Wai Wai once more
The Marmot has a great follow-up post on the Wai Wai Debacle and some attention that it has attracted overseas.
It is their popularity with some Western readers that has especially incensed Japanese bloggers. Many feel their country’s reputation has been “debauched” around the world. “Foreigners who don’t know the truth will believe these stories are true,” wrote one. Another railed: “Ryann Connell is a degenerate scatologist - a typical Australian.” And a third wondered: “Why doesn’t someone drop a hydrogen atom bomb on Australia?”
In an interview with the Herald late last year Connell admitted his transcriptions might have contributed in part to a lazy notion that if Japanese are not totally inhibited by their strict social codes, they are hopelessly debased by their bizarre fetishes.
“It does concern me that we resort to these stereotypes all the time,” he said. “Downtrodden salarymen, slutty schoolgirls, crazy housewives, corrupt old bosses and so on. And there have been times when I picked stories of questionable accuracy to write up. But by and large I’m presenting to the English-speaking world things that the Japanese are writing about themselves.”
And if you still are not sick of this story yet. . .
July 5th, 2008 at 9:05 pmHave Japanese a friend here in Sweden, she never heard of Wai Wai, when I explained to her about it she just said “We don’t need wai wai to spread this kind of misconceptions about Japan, normal press already does a good job on it”..
July 6th, 2008 at 4:50 amIt cuts both ways. On the one hand, it may give people the wrong impression.
On the other hand, most Japanese are themselves clueless about what happens in their own country. To make it worse, Japanese are bred to assume that they know everything about their country - as demonstrated by the phrase “We Japanese don’t like……(fill in personal preference.) In other words, my thoughts are the thoughts of almost all Japanese and, secondly, if I haven’t seen or heard of it, it doesn’t exist.
Particularly among the women - they just don’t want to know. And the men, understandably, prefer it that way.
The big difference between here and the West is that the Japanese are happy to keep some aspects of life relatively behind the scenes. Which is why there is no huge gay rights movement, for example.
So far as impressions - I think Japan is more poorly represented by a girl who announces she bursts into tears on a bus and later cries herself to sleep after reading about WaiWai. Makes the country look hysterical. With schoolgirl hookers, though, one can at least understand all the motivations.
Imagine if Americans got upset about all the Hollywood movies that perpetuate similarly egregious misconceptions about the US. That’s life. Get used to it.
July 6th, 2008 at 7:41 amExcellent analysis, ghoti.
In the cases where I have bothered to pursue a solid line of logic leading the Japanese listener to the inescapable conclusion that what they have thought until now is entirely wrong, it often is shrugged off with some remark about gaijin being “overly logical” (rikutsuppoi).
Kind of reminds me of someone. . .
July 6th, 2008 at 12:38 pmHa! Homer has something for every occasion.
July 6th, 2008 at 3:58 pmYes, logic. That’s not fair…
Very apt observation, ghoti! Kind of off tangent is that belief by Japanese (and japanophiles) that Japanese are polite, quiet people who don’t make noise or disrupt the WA/harmony. Look at the japanese protestors at the G-8 summit meeting or union protestors in Osaka that are figthing the cops.
July 7th, 2008 at 1:37 am