General Japanese Culture Thread

Everyone else is too scared of Kill 'em All Tomino.

To elaborate for those who don't know the story, when Romi Paku was voicing the lead in Turn A Gundam, one of the staff (sound director I think, but my memory could be faulty on that point) was basically being a racist asshole to her. Tomino overheard and descended on the guy like the wrath of an angry god.

I wonder how modern Japan feels towards us from the old European Imperial powers...

Nothing. Probably as trading partners, nothing more.

I dunno about that. They really seem to dig the European Noble look, if anime is anything to go by, not to mention that most JRPG's have the standard Medieval European Fantasy look. While they may not have as many outlets as we do, they seem to share our fascination with those weirdos on the other side of the globe.

...I wonder if there's a Doctor Who fandom in Japan?

edited 19th Apr '16 4:03:11 AM by Kayeka

Western/Northern European countries are the "real" foreign countries.

America is very loud.

North Korea is very dangerous.

China is very loud and dangerous, but also good trading partner.

Rest of Asia, a resounding "meh".

edited 19th Apr '16 4:13:57 AM by TerminusEst

Re: Japanese and other Asians, here's a paper on good old-fashioned internet racism.

Unfortunately, I'm told people still haven't stopped being racist on the internet, and the zainichi still get shit on 24/7 there.

edited 19th Apr '16 6:36:44 AM by majoraoftime

A fun bit of xenophobia you see is in the hentai doujinshi circles, where artists flip out about the idea of their work getting translated for foreign consumption as if they're having their rights violated. Understandable in the self-published stuff, but when a guy gets mad that foreigners are translating and distributing his unauthorized Naruto doujin, you have to think there's something going on there.

It's not only h-doujin authors. Someone in Unisonia, a collaboration of doujin musicians has publicly claimed that they need to defend their culture from foreigners as a response of their albums uploaded to You Tube. However, there are cases in which they are not just simply tolerate such things (IOSYS outright use content ID to mark videos which contains content from them instead of taking down videos) to even willing to work with them. Considering that there are pirates in Japan and they are acting as copyright holders, this does makes sense. It kind of made me reconsider whether to attend Music Media-Mix Market this year out of fear that they would not welcome foreign buyers who will just upload their stuff like others.

edited 19th Apr '16 8:01:56 AM by murazrai

@2056 The 2ch excerpts I'm seeing in that essay are only slightly worse than what I expect from 4chan.

As a counterpoint to the "Japanese people dislike foreigners messing with their work", the guys over at OverClocked ReMix have heard from several Japanese artists and gotten generally positive responses, and even some submissions! Hyadain has a couple of his songs posted on OCR, for instance.

edited 19th Apr '16 9:34:59 AM by NativeJovian

Probably more the difference between professional artists and immature amateurs on the internet.

edited 19th Apr '16 9:36:41 AM by Mio

My original question got me thinking: Despite Japan's problems with Koreans aside from Zainichis, how does Lim Dall-young (The Legend Of Maian, Kurokami, Freezing) still have a fanbase in Japan for the former in parenthesis, and publish for Japanese publishing companies for the latter two in parenthesis?

Because nobody actually cares as long as you deliver a good consumable product.

Because an unwillingness to accept someone as equal, to consider them the same or allow people to become citizens doesn't inherently translate into an unwillingness to buy their products.

Japan's racism seems to focus on purity of the population, not purity of the culture, it's about keeping the people of Japan 'Japanese', not about keeping them away from non-Japanese culture.

@ 2059: Thats because 2chan is MUCH worse then 4chan, its one reason I activly avoid it, but visit the later.

The important thing is they are drawn in Manga format and not Manhwa format

Korean dramas are also pretty popular in japan. Meanwhile many Japanese shows especially variety shows are flat out banned in South Korea, including some animes that were actually animated in South Korea.

I have a question, since we're talking about who's considered "Japanese".

What would a child of, say, a Japanese woman and a Japanese-American man be considered?

If the difference from the general population can be seen, very often hafu, quite literally "half". It's about the outward look, more than anything else. Miss Universe Japan◊ was criticised for not looking Japanese enough to actually represent Japanese beauty.

If you are a foreigner and/or look like foreigner, you will always be a foreigner.

edited 19th Apr '16 12:45:00 PM by TerminusEst

Depends: where they were born and grew up would tip the scales, big time. Also, which side of the family they spent most time around would play a factor.

There's still a strong clan-thing in Japan. Spend time cut off from it, and you pay a price.

That, too. :/

edited 19th Apr '16 12:45:44 PM by Euodiachloris

Hmm...what would affect one's outward appearance in this regard?

There are many animes that start off their stories by the MC looking too unconventional, like having dyed hair, NATURALLY-different-colored hair despite still being Japanese, or some physical thing thereof, that makes them either outcasts or just shunned by their peers or just treated like a walking disaster. The protagonists of Bleach, Yu Yu Hakkusho, Peach Girl, Jellyfish Princess, Toradora, and others all start their story this way. The reasons above is why there are so many stories in anime with this set-up. If you look different from others in society, you'll be discriminated to a degree.

edited 19th Apr '16 12:54:36 PM by kyun

Heck, looking too Ainu will get you into trouble in Kyusho. <_< And, those genes're as native as you can get.

An East-West quarter runs the risk of having traits than run stereotypically Ainu. :/

Case in point: my mother took shell-painting with a mixed group of ladies around her age. One had roots in Hokkaido (from her grandfather on her mother's side). She welcomed the increasing fad in hair colouring and curling, as she could explain away her detracting point much more easily (chocolate brown, curly hair = childhood of woe), and she thought her grandchildren would get away with it a little easier, if they got hit with the Ainu stick like she did.

edited 19th Apr '16 1:19:03 PM by Euodiachloris

Its a rather standard Light Novel plot where the MC's superpower works differently than everyone else thus he is a complete failure in the eyes of everyone including the system, even if they are flat out overpowered when compared to everyone else in practical combat they are different that is all that matters.

It is especially clear when you look at people with disabilities in japan...

Speaking of which, I've been wondering this for a while: how are people with Asperger's seen in Japan? I mean, I know the guy who made Pokemon has it, but I dunno if that means anything.

Hell, FOOD WARS starts off this way! Everyone in the world except his Dad sees Soma as some cheap street vendor intruding into their turf but of course he uses his creativity and 12 years of training to his advantage. What a better way to make people root for the MC than by starting him off ordinary or shunned due to differences!