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OCTOBER 22, 1999 VOL. 25 NO. 42
Why Are You So Strange?
A hit TV show is allowing foreigners in Japan to ask some blunt questions about their hosts
By MURAKAMI MUTSUKO Tokyo
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 Former sumo great Konishiki makes a point, watched by (from the left) moderator Kitano "Beat" Takeshi, retired Brazilian footballer Rui Ramos, and TV star Terry Ito Tokyo Broadcasting System |
All good questions - and all have come up on This Is What's Wrong/Funny With You Japanese, a popular television program that allows foreigners living in Japan to put locals on the spot about their lifestyles and idiosyncrasies. In a country that seems to have more oddities per square kilometer than anywhere in the world, there is no shortage of topics.
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Audience members all speak Japanese. They come from as far afield as Eritrea and Cuba, with, on an average night, about one-fifth from Asia. The producers prefer to shy away from high-flying international executives and instead invite students, restaurant workers, traders and the like. The host is Japanese comedian and movie director Kitano "Beat" Takeshi, who keeps things moving at a lively clip with a clever mix of friendly banter and provocative repartee. Among those alongside him on a panel of moderators are Hawaiian-born former sumo wrestler Konishiki, retired Brazilian soccer hero Rui Ramos and popular television personality Terry Ito. The taped show, which goes out on Wednesday evenings, has an audience of millions nationwide. After it is aired, the telephone lines at the Tokyo Broadcasting System hum with calls from viewers eager to add their views.
The producers say that while This Is What's Wrong/Funny With You Japanese is designed to be entertaining, it also serves a serious purpose - exposing locals to outside opinion and helping them to understand their own society and culture better. Emotions can run high, with members of the international audience shouting down Japanese participants or sometimes turning on each other. Fights have not yet taken place, but have sometimes seemed likely. Predictably, sexual behavior attracts some of the bluntest comments. "You bring shame on Japan," shouted a man from Benin, dressed in the colorful robes of his west African nation. The object of his wrath: a Japanese woman who had declared it gave her "great pleasure" to steal another woman's man. When a married Japanese woman revealed she had two lovers because she was sexually bored with her husband of 10 years, a Sri Lankan woman told her: "Try to remember we are human beings. We are different from animals."
On another occasion, teachers from regular schools and from juku (cramming establishments) were quizzed. When a teacher complained that children were not respectful and parents were interested only in their youngsters passing entrance exams to prestigious high schools, one foreigner retorted: "Have you ever asked yourself why it is your pupils have to go to juku?" Said another: "Perhaps your teaching methods are putting your class to sleep."
 The international audience has its say Tokyo Broadcasting System |
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On another show, an unemployed Japanese man set off a chorus of boos from foreigners when he accused them of stealing jobs from locals. The two sides then unexpectedly found common ground on the subject of landlords, who they agreed were guilty of discrimination when letting out their premises.
One of the program's most prickly issues is the relationship between Japan and China and how the two sides see each other. In one show, Yang Jianxiong, who arrived in Tokyo as a student 11 years ago, attacked the Japanese for not facing up to their recent war history. He was shocked, he said, to see that young people were not properly educated on the subject. Yang, 33, who owns a restaurant and a trading company, was later on the receiving end for a special one-off edition called This Is What's Wrong/Funny With You Chinese. Why were the Chinese so self-righteous, he and 49 other expatriate Chinese were asked? Why the sense of cultural superiority? How could they expect anyone to admire them or their country?
Yang declared himself satisfied with the exchange. It was healthy to clear up cultural misconceptions this way, he said. But he confessed there was one thing about the Japanese he might never get used to. "In public baths, I have a lot of trouble taking my clothes off in front of the women who run the reception desks." And that's the naked truth.
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