The "Charisma Man" phenomenon
 

Hello,

We are doing research on the “Charisma Man” phenomenon in Japan. We would like to get input on this phenomenon from those living in Japan. We are especially interested in the following questions:

1) How familiar are you with the “Charisma Man” phenomenon in Japan? What has been your experience with the phenomenon? In your experience, is this a rare phenomenon or one that is quite common?

2) How do you feel about the depiction of the “Charisma Man” character in the comic strip? How has the existence of “Charisma Men” affected you personally? How has this phenomenon affected you professionally, particularly if you are a teacher of English? What has been your experience with such men, and how do you feel about them?

3) How do you feel about the depiction of the “Western Woman” in the “Charisma Man” comic strip as jealous, overbearing, and opinionated?

4) What kind of romantic/sexual relationships have you had in Japan, and/or what kind of romantic/sexual relationships are you looking for? Has the “Charisma Man” phenomenon been a help or hindrance to you in this regard?

In addition, it would be helpful if you could please include in your comments the following information about yourself:

• Sex
• Ethnicity
• Age
• Profession (English teacher, student, businessperson, etc.)
• How long you have lived in Japan

For links to sample images from the comic strip, please see this review.

To read a 2003 Japan Times article about the comic strip, please see this article.

Please note that responses are being sought for research purposes. All responses will be used anonymously. By posting in the forum, respondents are giving consent to the use of their comments in our research project.

Thank you in advance,

Steve Silver
Kwansei Gakuin University
Nishinomiya, Japan

Roslyn Appleby
University of Technology
Sydney, Australia

I've heard of this phenomenon before.

I've never been to Japan before but I really doubt that this is unique to Japan. There are girls everywhere that like "mysterious" foriegn guys.

While living and working in America for example, my accent and my "foriegn-ness" got a lot of attention from some American women.

I was quite flattered by the attention I got... and I didn't have an aversion to women from my own country nor do I feel like social outcast in my home country (New Zealand).

Not exactly the answer you were looking for maybe but there's my two cents.