- 14 Mar 2002
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Interesting article on how Western media (mis)report on Japan. I wasn't aware of practises like "bagel heads, snail facials or ritual head shaving".
Anyhow, an overdue reality check for Western correspondents "reporting" from and on Japan!
Sex myths without substance: Mislabelling Japan
These stories gain traction because they support a view
of east Asia which is at best patronising and at worst overtly racist
Anyhow, an overdue reality check for Western correspondents "reporting" from and on Japan!
Sex myths without substance: Mislabelling Japan
These stories gain traction because they support a view
of east Asia which is at best patronising and at worst overtly racist
This round was kicked off with an article in the Guardian looking at reasons behind Japan's rapidly declining population. Since then, sound-bites have been repeated and distorted, and the spiralling birth rate figures have become a hook for a spate of ill-informed, voyeuristic articles that fail to note that the 'weirdness' they see before them is far from representative.
TIME asked whether millions of young people are eschewing sex because they'd rather "manage a virtual candy store in a video game". Vice segued into an expose of Japan's sex and love industry, taking time to name check "a generation of men obsessed with virtual reality and so intimidated by real women that they prefer cyber girlfriends". [...]
Coverage peaked last Thursday, with a BBC2 documentary entitled 'No sex please, we're Japanese'. While there was some good reporting on what a shrinking society means for Japan, it was almost entirely undermined by an apparent determination to blame "a generation that has never had to grow up".
Presenter Anita Rani's quest to understand the "psyche of the modern Japanese man" leads her to Akihabara: the home of otaku, or geek, culture. As happens all too often, a tiny minority is portrayed as though it were representative of the wider population, and its impact wildly exaggerated. In a supporting article, Rani makes the entirely bogus claim that "One reason for the lack of babies is the emergence of a new breed of Japanese men, the otaku, who love manga, anime and computers – and sometimes show little interest in sex".