could do with a lot less of that and a little more of politicians goofily pointing at the sky as if they were looking to the future. 

Random Memories #3

There is a lot of criticism of American cigarette companies in Japan because they market more aggressively and sell their addictive tubes of tobacco more cheaply there than they do back home. That's not precisely true these days because each state has different prices. If you're talking about New York, where they are nearly $12 a pack, then, yeah, they're much cheaper in Japan. If you're talking about West Virginia, where they are a quarter away from costing a fiver, then it's not nearly the case. In Japan, cigarettes are 400 yen now, which is about $5.10. 

Cigarettes used to be a lot cheaper in Japan than the U.S. A big reason for that was the taxes weren't very high and though the tobacco companies were blamed, it really was about the government keeping their hands off of the situation and allowing the price to stay low so that the locals would stimulate the economy with their vice. As you can see by the ad above, from 1988, cigarettes at that time were a mere 200 yen.

The fact that the price used to be a lot lower isn't incredibly surprising. Everything was cheaper in "the old days." The thing which I found amusing, and the reason for this little memory post is that the back of the card (which is about the size of a business card) included the above calendar. If you look closely (or click the small image to load a bigger one), you'll see that there are little pictures predicting the weather everyday for 4 months. In this day and age, I'm pretty sure that no company would attempt to offer such information as an incentive for hanging on to their ads for several months. I think people are absolutely more savvy about the inability to predict daily weather so far in advance. Beyond that, with cell phones and weather information on demand, people can get more up-to-date information on the fly. The days when Japanese people had a need or interest in such things died long ago. This is just a quaint reminder of how things have changed in a relatively short time. 

Will Miss #424 - language school advertisements

Shane? He's a little on the quiet side, and he keeps a big knife under his pillow, but I'm sure he's really a stand-up guy. 

All advertising is misleading and an attempt to use your psychological tendencies against you. If you're an insider at a business or have a lot of experience with it, the ways in which ads attempt to manipulate potential customers is far more transparent. Language school ads always pique my interest and often tickle my fancy (no pervy conclusions, please) because I've worked in this game long enough to know what's what. For one thing, they always show professionally dressed, young, attractive foreign people who look fresh and happy. Real English teachers tend to look bedraggled from spending long hours attempting to draw a few bloody words from conversational stones. The men wear their ties askew and rarely wear suit jackets because most Japanese office ladies freeze at temperatures below boiling. The teachers in the ads never resemble the real workers and I know from experience that the "students" in most ads are the most attractive office workers the company can locate. If the school is particularly wealthy, they may be actual models, but they are never real students. Finally, there are the goofy English slogans that ads sometimes come up with in order to distinguish themselves or create a hook. It's always something that makes me feel a Japanese person came up with it and insisted that it fly despite the protestations of any foreigners who had input into the ad planning process (in the rare case of a foreigner having input).

I'll miss seeing ads for English schools, their silly slogans, and their fictitious presentation of the teachers and students. 

Won't Miss #305 - mistrust of imported food

One of the bits of marketing that you find appears on some food designed to be fed to infants and toddlers, as well as the odd product for adults, is the fact that the ingredients are made in Japan. When a package says, "made with rice grown in Japan," I wonder why it even matters. I think one of the reasons is that many Japanese people don't trust the safety of food grown in other countries. In particular, they don't trust Chinese produce (and pot stickers, or as they are called here, "gyoza") and American beef. If there is an isolated incident with a product made abroad having a food safety issue, the Japanese media seize upon it and blow it to ridiculous proportions. When a Japanese company has the same issue, it's rarely mentioned. This has caused an enduring idea that only domestically produced food can be truly trusted.

The idea that Japanese food is the safest food in the world and one can spend more money on it in order to feel that little Taro or Mariko will grow up healthy and strong is clearly a marketing ploy, and it's one that I won't miss.

Will Miss #269 - western models

Mannequins that are clearly Western in appearance modeling Japanese yukata.

When I first arrived in Japan (about 20 years ago), there was something which I found peculiar, and that was the vastly disproportionate number of Western-looking models. In fact, the majority of ads (at least 80%) on trains showed people who look like they were from Europe (loads of blondes!). These days, it's not quite so skewed because the weak economic situation has priced foreign models beyond most companies budgets. Still, less than 2% of the population in Japan is non-Japanese, and only a fraction of that 2% is Western in appearance, yet you find that quite a lot models in ads, magazines, and even mannequins are not Asian-looking. The oddest ones are the ones who are modeling uniquely Japanese things, but clearly are not meant to look Japanese. Since the culture is homogeneous, and tends to be exclusive rather than integrative, this is a fascinating choice.

I'll miss this curious emphasis on foreigners to sell products when those products are targeted at the domestic market.

Will Miss #252 - Japanese versions of Western icons

 Click to see a larger version.

Growing up in America, I grew accustomed to seeing certain figures look a certain way. Ronald McDonald, for instance, always has a similar physique regardless of the model or actor under the make-up and in the costume. Any iconic character that has been around for awhile tends to assume a particular image and it's always interesting seeing the Japanese versions of them. Ronald McDonald is smaller and slimmer in Japan, and in the picture of the DoCoMo (NTT's mobile phone service) ad above makes it look like Darth Vader has really lost a lot of his  muscular bulk and now is looking decidedly more petite (note the shoulders, neck, and legs and the relative proportions). On first glance, you don't necessarily notice exactly what is wrong, but you do feel that something isn't quite right.

I'll miss seeing these Japanese versions of Western cultural icons.

Will Miss #227 - free tissues

If you're walking down the street in Tokyo, there's a pretty good chance someone will stick their hand out and offer you a packet of free tissues. One of the ways in which advertisers get people to actually take their ads is to place them on the back of pocket-size tissues. There are foreign folks who say they never buy their own tissues, and others who say they get so many of these free packets that they don't even need to buy toilet paper.*

If I've got to be advertised to, it's good to get something with utility out of the deal, and I'll miss these free packets of tissues.

*Note that it is not advisable to use these as toilet paper. I've been told that tissues are not the same as toilet paper and that they will gum up the works and leave you with the potential for a disgusting mess.

Will Miss #221 - Western celebrities ads

This is a face which inspires you to buy tires and to believe that you are changing the world in doing so.

Now that the internet has made it difficult for any celebrity to hide the fact that he or she has chosen a fat paycheck to shill in Japan, it's not quite so novel seeing certain ads. That being said, it's still interesting seeing them firsthand, especially when the celebrities involved are A-list actors who wouldn't be caught dead in commercials or ads in their home countries.

I'll miss seeing these ads.