In U.S., Three Degrees are known as an one hit wonder of "When will I see you again." But in Japan, they had hit after hit after hit in mid '70s. They were extreamly popular and this is the clip from their TV special. They are the very first Black artist who broke in Japanese market. Even before them, Black musicians like Sammie Davis jr, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye had been well respected but only among serious music lovers. Top selling artists were all White as Japanese fascination to White culture, or racial complex toward White, was the one big reason for them to listen to American & European pop music. However Jazz has been popular in Japan for a long time, it has been always for educated class therefore the market has been small.
Then came Three Degrees. The one big reason they could become so popular in Japan was their looks, no doubt. Including me, many Japanese were shocked by their glomourous beaty, which really destroyed the stereotype image Japanese had against Blacks, which was very negative, pretty much "Sambo."
Then came Stylistics. Interesting enough, their popularity in Japan started to rise with this song "Can't give you anything?" when their popularity started to decline in U.S.
Obviously their popularity in Japan was not caused by their looks, Ooops, sorry guys!, but their sweet, soft, tender & sophisticated music and singing, which really captured ladies' hearts.
In late '70s, Disco became very popular in Japan as well and more and more Black artists were invited to perform.
Then '80 brought Michael Jackson and during '80 Hip Hop gained popularity in Japan, and those phenomenons had completely changed young people's view on American Black music and Black culture. Also in early '90s, Bobby Brown, now known as Mr. Whiteney Houston, was extreamy successful in Japan as well. Now young kids enjoy Black music as much as music by White musican, which was totally unthinkable till mid '70s.
Well, the fact we can learn from this is that the popular culture can really help to change negative stereo types. Still some Japanese have not possitive images againt Blacks, but it has improved immensely since mid '70s. Now most of young kids recognize American Black culture as something cool, even though it is still a sort of stereo type because not all Black people are musicians or dancers. However, unfortunately African Blacks are still "Sambo" for most of Japanese, means they think all Africans have a very primitive life style. But many Americans, even Black Americans, got the same idea as well, don't they?
A while ago, I found the videos on YouTube by a Black guy living in Japan who were doing nothing but complaining about racism againt Blacks in Japan, with his face covered. I felt sorry for him to have bad expereinces in Japan. However, I can say I have been racially humiliated by low class Blacks and Hispanics much more than White here in U.S. I had some Black friends when I was living in Tokyo around 1980 and they seemed to really enjoy living in Japan. If you are a Black person who is interested in going to or/and living in Japan. I can say to you your experiences in Japan can not be worse than my experiences as an Asian who speaks crappy English in U.S. as long as you are a decent and proper person who know how to behave in public.
Three Degrees performed their most famous hit on Japanese TV show in '90s.
Stylistics performed their first big hit in Japan on Japanese TV show in '90s.
Hi It's been a while. I have not posted since October. Well, I have been feeling a bit low because because I lost my work, the magazine I had written for since 2007 folded. In Japan, magazines disappearing one after another as the internet has been replacing them, and young generations of Japanese do not read anything much. Most of remaining magazines are fashion or some other trend realted magazines, and the demand for writers like me is not existing much. You might think American media is crappy, but Japanese media is much crappier now, or even crappiest. Their journalism is basically dying.
What will I do? Well, I have to figure it out later.
But first, I have to get my creative energy back. I really have not done anything since November. It's time to face the music and dance. I hope writing this blog will help me to do so.
I also turned on the comment function though not sure how long it will last. If you like to leave a comment, please do so while it lasts.
This week, everyday I go to park and asking people questions like these.....
1) Why America chose Bush twice? People all over the world were shocked, stunned, puzzled and disgusted, when he was elected for the second time.
2) What is the worst thing Bush did to us? *War *National deficit *Economical crisis *Credit and Morgage crisis *Environmental issue *Health Insurance Issue *Immigration Issue *Education issue *Unfair tax *Shrinking middle class
3) What has changed America? One year ago, I could not predict Obama would win because America was the country that chose Bush twice. But now morelikely we will see the Black president.
4) What do you expect Obama accomplish most? We have so many issues now. Nobody can perform 100% up to people's expectation. But what do you think he can do to us or you want him to do?
5) Why America could not stop the society deteriorating so much? Why people are not speaking up about it? Though Americans have been known to be people who like to speak up about their issues. Now we have so many of them, then why people are so quiet? For example, if we do not do somethingd drastic immediately we can have a huge crop failure which can cause world wide starvation. Not only this issue but all other issue are pretty serious now. But Americans are so quiet? Why, Why, Why????
First of all, I will try to talk about this subject as frank as possible. If I offend anyone, please pardon me.
These black & white pics you are seeing are from the film called "Kiku and Isamu"(1959)
Though I myself never seen this movie, according to the books and articles I read, this is the film about two mixed breed kids, half Japanese-half Black, growing up in a rural area and post-war era of Japan.
Their mother was a prostitute, as many Japanese women became ones for survival in those days, and had a couple of kids with American Black GI. Then he left by himself, as it's a same old story, and their mother dumped them to her mother who lived and worked as a farmer in a very rural area of Japan. As kids grew up to be very naughty and out of control of their granma, they had to face lots of discrimination and be teased & bullied by other kids as well. They were called "Kuronbo" which is Japanese N-word.
In those days, many mix-breed kids were born in Japan and most of them were between Japanese women and American GIs as this film suggests. Now they are called "Half" but then they were called "Ai-no-ko(合いの子)", means half-breed, or "Konketsuji(混血児)" means mixed breed. At that time it did not matter half breed with White or Black, all mixed breed kids were teased and bullied. That certainly does not happen only in Japan, but especially in an almost homogenized society like Japan, more likely to happen. However, probably it was more difficult for the kids with Black heritage, I guess. Why? Because Japanese has a great racial complex toward White but a comtempt to other races, generally speaking.
Untill '60s, Japanese had quite bad stereo type images toward Blacks. I do not want to blame everything on Hollywood but it was mosdef a big factor. Untill '60s, you could rarely see any possitive images about Blacks in Hollywood films. And Japanese love Hollywood movies, like "Gone with the Wind" which features walking stereo types like Hattie McDaniel.
Back then, "Chibi Kuro Sambo (Little Black Sambo)" was one of the most popular kids books in Japan.
And this was the most popular toy in '60s called "Dakko-chan" which means like a haggie kid because the structure of this toy allows it to hang on to your arm.
Even today, if you ask Japanese what is wrong with this image, they do not understand why and they think they are cute.
Okay, let's go back to the movie "Kiku and Isamu" I heard this is a not depressive movie. Even though Kiku(older sis)and Isamu(younger bro) were discriminated, they try to live their lives strongly. However, the people from adoption agency came and granma agreed to send only Isamu to U.S. (I do not know why only Isamu was sent) After Isamu was gone, Kiku tried to commit a suicide by hanging herself. But the rope snapped off because she was too heavy. And becuase of the shock of that incident, she had her first period and her granma said to her that she would tell all farming skills to Kiku so she could be independent to live her life no matter what would happen to her.
Even during '50s and '60s, as there were many devoting Jazz fans in Japan, many Black Jazz musicians were invited to Japan to perform. In those days, Jazz was the music for intelligent and sophisticated people in Japan. So not all images Japanese had about Blacks were negative. But of course, Jazz has never been a music for the majority in Japan. It was for the educated class generally.
However, the images about Blacks in Japan started to change in mid '70s.
To be continued
This is how the girl who played the role of Kiku looks like now. Her name is Emiko Takahashi and she is a singer.
There used to be a few half Japanese-half Black singers in Japan like Ken sanders, Michi Aoyama and Joe Yamanaka.
"Manhattan Blues" by Michi Aoyama
Joe Yamanaka sings his signature hit "Ningen no Shomei" Theme song from the movie of the same title, which is the tragic story about Half Japanese-half Black boy comig back to Japan to look for his mother but being killed by her who did not want to have any scandal that possibly would destroy her new political career.
This is the CNN clip that Jero talking about his half-Japanese mother's experience in Japan.
I wrote an article about the rising popularity of manga and anime in U.S. And as a part of research work for that, I went to New York Anime festival a couple of weeks ago. And just looking at what kind of kids in there told me a lot about this phoenomenon.
First of all, I had thought I would see a sea of American Otaku boys there. But I had been very wrong. Actually half of the kids were girls and many of them were in Cosplay. When I saw those girls in Cosplay dancing to the video of "Lucky Star", it really dawned on me what really had captured those kids.
The basics of comtenporary mangas were established during '50s and '60s by the artists like the late great Osamu Tezuka, often called "The God of Manga" who produced many great works like "Astro Boys" "Dororo""Buddah""Black Jack""Phoenix""Kimba, the White Lion" which Disney stole the idea for their "Lion King."
From the very early stage, manga developed into three very distinguished categories, Shonen(Boys) manga, Shojo(Girls) manga and Gekiga which is manga for grown ups, not necessarry sexualy explicit. Plus Yon-Koma(Four frames)manga, which is comic strips and also Ero(Erotic, pornographic) manga.
Unlike American comic books, Weekly or monthly Japanese manga Zasshi-s(magazine) have a magazine-like format and contain lots of manga with very different styles and genras like hero-worship, action, sport-theme, school-theme, horror and comedy. And their main characters also have wide range of variations. As you know, main characters of many of American comics are grown up heros like Superman, Batman and Spiderman, which makes many of them Hero-worshiping stories. On the other hand, main characters of Japanese mangas are usually kids, closer to the age range of their readers. Also they can be super heros but not always so. Actually very often main characters of mangas are not even cool kids of classes, they can be geeks or dorks, they can be isolated, they can be poor and they can be unattractive too.
In Shojo(girls) manga, which American culture does not have anything similar, the story like a shy and average looking girl falls in love with a prettiest boy in school is very common.
One manga Zasshi contains about ten mangas, I guess. So even if you are a little different kinda kid, most likely you will find some mangas that you can relate yourself. Yes, in Mangas, no matter what kind of kid you are, you can find something you can relate yourself and dream a kids' dream in there.
This time I like to talk about this subject from the aspects of Biology & Sociology.
"Romance is a game for fools" I used to say A game I thought I'd never play Then you passed by And here am I Throwing caution to the wind
So why do fools fall in love? Why are people attracted to each other? Well, just one word "Sex"! It means "for reproduction." All mental, emotional and physical joy and ecstacy of love, romance and sex are for reproduction. Without them, people lose the interest to have a baby.
Okay, boys and girls, now, I give you a lecture of the basic biology about sex. What do women really want from men? Two things, the one is the good gene to ensure the success of offsprings. As the number of babies women can bare is limited, women are always looking for men with good genes. It means that women are looking for qualities of men. phyical beauty and superiority are good indication of what kind of gene that men have. Another is the support from men, financially, phisically, mentally and emotionally for raising children becauce it takes a long time for human babies to reach adulthood. Though men say women always look at men's wallets and cars, it is very natural and rightfully for women to do so in order to find a man to give them enough support to raise kids. And men with money means men with a talent to make money as well if he made that and that gene can contribute to her children's future success. Also men with brave and sweet personality can offer good protection and care to women. So those are the qualities of men that women are looking for.
On the other hand, men do not have to bear a child, which means men are looking for not only good qualities in women but also quantities as well. Men want have sex with many women to spread his genes. That makes men cheaters and also women can be cheaters too because they always look for men with a better sperm even after she got a one with a good sperm. Then why do they get married? Because it is better to do so in order to help each other to raise childen. That is why human being have very contradictory sexual behaviors. You got that, boys and girl? Goooood!
Okay, so let's apply this theory to the subject, "Are Japanese girls are really sluts?" When a Japanese girl come to New York city, she sees any kinds of men from all over the world and naturally she compare one with others, especially Japanese men with White men and Black men. Then she finds what White men and Black men got, hight, broad shoulder, thick chest, long legs and big penis...... Well, naturally she is attracted to White and Black men. On the other hand, for White men and Black men Japanese/Asian girls are not paticulary attractive becuase average Japanese/Asian girls have flat faces, small breasts and shorter legs, those are not appealing physical features for men. So in order to get the attention from White men and Black men, what do Japanese girls have to do? They have to be sexually agressive, which means being slutty. Is that means all Japanese girls become sluts for White men and Black men? Well, not all of them, not that simple.
Now I like to talk about the other aspect of this. Still interracial relationships are the hot topic on American media time to time. And most of the times it is about White and Black relationship but the reality is, even in the city like New York, you do not see many White and Black couples. Instead, the most common interracial couples are between White men and Asian women. Not only Japanese women but also many other Asian women like to date with White men as well. But not as much as Black men though some Japanese girls love Black men. I will talk about that some other time. One Asian woman told me that they are tend to be attracted to White men becuase Asian men do not have any glamorous images in American media. That is so true, there is no Asian men who is cute, handsome or sexy in American media.
When Japanese media found Mashi-Oka in "Heroes", They got quite excited because it is very rare to see any Japanese character in American hit TV shows. So I wrote in my article "Japanese media are so ignorant and stupid, Mashi-Oka is nothing but a stereo type." Japanese/Asian men are supposed to be Chinky, Gooky, Geeky, Nerdy, Dorky, ugly and super uncool men. The reason you do not see attractive Asian men in Americna media is exactly same as you could not see many attractive Black men in American media till '70s. In this White dominated society, the most attractive men are supposed to be White men. So White audience did not want to see attractive Black men because attractive and sexy Black men can be threats to White men. but Black people have changed that by protesting. As the result of that, you see Black star like Denzel Washington now. Asians have not done much for that kind of change.
Japanese have been in love with the Western cultures for a long time. And they have tried to immitate so many of them and along with loving and admiring the western cultures, Japanese have been admiring Whites physical beauty as well. That is why you see many White models in Japanese media. And that probably makes Japanese sort of White wannabeis. If you grow up in Japan, you can be brainwashed to believe Whites are the most beautiful peole. And that's why all manga and anime characters do not look like Japanese/Asian.
And that's not only for girls but boys as well. As a matter of fact, many Japanese men like to date with White women too. But they can not, why? Because White women do not pay much attention to Asian men because Asian men do not have enogh physical qualities White women are looking for. Some White women like to date with Black men even Black men are in the lower social racial hierarchy than White women because many Black men have many good physical qualties and strong sex appeal. For White women, Asian men are not only much lower in the social racial hierarchy but also do not have much physical qualities, which means there is no reason for them to be attracted to White men.
I know, I know you are saying you have seen some Asian men & White women couples. Yes, that can happen because people are attracted not only for physical qulities but also good personality, intelligence and others as well. But the differece is that you can hunt Japanese girls in the street or in clubs if you are White or Black men. For Asian men, in order to date with White women they have to make freinds with them in environments like offices or schools, then develop that to the more serious relashionships. Asian men can never hunt White women in the street or clubs. And no matter what they try, majority of White women never consider Asian men as subjects for dating, sex or marriage.
White women do not open their legs to Asian men for exactly the same reason that the sluttiest Japanese girls in New York do not open their legs to the certain groups of men who they consider socially lower than them. I do not say who they are but just guess. That's the way women are programed biologically. So who is the losers of this game, of course, Japanese/Asian men.
Before I came to New York. I loved Autumn. As Japanese summer is horribly humid and hot the cool breeze of September is mosdef the great relief and the reminder of the beautiful season. Yes, Autumn is supposed to be beautiful and romantic.
However, in New York, we have a long long winter from December to early April. Actually we do have very cold day in April as well. In May, finally spring is stablized. So we have Five Month of bitter cold winter and winter always depresses me. Autumn in New York, why it's so inviting? I do not know why someone wrote that song but for me, Autumn in New York is nothing but the reminder of the beginning of the bitter cruel long long winter. I simply hate it. plus I am single, do not have anyone to enjoy the romantic feelings of this season. So let me hate Autumn in New York, hahaha.
Almost NEET(Not in Education, Employment or Training).
Trying to enjoy seeing how my mental state deteriorates.
Since I do have the other Blog, Probably I will not update this one very frequently.
自己紹介
名前: blue
場所: New York, New York, United States
I love animals, especially cats and Shiba inus. I love flowers too. Not having much reason to live, this depressive solitary nerd is too lazy to die. I think I would become a ghost and keep looking for my cats after my death.
