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Japanese and cameras: real or stereotype?

ArmandV

Eight Times To Japan
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We've all seen Japanese people in movies and magazines portrayed as camera freaks. Apparently, this is not new as a friend mentioned seeing a Three Stooges short from 1941 of a parody of Hitler, Mussolini and Hirohito getting into a brawl and the Hirohito character stops the brawl at different intervals to have everyone pose for a photo.

I know of a Japanese-American who is a big camera nut, but what about other Japanese? Are they really nuts about cameras?
 
Depends, I love taking photos. I try not to leave the house without a camera, either my trusty digital or a cheap disposable. Why? Photos are memories, to me they are precious. I have almost all of my photos in digital and hard copy so I can enjoy and share them with people.

Maybe it just stands out more for people because the only time they really see Japanese people is when they are on holiday, and taking photos anyway.
You cant tell me you dont take photos when you go play tourist too?

On a technical level they aren't any more camera nuts in Japan than back home in Aus, thats about the same.
 
^
Yeah, I'm the same way. I either have a still camera or a video camera. But we're not portrayed as camera nuts like the Japanese are.
 
Its a bit of an unfair stereotype really. I wouldnt say they take anymore photos than say I would.
 
I think the stereotype comes from the old days when cameras (and film) were very expensive.

My mother's brothers kept their cameras in special airtight cases with dehumidifiers to keep them from high humidity of Japan's rainy season and took pictures for every occasion. My husband's late father was also a camera nut and owned a 8mm camera even in the postwar years when people were still scraping to survive. In short, people owned cameras even when they didn't have anything else.

Just my personal impression, but that's probably why there are many good camera manufacturers in Japan.
 
I'm part Japanese and love taking picture as a hobby.
 
Camera nut?
It is such people?
A camera boy (CAMERA KOZOU, an abbreviated designation,:, CAMEKO) is a man amateur photographer gathering for a main purpose in photographing an event companion and race queen, various idols, a woman like Koss player not event itself in an event meeting place.
It is on with a boy, but actually there are many photographers for 30-40 generations because an economic burden of purchase and expedition costs of machine parts for professionals is big.
カメラ小僧 - Wikipedia
 
Every Japanese person I've ever come into contact with is pretty crazy about taking pictures and keeping pictures. My husband has to have all pictures put in specific order in perfectly categorized photo albums. Heaven help anyone(me) who takes a picture out of one of his albums.

When my in-laws were here, my sister-in-law took over 800 pictures, all of which are on my computer right now. It's insane. She was even taking pictures of cows, tombstones, mailboxes, Wendy's kid's meal toy, and even my uncle's kitchen sink. It was pretty extreme, I think. It was amusing, but a tad extreme.

Any of the rest of them I've come into contact with are pretty much the same way, so the stereotype is true for all the Japanese people I know personally(which is much more than just my husband and in-laws, by the way).
 
Hey, did anybody check out my gallery at Deviant Art? It's in my signature.

I do love taking picures, but I'm too lazy to take pics of whatever I see; instead, I only take ones when I see something inspiring, so I try to carry my camera as much as possible.
I also try not to make people pose for me because their expressions change when they are aware of the camera.
 
I think Japanese like to take pictures more than Western people in general. My husband has witnessed a Japanese girl in a high class French restaurant taking pictures of every dish she has been served. He says ﾂ"that's funny; if we Europeans are to go to Japan or other places for vacations and we are trying local foods, we would not do that.ﾂ"

But I think it is not just Japanese, Asians in general like to take pictures more than Caucasians. For wedding pictures, family pictures, potraits etc people are willing to spend money to go to studio to take lots and lots of professional pictures.:joyful:

Below are some photo studios in HK and TW where people spend money to take professional photographs, if I am not mistaken I think in Japan and Korea they have similar things.


主頁 (Click on the section where it says in English ﾂ"Enter Siteﾂ", the site is in Chinese so you won't be able to understand the words unless you can read Chinese but the pictures are clear of what I mean).

mgm4688 - 点此进入 (Another one in HK).

http://www.dreamwedding.com.tw/ (This one in Taiwan has a version of its website in Japanese).

http://www.lishe.com.tw/ (Another one in Taiwan).
 

A good way to really tease your husband would be to tell him, "Honey, I was bored today so I rearranged the pictures in the photo albums."

I am surprised that this topic never came up before.
 
Hiroyuki Nagashima said:
Camera nut?
It is such people?
Click to expand...

Camera nut. Shutterbug. Photo freak. There's a lot of monikers for camera/photo fanatics.
 
My host mom used to tell me that the Japanese style of taking a vacation was to get to a place, take a lot of pictures, and hurry off to another site. You can enjoy the pictures later. Maybe that's why her brother, who I stayed with in Shizuoka, had us literally panting and sweating from running from one tourist spot to the next.
 
When I see Japanese tourists in the UK or France, it seems like they are taking a lot of photos, but like someone said, that's maybe because they are tourists going sightseeing! ^^ on holiday...

My Japanese friend from Uni liked taking photos, but then again she was a student of art, so that's natural too... she would take photos and then use them in her work. And she also had a thing about taking photos of food! ^^ When we had a party or something with our friends, she would always take photos of food... it made some good artistic images though...
 
I always take pictures of food... I started taking pictures of food that I made in Japan--- then taking pictures of food we were eating at izakaya, and food we ate in Korea, then the food I'd eaten in California, if it were a steak, or a burrito... it reminds me how good it was!

I think the ease of digital cameras, and moreover the inclusion of a camera in many phones has eased the stigma of the trigger-happy tourist... I have seen Japanese at a staging convention walking around with a video camera (I suppose to film thing for the superiors back home)... & it did make me think of the old stereotype though.
 
Kinsao said:
My Japanese friend from Uni liked taking photos, but then again she was a student of art, so that's natural too... she would take photos and then use them in her work. And she also had a thing about taking photos of food!
Click to expand...

I wonder how many Japanese women stopped to take pictures of their White Day gifts?
 
I am even more worse *Did I wrote it good this time hahahahaha* with my camera, when I go sightseeing somewhere, I make around 100-200 pics a day with my digi.

I will delete 40-60% of it though.
 
ArmandV said:
A good way to really tease your husband would be to tell him, "Honey, I was bored today so I rearranged the pictures in the photo albums."
I am surprised that this topic never came up before.
Click to expand...

it is just because there are more interesting threads here.
 
ArmandV said:
A good way to really tease your husband would be to tell him, "Honey, I was bored today so I rearranged the pictures in the photo albums."
I am surprised that this topic never came up before.
Click to expand...

You've given me a splendid idea...
 
ArmandV said:
I wonder how many Japanese women stopped to take pictures of their White Day gifts?
Click to expand...
That would be interesting to see. Not me though, since there is no such thing as White Day in my house.

I did take some pictures of a wood pile on that day coincidentaly.
 
ArmandV said:
I wonder how many Japanese women stopped to take pictures of their White Day gifts?
Click to expand...
If I were a young working girl, my girlfriends will probably share photos of what they got on White Day!!

Seriously, I think photography has become so easy and cheap these days, it doesn't compare with the cost and care that was required in the old days.
I have taken pictures of breads that I have made in the past to check how well I've improved!
And, if I've never been to an American home and you invited me, Kirei, I certainly will take picture of your sink to show my friends!!
 
pipokun said:
it is just because there are more interesting threads here.
Click to expand...


You posted here, so apparently it interests you to some degree.
 
I see nothing wrong with indulging in a hobby, especially one that derives so much pleasure. Nor do I see that as any sort of stereotype. I've become a budding shutterbug myself, even though showing off pictures of myself here threatens to give people brain damage, I'm starting to understand just how much fun photography really is!
 
I know a dozen or two Japanese, but only have one real friend from that nifty nation. I think I've witnessed her taking a total of about one photo in the ten or so years I've known her. She is definitely not an avid photographer. As for the other people I know, none of them seem to be wilder than average about taking snaps, either.
This evidence would seem to lend support to the Everybody's Different anthropological camp, though I am in no position to deny a general societal tendency.
 
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