The June 19th Issue
Japanese cancel culture and a little trip to the NHK Museum of Broadcasting.
Keeping this week’s relatively short: my mom’s in town, I’m packing to move into my new apartment, and I got hit with a wave of summer complacency—all I wanna do is sit inside and eat frozen mango chunks.
If you live in Japan and/or follow Japanese entertainment news you’ll be familiar with these two big news stories that I’ll briefly mention:
Cancel Culture Case #1: Nagayama Kento
Actor Nagayama Kento was arrested for possession of ONE MILIGRAM of marijuana on the morning of June 16th, 2023. Subsequently:
NHK announced that same day that Nagayama’s agency had requested to take him off the cast of the 2024 Taiga drama “Hikaru Kimi e” [光る君へ]
WOWOW announced that the movies and drama that he’s in that are due to be aired on the channel in June and July will be replaced with other programming
Just absurd.
Cancel Culture Case #2: Hirosue Ryokō
Actress Hirosue Ryokō had an affair. I don’t care to know the details of it. However, subsequently:
All of her projects have been put on hold and her commercials have been taken off the web
Terebi Tokyo also dropped her as the MC for their music program “TereTo Ongaku Sai 2023 Natsu ～ I can't help but want to sing along! The 100 Strongest Hit Songs～” [テレ東音楽祭2023夏～思わず歌いたくなる！最強ヒットソング100連発～] (2023)
While her character (*spoiler*) dies in the ongoing NHK morning drama “Ranman” [らんまん] (2023), it’s rumored she appears in flashbacks later on and NHK did not answer directly as to whether Hirosue will appear again in the drama
You can be Johnny Kitagawa abusing boys for YEARS but if you’re a woman and caught having affair? They’re done with you.
I went to the NHK Broadcasting Museum!!
I got into a conversation the other day with a friend who felt that there was no real value in public television and while at the time I couldn't adequately articulate why I believe services like the BBC and NHK are important, after taking a field trip to the museum I am reminded that even with all of NHK’s controversies, at the end of the day, I am a child of “Zawazawa Mori no Gankochan” [ざわざわ森のがんこちゃん] (1996 - 2015), “Ojarumaru” [おじゃる丸] (1998 - present), and “Pythagora Switch” ピタゴラスイッチ] (2002 - present).
More than anything after the visit to the museum what stuck with me the most is the importance of children’s programming—a topic that goes ignored in the world of entertainment and something that I think NHK puts more effort into and does better than America’s PBS. I didn’t have cable growing up so no Disney Channel, no Nickelodeon, no Cartoon Network—PBS was all I had for kids’ shows, so excuse me for getting pissy about it.1 American kids just don’t have a shared collective experience of watching PBS shows, like kids in Japan with NHK, other than the few exceptions like “Arthur,” “Clifford the Big Red Dog” or “Sesame Street.”2 Looking at the PBS kids’ show lineup right now and it’s almost all animation? Now I guess today’s kids are soaking their brains in the rotten juices of “CoComelon.” Anyway, donate to your local PBS station.
I don’t know if this was available elsewhere before, but BBC World Japan has uploaded its Johnny Kitagawa documentary onto YouTube.
The trailer for the Netflix live-action “One Piece” (2023) series dropped yesterday. If you care about that kind of thing.
TV I watched this week: “Da Ga, Jōnetsu was Aru” [だが、情熱はある] (2023) and “Detective Conan” [名探偵コナン] (1996 - present)
I’ve also been very into watching this YouTuber play through the Nintendo Hamtaro games
Also for my job, I will be visiting the studio of “Yojigoji Days” [よじごじDays] (2017 - present) this Tuesday, June 20th. It’s a live information show that’s on Terebi Tokyo starting from 15:40 if you’re not doing anything then.
Although ABC did show Disney Channel shows on Saturday mornings at 07:00 for which I was always seated for.
Remember when Mitt Romney threatened to pluck, feather, and gut Big Bird?