Foreigners in Japanese variety shows
 

I wonder how the foreigners are treated in the Japanese variety shows. I somehow lost in touch with TV (English or not) for years that it is hard for me to get back watching ordinary Japanese shows, so I have no clue right now.

Speaking of this, it reminds me of the infamous old show called Koko ga hen da yo, nihonjin.

My Japanese buddy once said that this show caused some huge havok to the expat communities and brought the renaissance of crazy right-wing nationalism in the heart of Japan (coincides with the steady growth of the neo-con-ish movement in Japan fruited by PM Koizumi). The most visible example is a book written by Christoph Neumann (the old participant), Darum nerven Japaner, a book that criticizes Japanese people in the perspect of Japan-familiar non-Japanese.

Anyway, enough ranting. I wonder how the foreigners are portrayed in the Japanese variety shows.

Japanese variety shows are just that: made to entertain. Foreigners are portrayed in a variety of ways (and I don't know if I would call "Koko ga hen da yo, nihonjin" a variety show in the same way, but I can understand why problems might start because it pits foreigners against Japanese culture and against each other).

Somehow there are many YouTube clips of Koko ga hen da yo, nihonjin uploaded by Japanese trolls flaming on others. I didn't know they exists until my Japanese buddy sent me a clip few hours ago; saying he was very ashamed of himself for being Japanese and I said "dude, don't".

We can see that miscommunication brews, trouble erupts in some variety show with foreigners today. Nothing's perfect but they could minimalize the impact before it gets worse.

This single show brews controversy, so surely there are times when things go too far.

This is not representative of all of Japan, Japanese television, or attitudes about foreigners. I know more than a couple Japanese that don't like this show because of how it plays on the emotions of some foreigners.

Of course this is not the whole representative of Japan. But this particular show brewed up more far-right sentiments in Japan, whether it's accidental or not (there had been few rumors that this show was from a sketchy bribery from the LDP).

Well, at least it's improving so it's all good.

No one can truely represent everyone. So even if such a show depicted Americans as goofballs...and I'm not saying we aren't. It still wouldn't represent every viewpoint in Japan, or the actual varity of Goofballs Americans can have.

Foreigners in Japanese variety shows
 

It was always fun watching foreigners in the shows..

The gong show on NHK, that American comedian English teacher doing interviews, Bob Sapp, whatever, it always made the shows fun.

I've watched a lot of variety shows in the past couple years, and I can say with certainty:

Foreigners are a novelty.

It's a shame. Most of the time, when there's a group of people sitting and being asked their opinions on various things, the foreigners are stuck in the back corner. Furthermore, they're usually made to wear big name tags with the flag of their home country on them. Because that matters.

On top of that, regardless of their Japanese ability, they are only ever called on once or twice, and permitted to speak for maybe 15 or 20 seconds before they're cut off.

HOWEVER! There is a shining light amidst all this, a white knight as it were:

Dave Spector.

This guy is fantastic. He's so unassuming; he's short, quiet, and meek, but his Japanese is near-native. I mean like, Japanese people can't even hear his accent. This guy is fantastic.

So that means they let him talk for about 30-40 seconds. ;)

There's also this big huge black guy... I think he's called Billy or Bobby... anyway he's an intelligent guy with great Japanese skills, but when he's on TV he plays the hulking giant with a pea-sized brain and the most unintelligible Japanese ever. The shows always make fun of how you can't understand anything he says. It's a shame he puts on this persona, but hey, that's showbiz. :)

Bobby intelligent? You must be talking about some other guy because the Bobby I saw was anything but. He was on a show where the contestants try to eat for the least amount of money and to save money he went out into a field and was picking weeds and plants to cook. Since he had no idea what he was picking he got a hold of something bad and ate it. He got very ill and went to the hospital. Doesn't sound too smart to me. If it is just an act, he's very good.

I dunno, I'm still not convinced but my friends assure me he's got something decent going for him. Personally I watch him get humiliated every week (you see the one where he goes down the big slide and his bathing thong thing falls down so he walks around the rest of the show with his crack showing?) and have a hard time believing it but I hate to see gaijin getting more and more of a bad name. :-/

That's Bobby Ologun. I imagine he is smarter than the persona he puts on for Japanese TV, and as for eating the poisonous plant, I think any of us could do that, particularly in a foreign country.

There are quite a few other non-Japanese on TV here who are not treated like novelties or idiots- there is an Egyptian woman called Fifi who speaks fluent Japanese and was on a morning news show for a while, an American professor of Japanese at Tokyo University who was beating the Japanese people at advanced kanji problems in a quiz show and a number of others.

I thought Bobby was just "acting", meaning that he isn't that uninformed and has near native-level Japanese.

I get the impression that Bobby is a character, something that many of the talents that appear on variety shows do. He is more intelligent than he lets on because he acts like his Japanese isn't so good, but the mistakes he makes are not mistakes poor speakers would make, but are actually funny.

This is common among Japanese natives, too. "Characters" from HG and IKKO to Kanno sisters are not completely honest, but are entertaining. (Kanno sisters...not actually sisters).

A smart person would not eat a plant that he didn't know what it was. He probably does put on an act. Anyway he sure speaks Japanese a lot better than I ever could.

Emily/Applemilk1988 is also a western who made it @ jp's TV. She appeared on some NHK shows

I remember when I was in Japan, Bob Sapp was EVERYWHERE! One of my friends had his picture in her keitai, lol! But he was sooo funny. :D

to say a couple of words about ここは変だよ、日本人。 when the show started it contained a lot less discussion and more questions or statements made by well-behaved foreigners. rather interesting to be honest.

after a couple of shows, however, the show turned into what it became famous for, foreigners arguing among themselves. the show came to be more on the US, the middle east and africa than on japan. the prime example of this was the show on homosexuality when a gay man from the japanese side told a pakistani man "レベルが低い”, as a response to the man saying that he would rather his children die than see them become gay. the pakistani man then threaten the japanese man and konishikin who often took part in the show had to stop the pakistani man. i believe ramos, the football player, followed konishikin to do the same. in the same show an african man, i believe nigerian, said that his country had absolutely no gay ppl.　(the mentioning of nationality has nothing to do with pointing out particular nations or nationalities as homophobic, but only to make it easier to see who did who during the "argument".)

all in all, a show with good potential, but unfortunately it took a rather nasty turn.

the american professor in the quiz show is called ロバート キャンベル　　Robert CAMPBELL　btw, the quiz show is called Qさま
other foreigners who often participate in more serious venues are
peter frankl
robert feldman
peter barakan

It's a good idea. In Poland, there is a programme called Europa da się lubić. Foreigners who are fluent in Polish discuss topical issues in Poland. They bring sth from their countries to the table. It's interesting to hear their pronunciation and perspectives.