Wardrobe Malfunction?
I’ll assume that you have a life and were not at home last night watching Kouhaku, the annual New Year’s Eve extravaganza on NHK. Well, you missed it, my friend.
Kouhaku features performances of Japan’s hot, trendy starlets and old-school enka battleaxes rocking the house until (for some reason) fifteen minutes before midnight. This year featured the stylings of DJ Ozma performing his hit (I guess, maybe), Bounce With Me.
Bounce with me. Bounce with me.
Bounce with me. Bounce.
Bounce with me. Bounce with me.
Bounce with me. Bounce.
And then the usual assortment of hey babies, all nights, and yeah yeah yeah babies.
Now, although DJ Ozma usually strips down to his own little bouncy bouncies when he performs this song, this would have displeased the enka fans, so he promised not to do so. But he did say that he would do something “shocking” and not to worry because it would be “legal.” We know that Ozma is crazy because, not only does he perm and dye his hair, he wears funky sunglasses at night and inside! He could do anything!
Ozma prances on as usual. He flipped off the coat, the shirt, the pants. And then, a little more than half way through the song…hells-a-poppin’, boobies! Boobies up one end and down the other. Three or four of the back up dancers had flung their tops off. They didn’t flash. They didn’t wait until the last beat of the song. They bounced around the stage as if it were supper time in the maternity ward. Happy New Year! It’s 1996 in Japan again!
After the performance the hostess commented, “ehhh…bikkurishita.”
And yet, there had been something amiss. Something wrong with the heft, the flow, the bounce. These girls had not bouncing with me, Ozma, or anyone else. In response to what must have been an unprecedented number of phone calls, an announcer informed us that they had been wearing boobie-painted body suits. Can you do that? I for one and shocked…shocked that my NHK fees are going to nudie bodysuits. I demand no bodysuits next year!
See for yourself. Technically, it’s safe for work, but…no, you better not. No, boss. They’re bodysuits! The top picture is not safe for your soul.
Non-non-boobie version of Bounce With Me.
No life for me, thank you. I’m married.
I am forced to watch this program by my in-laws every year. I caught the body suits right away, as did my wife. I admit I had to look a bit to confirm it, but I just didn’t expect NHK to ramp up that much skin overnight. My mother-in-law muttered a bit to herself, as she does whenever I do anything that seems inappropriate, such as breathing.
They fooled my mother-in-law and my 4 year old daughter, who of course will grow up thinking it’s quite natural to strip and shake your stuff on NHK.
What, though, happened in 1996? I wasn’t watching life go by on TV in those days. I don’t mind admitting this now, because we are possibly the only 2 people visiting Japundit on New Years Day. Trees falling in forests, and all that…
January 1st, 2007 at 6:19 pmNot even 2, apparently.
January 1st, 2007 at 9:41 pmLooks like it’s just you and me, ghoti.
I first came to Japan in 1996, and at that time one could display a fine pair of female mammaries on public TV after 10. I left Japan, and when I came back I found that something horrible had happened, and now one can not do such things — but apparently you can cover said mammaries with a thin cloth with mammaries painted on it. Maybe someone who lived through this period like JP can fill us in as to what happened.
January 1st, 2007 at 11:07 pmI really don’t know what happened. When I first got here strippers (down to G-string) on late night TV were normal fare. There also was a weekly show called “Playgirl,” which was about a detective agency staffed by young women who were karate experts that always wore miniskirts. Each week the climax consisted of the Playgirls confronting the baddies and kicking ass, with plenty of high kicks. Of course, the camera angle was carefully selected for maximum exposure.
I also remember a late night show that has a segment called “Tissue Time.” It would feature a scantily clad comely lass and a countdown timer in the corner to let you know when the image would disappear. When the timer reached zero, there was the sound of an explosion. . .
On top of all of this were shots of more “accidental” nature. There used to be a show called “Up Down Quiz” in which the contestants sat on platforms that moved upwards each time they answered a question correctly. When a contestant reached the highest level (which was physically quite high), he or she won a trip to Hawaii or something like that. At that point, the show would roll one of those airplane stairways up to the winner, and a girl in a JAL stewardess outfit (which was mini at that time), would run up the steps and place a lei around the winner’s neck. She would have to reach across the contestant’s desk for this, which would cause her dress to ride up her back. Without fail, there would always be a camera following the “stewardess” up the stairway and it would capture her exposed undergarments for all to see.
What happened to all of this? Parents groups and women’s right groups put a lot of pressure on the government to get this kind of thing off the tube, and it apparently worked.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:09 amAgreed it has certainly changed. But I think all that is still there if not worse then it was before. But its not as absurdly clear as it was then.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:23 amYes, I thought I was in Europe for a second there. They really looked real.
You guys haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen the old Gilgamesh Night shows from 1991-1996-7 or so. Great stuff, like “mini skirt sumo wrestling” and “melt the vaguely phallic shaped ice with your mouth and get the diamond ring.” A shame since it was all fun, and less offensive than driving through the “pink” part of any Japanese town.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:33 amI think the after 10 topless shows went off the air just before the Nagano Olympics. I remember a big stink about not wanting foreigners to be shocked by Japan. I believe they finally set a (national?) minimum age of consent (for females) at the same time and for the same reason. Didn’t want the foreign press to get a wind of legal enjokosai in some cities. Or maybe they didn’t want foreigners participating.
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:08 amHere are a few more pictures:
January 2nd, 2007 at 2:14 amhttp://bananahole.blogspot.com/2007/01/dj-ozma.html
The site itself is NSFW.
Cheap plug for myself but here are some other low quality pics:
http://lostinube.blogspot.com/2007/01/dj-ozma-and-2006-khaku-uta-gassen-okay.html
And finally, for anyone who say that they’ve cleaned up late night TV in Japan..this is on tonight:
http://www.ontvjapan.com/genre/detail.php3?tikicd=0705&hsid=200701010623014
It’s on YouTube, naturally, at least for now. You can hear the announcer at the end clearly saying that they were not naked.
January 2nd, 2007 at 8:00 amI do miss Gilgamesh. It taught me much about the culture. I haven’t really watched broadcast TV here for so many years, I didn’t know the skin was gone from non-NHK channels. Too bad.
The announcement that they were not naked came about 15 minutes later, after the barrage of phone calls, not right after the performance as it seems on the YouTube vid.
January 2nd, 2007 at 10:01 amI cannot for the life of me understand what the hell makes this individual popular… Sweet mother of god what the hell…
Can DJ Ozama please go away now?
January 2nd, 2007 at 11:49 amAh, Gilgamesh! Those were the daze.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:15 pmAs I said above, a few hundred phone calls is all it takes to get a Japanese broadcaster into full retreat.
NHK has apologized for “any misunderstanding” over DJ OZMA’s performance.
Story here.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:20 pmActually, JP, that article seems to be quoting the “disclaimer” read by the host at the end of the performance. If you watch the video you can hear him explain the outfits.
January 2nd, 2007 at 1:21 pmIt is possible that the outfits were a distraction! They knew people would call to complain about the wretched music. So they devised this costume fiaso so that people would complain about that instead thus prolonging his musical career by a matter of weeks…
Of course thats just my opinion!
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January 4th, 2007 at 2:06 pm