Tokyo Media Watch

Miles and Tamori

satin doll in Nakameguro

Odawara castle

wisteria

The moat outside Odawara castle. There are actually supposed to be wisteria hanging from that walkway on the left, but it seemed we were a few days late . . 

The Downfall of SMAP?

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, the "nice guy" from the pop group SMAP, was arrested for cavorting through the park naked and drunk in the wee hours of Thursday morning (no pun intended). 

The Japanese media is turning this into a circus by raining down condemnation and expressing "disgust" at his lewd behavior. When I think about the fact that thousands of college kids in the U.S. do this every year on their respective campuses ("streaking") I can't help concluding that people are making way too big a deal out of this.

Companies that use Kusanagi and other SMAP members in their ads (and there are a lot of them) are canceling their advertising contracts left and right. Despite the fact that SMAP is represented by Johnny and Associates, one of the biggest pop star agencies in Japan, Kusanagi is being dumped, and dumped on, big time. 

I like Kusanagi. Believe it or not, I had the chance to talk to him on the phone directly one time (I won't into detail of how or why) and he lived up to his "nice guy" character. He probably needed to let off steam because of the absurd pop star system and world that he lives in, where all his words are chosen, all his songs are written for him, and his very "character" is molded for him. 

But despite liking Kusanagi, I don't like SMAP and all that it represents. This incident is representative of all the problems of the pop star system, where companies rely on pop stars, and pop stars rely on companies, and nobody really cares about the quality of the music or who these pop stars really are. And also it shows just how much the media is controlled by those very same companies. It is a thin fantasy, and maybe that's what everyone is realizing now.

Trump Room

There is an interesting little club in Shibuya near TGIF. About six floors, each floor containing a room filled with chandeliers and mirrors. I wasn't able to see the top floor because it is exclusive but I hear it is all white.

The place is run by a fashion businessman who is known as Mr.Trump and hands out joker cards in place of name cards. He's a bit crazy.

Ichiro Lennon

As part of 15 trillion yen in stimulus measures announced last week, Prime Minister Taro Aso pledged to increase the Japanese contents market.

For the most part, he is talking about spreading the popularity of manga, anime, and video games overseas. I would say that these genres have been popular for years now and are growing of their own accord. It will be more interesting to see what happens with Japanese music, which is only recently starting to pop its head up in foreign markets. 

With shrinking domestic demand, Japanese artists have no choice but to look overseas. But there are many obstacles, in my mind. The majority of western listeners will reject Japanese music either because it is sung in Japanese, or because the English is poor (bad pronunciation or lyrics). Utada Hikaru recently released her second album for the western market, but despite her fluent English I think she lacks a lyrical sense of what sounds right in western pop. She misses widely in her lyrics, and that is the reason for her mediocre success there.

There is a need for improved understanding of the western market if Japanese artists have any hope of gaining success there. Much in the same way that Japanese baseball players made a splash in the major leagues, I think it is possible (as incredible as it seems now) that some day you could have an "Ichiro" come out of Japan. Or would that be "Ichiro Lennon?"

France 13

France 12

Another view from the top. 

France 11

A walled yard within the abbey