Shodokan

If you like anime or manga you'll notice a group of people who think Japan is the best country in the world. They aren't Japanese they're non Japanese who think Japan is the greatest country on earth when it's not.

They have this romanticized version of Japan that's not true at all. Japanese have not turned a blind eye to this apparently. I was watching this anime called color something and there was this white nerdy kid with classes talking about how much he loves Japan. The animators were obviously making fun of want to be Japanese people.

Why I'm making this thread is that for a long time anime and manga were watched and read by smaller groups of people overseas then today.
So the want to be Japanese people were tolerated. But now that anime and manga have become more mainstream I think we should do something about it. I think we should kindly educate them that Japan isn't what they think it is. What do you guys think?

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OfeliasFire

Personally...I love Japan...but I also know that it's not the greatest place in the world...they have their troubles the same way as America has theirs. Japan for alot of americans is an escape into something different..just a temporary change I guess I would say. I am sure many Japanese people would love to visit the US for the same reason. I would want to visit Japan..I wouldn't want to live there though. I am american yet I watch anime and read manga. I get where you are coming from...I know many people like that who think Japan is a godsend. I am not one of them though. Eventually I know I would bore of it the way I have America.

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SasuraiHell

Very true, the way people put Japan on a pedestal based solely on what anime-inspired versions of it describe.

on that note, i congratulate Japan's tourism branch on that....

Japan has its bad side, like...creepy camera people. oktakus, gropers, and the like.(though i cant really say since i havent been to jap,)
Personally i dont think of Japan as a paradise, just another 'nice place', i do have enough common sense not to be tricked that easily.
(hell i still think white cherry blossoms[a reoccurring symbol in alot of animes.] is totally made-up!)

Its a little sad, but nice enough to know theres a more beautiful scene than where you are right now, is out there and is being constantly[vary on how much you watch] barraged into your face by anime.

watch a Japanese film and you'll see its just another country and place, just with alot more electronics :P

i still like Japan though, geographically its wonderful XD

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Hassun

Please don't use the word "Jap". It's a disparaging term.

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SasuraiHell

aye, your right., *fixes*
i didnt know anyone would get offended to that, so calling an amercian a yankee is the same?..

i was referring to a generic film, not pointed to anyone, its just easier to type.(its the interest for christ sakes.)

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Hassun

Not really, it's like calling a a Chinese man a "chink".
More in the line of greaseball, nigger, etc.

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SasuraiHell

If I were to continue using the reason i did for shorting Japanese to Jap,
I'd type it Chin.


edit, ah i see. thank-you hassun

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Hassun

But you wouldn't. Nobody calls the Chinese "Chin".
Jap isn't really the worst word you can say of course. It became popular during WW2 as the Japanese were the enemy.
E.g. YouTube - POPEYE the SAILOR in "Your a Sap Mr. Jap

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LenMiyata

Grumble Grumble Grumble

There is still a lot of animosity in that region of the world as a aftermath of WWII. In South Korea, it was illegal to sell or show Japanese Anime and Manga (on the gounds of cultural contamination...) up until the year 2000, and you still have government sponsored riots against the Japanese consulates in China when Japanese leaders publicly vist certain war shrines graveyards in Japan.

Still, (with the exception of NHK sponsered Anime series...) the vast majority of Manga-ka, Directories and Produces of Anime and Manga are independent of Japanese government control. It would be difficult at best to try to force them to make something that the Japanese people (which is still their primary market) doesn't want to read...

blue_rebel

Why do I keep getting the idea that you have something against Japan, or the Japanese??? +__+

Idk. Frankly it does annoy me at times. I hate it when people adopt a know-it-all 'tude - although it's not so bad if you know they DO know what they're talking about. But liking another country's culture/people isn't something alien; for a long time I wished I were Australian. I even spoke with a weird Aussie accent for a while (until people started telling me to shut up because I sounded like a retard). So non-Japanese like Japan. So they wish they were Japanese. So they want the world to know. *shrugs* Leave them be?

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tsurara

"You will never be Japanese" (common insult to foreigners)

The more you understand about Japan, the more you realize that even if you are fluent, half Japanese, married to Japanese, have children who go to Japanese schools, and have lived in Japan for 20 years or 30 years... you will never be accepted by the Japanese people or Japanese government as an equal of those who are entirely Japanese by birth.

I don't see why anyone would want to be a part of a culture so desperately that is so detemined to exclude those of other nationalities and backgrounds (linguistically, legally, in the media, and in their attitudes toward "foreigners")

Be proud you're NOT Japanese. Because that's what's going to end up making you "cool" if you ever actually end up in Japan.