The talented and sometimes funny owarai duo, Tunnels, have recently hooked-up with DJ Ozma (former Kishidan band leader) to form and produce a temporary female trio called Yajima Biyoshitsu (Yajima Beauty Salon). The female trio is actually the three men in drag. Here is the official website.
The Yajima Biyoshitsu new song ties into a new Lotte chewing gum commercial (the CM schedule can be found here) starring actress Masami Nagasawa. The debut song, “Nihon no Mikata - Nevada Kara Kimashita,” debuted on TV the day before and saw a reportedly 14,000 chaku-uta (ringtone) downloads in the hour after its premiere, taking the #1 spot on the Recochoku daily charts.
Now I do not mind comedy but I do mind the direction that the group, Avex and Lotte took in putting this commercial together.
According to the story line, the trio is supposedly made up of a family from Nevada, consisting of a 36-year-old former stripper named Margaret Yajima (played by DJ Ozma) and her two daughters, the 17-year-old Naomi and the 11-year-old Strawberry both played by Tunnels. The mother a.k.a. Black Bolt (her stage name at the shake joint) brought her daughters to Japan to look for their father, a Japanese barber or beautician named Yajima.
I worked with the Tunnels twice in the late 90’s and their current comedy to me is mediocre at best. These guys are known for pushing the envelope or being over-the-top when it comes to stereotypes. To see DJ Ozma come out of retirement to do this gig is sort of a disappointment since I have been a fan of his since he was a leading the band Kishidan. Additionally, I have done a print, television and internet campaign for Lotte’s restaurant chain, Lotteria.
Now unlike the Gosperats, no black face is involved in this current CM and it seems that men (on television) dressing up as women in Japan is sort of a norm. What I find extremely distasteful is the description of the faux black women, the implied teenage pregnancy and the husband that left the US (his family and his business) to return to Japan. What’s up with that?! Read the rest of this entry »
I would like to say ARIGATO for the emails and posts submitted by the various bloggers from around the world (thank goodness for Google Translate). Needless to say, I was happy to see that CNN ran the story on my post questioning whether eMobile’s CM was considered racist: ”Obama is a Monkey in Japan?” It would have been nice for the CNN Japan reporter to acknowledge the website though. Speaking of acknowledgments, I would like to give a big shout out to Ms. Vaughn for voicing her concern on Metropolis Magazine’s MetPod. Also, kudos to the concerned citizens that appeared in the CNN Tokyo interview.
Here is a rehash on what I posted:
“Obama is a Monkey in Japan[?] (Notice the question mark) Well it SEEMS like the ugly head of racism has reared its big head again on Japanese television. E Mobile’s new cell phone commercial SEEMS to depict a presidential campaign with “red” supporters (red is E Mobile’s corporate color and not representative of the Democratic Party (blue) in this case) in the background holding signs the say “Change.” While change is good, having the CANDIDATE depicted as a monkey is not!”
I posed the question:
“Am I crazy to think that the monkey is supposed to represent Barack Obama?”
Then a statement:
“Given the track record for COMPANIES in Japan that used monkeys and blacks or monkeys as blacks in advertisements…maybe not!”
Now the responses from the blogosphere were very interesting, if not sometimes ignorant. Ignorant because some bloggers found it funny to correlate monkeys to Blacks while others felt that the Japanese would not understand the “Western” concept of things related to race and racist imagery. Many bloggers believe that my remarks stemmed from cultural baggage, whatever the hell that means.
The most telltale sign that some people were micturating in atmospheric equations of motion stemmed from the numerous claims of Blacks “screaming” of racism. I would like to believe that the voice on Black Tokyo has been reasonable, measured, and raised in a consciousness that reflects the spirit of those that do not need others to validate or approve of what is deemed racist in depiction or culturally insensitive.
Wow! I was pleased to see that my response, “Let the SDF Deploy Overseas,” to an Opinion Editorial (Op Ed) piece in the Japan Times was published in the Readers in Council section on Sunday, May 25, 2008. I decided last month to not only dedicate more time to finishing off the dragon a.k.a. “my book” but to write for a broader audience. I will take this as a good start.
I was also very happy to find out that a magazine in Paris wants to do a story on me and Black Tokyo for their upcoming edition. The story will present Black Tokyo to a broader demographic since the magazine is distributed in Paris, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Auckland, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Haven, various parts of the U.K., Milano, Rome, and Sweden.
Here the link to my response. As always, I welcome any feedback (good or bad)! The introduction to my response is posted below:
“Craig Martin’s May 21 article, “Permanent SDF overseas deployment law endangers democracy,” was an extreme pleasure to read, although I do not agree with everything in it.
It’s 2008 and Japan has the second strongest military force in Asia, continues to spend 1 percent of its GDP on defense, has acquired some pretty neat military toys (and sells a few using a broad interpretation of “aid”), has redeployed newer fighter aircraft to its base in Okinawa, wants to acquire the F-22 Raptor, and will have a few helicopter “carriers” that will allow the Self-Defense Forces to project their “defense” closer to China.” (click the link below for the rest of the article)
Arigato and Okini to those that sent email thanking me for the list of language and resource links. I found out that MANY lurkers hit the BT Forum and Blog. Hopefully, they will post about their experiences in Japan or even ask a question or two about Japan from the Afro (or non-Afro) perspective!
I finally found some time to update the BT Blog. Check out the new links and posts. I will add MANY more links (especially language resources) later. Here is a link to a blog post that you may find useful: http://www.thejapanesepage.com/grammar/small_words#comment-3045
Sometimes Snap Shots bring you the information you need, without your having to leave the site, while other times it lets you “look ahead,” before deciding if you want to follow a link or not.
Should you decide this is not for you, just click the Options icon in the upper right corner of the Snap Shot and opt-out.
Well now that Black History MONTH is finally over and I no longer see a zillion fast food commercials and the same old commercialization of Blacks deemed safe to represent the Black race, my man Smokey Robinson breaks down the meaning of being a BLACK American. Enjoy!
Commercial: Play Now | Play in Popup | Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
According to the story line, the trio is supposedly made up of a family from Nevada, consisting of a 36-year-old former stripper named Margaret Yajima (played by DJ Ozma) and her two daughters, the 17-year-old Naomi and the 11-year-old Strawberry both played by Tunnels. The mother a.k.a. Black Bolt (her stage name at the shake joint) brought her daughters to Japan to look for their father, a Japanese barber or beautician named Yajima. 
