Welcome back, everybody to Episode Four of the RyuTokyo podcast the show that brings you all the big news stories from this week in Japan coming to you live from Roppongi Tokyo. I'm your host Julian Domanski and joining me is my co host and founder of RyuTokyo Yasuharu Matsuno. So how's your Golden Week going so far Yasu?
Um, it just started yesterday so.
Oh yeah.
I haven't done much but you know, hopefully we can visit somewhere but I think it's best to stay home
Yeah, make the best of it. Yeah. I saw on Twitter people are calling this a gaman and week instead of Golden Week. The gaman meaning like to persevere, right? to push through. But it's quiet on the streets today. There's not many people out.
Exactly. Yeah, I kind of feel weird that we should still call it Golden Week.
So before we dive into the news story this week, I just wanted to bring up something that I mentioned. At the end of last episode, we were talking about this crying baby festival. And I couldn't remember the name of it. So I did a little bit of research last night and I found out it's called the naki zumo Festival, which actually in Japanese kind of means like crying Sumo. So zumo is the kind of altered version of Sumo The word and naki means to cry. And but the story is the same. It's actually the sumo that has to stop the baby from crying. But you found out a little bit more about this as well right Yasu?
Oh, yeah, um, I knew as a matter of fact that traditionally in Japan, many people liked the idea of small wrestlers holding your babies, because we kind of believe that it makes the baby strong and healthy.
Okay.
And even some adults, you know, ask wrestlers to hold him like a bride.
Oh Okay. So When you see a celebrity, hold my baby hold the president hold my baby.
It's quite common.
Yeah. It's cool. Well, yeah, if anyone ever wants to see that when they come to Japan, it's called naku zumo festival. It's not just at Asakusa Temple. Apparently it's held all over Japan, but Asakusa is the most popular one. And if you want your baby to be held by a sumo and it costs 15,000 yen, though you can take part for a fairly low price.
A lifetime experience for your baby.
That's it. Lifetime trauma. So today is April 30. And in this episode, we're going to be discussing the following big news stories. popular anime Ghost in the Shell returns for a new series. foreign workers are up in arms over the working conditions at NOVA Corp. Japanese comedian Takashi Okumura is under fire for insensitive remarks on the Corona virus and women and Japanese college students feel the financial pressures of the current crisis. The cult classic sci fi anime ghosts in the Shell has returned with a brand new series this new show Ghost in the Shell SAC 2045 takes place quite some time after the events of the original anime series. At the start of the show, our favorite government special ops Task Force section nine has been disbanded. The world is now making a living off things called sustainable wars, and the majority of the former section nine members joining these wars as mercenaries. The inclusion of a time skip new plot and a different setting do not take away from the technological cyberpunk world of the future. The show is still filled with the prosthetic bodies cyber brains and of course hacking that Ghost in the Shell fans will know and love regarding the reception of 2045 opinions are still being weighed. before the show even premiered. There was criticism of the animation style shown in the trailer. Unlike the original movies and anime series, which use 2d animation 2045 is using a CG style of animation, which is often said to be clunkier and less detailed. So I remember you mentioned last week actually, we were talking about remakes of anime. But you mentioned you're a big fan of Ghost in the Shell. Have you seen this yet? Or have you seen the trailer? What are your thoughts?
Yeah, I just said I'm a big fan of the original like Ghost in the Shell like, both like manga and anime hmm and animes like they've created like a TV versions and also like movies and I genuinely like most of them. And yeah, I was say like for this new series you know, I haven't finished watching so I can't say anything definitive but so far I have a mixed feeling. But yeah, I tried to go into you know details for the fans who haven't watched it but, um, but I would say like overall like I'm like enjoying watching it. The fact that pretty much all like voice actors remain the same is a good news for Many Japanese fans, and also for the storyline, it's not bad. But I haven't found anything like really anything in like real, like futuristic concept yet here, which usually exists for every Ghost in the Shell series. Yeah. So I'm kind of like, looking forward to seeing it.
Oh okay.
And as you mentioned, the biggest problem I see so far is the graphics. And I'm gradually getting used to the 3d graphics but, um, you know, it was quite well like drawn in, in the previous version, like in 2d. So it's a big change. And, but But still, like one thing I still can't accept is the graphics of the characters.
Oh okay,
and they just look cheap, if I may, and their facial, you know, facial expressions are unnatural. Very mechanical. Oh, you know, which are key in any drama.
Yeah.
And maybe except for the main character on motoko because she's meant to be mechanical. Because, you know, she's using artificial body. So maybe it's okay for her to be like artificial or look artificial. But ironically, like other human characters, such as like Togusa saw and Daisuke. They all look like robots, too. So it's a bit unfortunate. Yeah. And especially like compared to the, you know, recent remake of Final Fantasy seven, as we discussed like few weeks ago. Yeah, I must say like graphics are much worse for ghosts in the shell.
Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. You make that Comparison because like when I watch these kind of 3d animated TV shows, I'm always shocked at how bad the graphics are compared to like video games nowadays.
I know
so I don't know if you remember, there was an old there was a donkey kong TV show. And it was like CGI, but it was when I was a little kid. It's about 20 years ago. And it was like the first ever CGI and it looks super bad and the graphics and the game even though the game was actually 2d at the time. It looks better than the CGI
the one on Super Nintendo. Yeah.
So but that that seems to have continued so obviously we've got we've got incredible graphics in games now right but for some reason, the CG studios I don't know if it's due to lack of budget or lack of time, because when you watch something like I don't know, the Avengers, it's like the CGI is just incredible. Right? But these shows that just I think maybe it's the animation. I think you're right, the faces the the the way that their faces move is really jerky and something very like uncanny about it's like almost unsettling right the way that they they face moves when they talk. Yeah I'm not a big fan
Me neither. I agree that like generally these days like graphics for 3d graphics for games are better than 3d graphics for animation. And probably because as you say, like games utilize more of motion capture technology.
Yeah true. So anybody that wants to check out this new Ghost in the Shell series, it's available on Netflix that I assuming in most regions, so yeah, maybe maybe check it out guys and you can let us know in the comments. What do you make of this new series. Okay, in our next bit of news, the Nova Corporation a popular eikaiwa company in Japan has recently come under fire for workplace conditions and its treatment of employees during the corona virus pandemic. Over 50 foreign teachers within Nova have come together to lodge various complaints to the company. These include forcing a number of teachers to share one small room at a time, a refusal from Nova to implement telework and penalizing teachers for taking holidays. Not only to teachers not receive paid leave, but they are charged handling fees for their requested time off. However, the danger of spreading or catching the Coronavirus only magnifies employee discontent. The group of teachers is now considering going on strike in order to receive better conditions. This is a perfect example of what is called a black company in Japan. A black company typically has one if not multiple bad working conditions. This can range from working unpaid or extremely long hours to physical or verbal workplace harassment. While Black companies are unfortunately frequent in Japan, the reputation of many of these companies conditions are being shared amongst prospective job seekers. So have you ever had to explain With a black company, Yasu?
Fortunately not. I think the company I used to work for was a white company. Which I will discuss later. But um yeah, I was surprised to hear this news because Nova is one of the most like traditional private English teaching school which has, like almost like 40 years of history. And Nova created a word or kind of like tagline called ekimae ryugaku. Okay, have you heard of this phrase?
No, but I guess it's like the station in front of the station. Studying right?
Yeah, that's that's very close. To study abroad, in front of a station.
Yeah.
And as part of their strategy on Nova open its branches in front of hundreds of train stations across the nation and got wildly popular. They even had a mascot called Nova Usagi Oh, and as you know, like Usagi is a rabbit and they come up with an actor promoting like a, you know, the English, like Nova English schools on TV commercials and stuff.
oh okay yeah. So just as a kind of a sideline to the main story, but that phrase, the eki mae, is quite popular in Japanese, right? Like, I think the concept of things being in front of a train station, because if anyone's been to Japan, who knows the transport here is is very efficient and useful. So like, if any business if you can get in front of the train station, that's like prime location, right? It's kind of the same in any country, but in Japan, it seems to be more specifically true. So anything if you if you are eki mae, if you are in front of the station, then you're primed. So I think I find that with a lot of these kind of schools and they always try and get that location because I guess these people wanted to get off the train before they go home, go to school, or work right. It's not far from the station. It's more convenient.
Yeah, as you say, Most Japanese people use trains as a means of public transportation. A lot more than buses or your own cars.
Yeah, so I mean, I don't actually know anyone specifically that works for Nova Corporation. But you know, I have a few friends and I, you know, I see people on Twitter and just generally online pertaining to the current crisis, I did see a lot of people complaining about maybe the conditions being forced upon the teachers, given that everyone else in most industries is finding ways to work from home. And when I think that like, you know, teaching English is probably one of the easiest jobs to do over Skype, right. It's one of the easiest jobs to do from home just just talk to people and do the class right. But I saw like a lot of pictures from people actually the companies, if you remember from almost two months ago, right when the when the outbreak kind of started and there was a mad rush everyone was buying the masks. Masks are still kind of hard to buy in Japan, and But these companies are basically telling the employees just to make their own home or providing them. And some of the pictures I saw on Twitter were very questionable one was like basically, it was a piece of folded kitchen paper. And it basically had a rubber bands stapled to it on each side. So you'd have like the mask and then like rubber bands around each year, which they're definitely like gonna cut into your ear. And then you've got like staples at the side, which are probably in like scratch your skin or it didn't look didn't look great. But, I mean, does this surprise you with all this kind of story?
Um, yeah, it's it's certainly surprising to me as well, because, um, you know, as you said, it's technically possible for English teachers to, you know, teach and work remotely right using Skype or zoom. I think like, we kind of discussed this in our first episode as well, but maybe Is that many of Japanese students still prefer to have lessons in face to face?
Yeah, true.
But um, I imagine like most students would understand this like extreme circumstance, though they should be supportive of the, you know, this kind of like teleworking or teleteaching idea.
Yeah, true. I think I don't know if it's just because the most these companies are afraid of losing students or something like that. But it seems, I mean, if I was a student at these schools, I'd be more concerned If they were saying like, oh, business as usual come to class. I prefer them to say, you know, stay at home, but don't worry, we've arranged for you to have a lesson through Skype.
Yeah.
So it just seems to be unprofessional. Right? You know, to especially like, a lot of these companies when you go in, you're given like, you know, like a friendly persona is like I'll come in and talk English and hang out and stuff so you know, given what's going on at the the moment you know, it seems a bit of the company's just being a bit oblivious to what's happening.
Yeah, I think it's nonsense and totally irrational.
So continuing the topic of controversy Japanese comedian Takashi Okamura is under fire for insensitive remarks on the Coronavirus and women. Takashi Okamura is a popular Japanese comedian, and a host of numerous shows including the long running program 99 all night Nippon. the name the name of the show is derived from his comedy duo, which goes by the name 99 Okamura plays the outlandish idiot of the duo, also known as the boke. This is a common practice among comedy pairs and counts as well with a more serious straight man, known as tsukkomi. However, Okamura`s is boke demeanor may have led him into some serious trouble last Thursday on the 23rd of April during a broadcast of 99 all night Nippon a question from a listener asked Okamura if he would be taking a long break from visiting brothels During the corona outbreak, he responded by saying he is being patient at the moment and that it will be interesting after Corona calms down. He follows up by saying many cute girls will have to become prostitutes, since they will have no money from losing their jobs. He continued by jokingly adding how the girls will be unbelievably cute for prostitutes, and told listeners to be patient and save up for now, the insensitivity of Okamura and his appalling words soon spread around the internet. Just broadcast Okamura has made a public apology saying he statements lacked consideration and were inappropriate. He also said that he would make another apology on the next broadcasting, which took place today. In the meantime, it seems like Okamura will continue to work as regular without any punishment, aside from that already done to his public image. So what what's the general the Japanese public's take? general reaction to the story at the moment? I'd imagine there's a probably a lot of parents that listen to his show and probably We have young daughters and things I, you know, I could imagine that not landing very well, with most of them.
Yeah, of course, most of the reactions from the Japanese people, you know, at least from the way I see it, it's quite negative. And yeah, I mean, this is just like unthinkable and appalling. Right. But yeah, there are some people that claim that, you know, what he said are just like jokes. But it's just, you know, too gross.
It's, it's gross, isn't it? And it I think it's a bad mixture of Just being completely out of line in referring to basically young girls, whether they are classed as adults or not, you know, having to go to the prostitution for work, implying that that's the only skill that they have, you know, but also, the, everyone is suffering at the moment because of this. Corona. like you know, this Corona crisis, so, You know, just trying to make light of the situation in that way as well is just disgusting.
Yeah, as you said, like this is not just about like man or female or about people in certain occupation.
Yeah.
The idea of like, anticipating or hoping someone's like misfortune, and like, you know, trying to take advantage of it. It's just outrageous.
I think so. Yeah.
And the fact that like, you know, to to make the matter worse, right. All staff on that radio show. Were laughing at his comment when he said that.
yeah.
And as he said, like, you know, he's he's basically taking no responsibility for it. Of course, he's still like, you know, kept as the host of the show. And what's worse is that he's also the host of a TV show that is held by NHK.
Yeah
and for those who doesn't know, NHK is the single national television in Japan and the TV program that Okamura doing the host is actually, actually for kids. I'm very concerned, for keeping for as a host of the show.
Thats seem, it's weird isn't it, if that kind of thing happened in England, then I could completely imagine that within within 24 hours, the person would no longer be the host of, especially a children's show. And but I think this this story does actually kind of highlight some kind of darker, negative sides of Japanese society where like,
I most agree
things pertaining to like sexual abuse, or, you know, like just, you know, comments or this kind of nature tend to just get brushed under the rug. And maybe the person who said them or did them, you know, either gets off very lightly, or just makes an apology and then just carry on as if nothing happened. And, you know, I'm not saying that this stuff doesn't happen all over the world. But, you know, as we are talking about Japan, I do see this kind of story quite a lot where someone either makes an inappropriate comment or perhaps worse, you know, does inappropriate actions towards someone, and they just get off almost scott free with no, no repercussion. And I hope it's something that in the near future, the society in Japan will be able to course correct. And, you know, I am mainly here this vocalized by women because obviously it affects women the most I think these kind of comments, not solely, but mostly affects women. But I think women nowadays have more of a platform, especially like a hierarchical society like Japan, right? It's very still much like male dominated but I see a lot of women online vocalizing more about how they think.
Right?
Yeah.
All right. What I noticed is that, you know, supporters of Okamura they are Kind of labeling people who are against what he said as like feminists, but I don't really think that's accurate because as I mentioned, this is not just about like, you know, sex or occupation, but kind of a disrespect torwards like any human being. Right?
Exactly. Yeah. And I think obviously apart from the the obvious comments, the kind of negative comments about this story, what surprised me the most is just the fact that on air, he would mention that we'll just kind of casually bring up the he goes to prostitutes. Is that like a normal thing that you would hear on like a late night talk show, especially with a guy of his stature, right? He's quite a famous celebrity right? Is going to a prostitute in Japan seen as less of a negative thing than perhaps it is in the West.
Perhaps relatively speaking. Although like I never listened to those like late night, late night radio shows, so I'm not quite sure about their standard but, it seems like based on what people like comment on Twitter. Yeah, that kind of comment is not so rare.
Yeah. Okay, so final story of the week, unfortunately, another COVID related issue, but that's to be expected at the moment as people struggle to keep their jobs and save up money during the Coronavirus pandemic. College students in Japan are faced with the dilemma that they might need to drop out. Recent surveys have found that one in every 13 students is having to consider quitting school due to a lack of funds. A study conducted by the student led group called free found that 60% of students have experienced a loss of income and that 40% have experienced a loss of income from their financial supporters like their parents. Even with the financial support. Students are beginning to see the pressures that a Corona economy is bringing on their families when mixed with college tuition. One student included in the survey, that his family business has lost over 80% of sales and that he worries about having to quit school. many college students that are financially independent depend on working part time jobs to support paying their tuition and their daily lives. The same study also found that around 37% of part time working students reported a loss in their hours and income. The job aspects available in an economy that is cutting jobs has become another worry for students as well. While dropping out of school is a difficult decision that might become necessary for students. Perseverance is also important in this situation. Financial support from the government may be just around the corner. Free has already made requests to the government to cut tuition in half for students, noting that an end to the corona pandemic is unpredictable and students must have support. households that have suffered income loss or to receive 300,000 yen from the government potentially buying some time for students to see how the overall scenario will unfold. So I don't have any experience of studying in Japan. But obviously I grew up in England, I went to university in England and it wasn't cheap. It cost me just the tuition fee alone was around 18,000 pounds, which after a quick conversion that that comes out about 2.4 million yen. But on top of that, if you're not living at home, you got pay rent, you've got to buy food, all your general day to day lives when you're studying full time it's hard to you know, pay all that. So, how do most students get their money? You think in Japan? Is it they living at home with their parents and are being helped by the parents or?
I they think that's one way but I know as a matter of fact that many, many college students in Japan need to work part time make a living,
Oh okay.
So it's not just about like, paying tuition, but also they have to earn money.
Yeah.
To Make their living and but obviously, unfortunately, they can't work part time now due to COVID. So, you know, I think their options are quite limited.
Yeah.
And that's exactly why the government needs to take care of this issue as soon as possible.
Yeah
It's a pressing issue,
On one hand it seems like it's not more urgent than any other kind of issue at the moment. There's lots of issues just coming all at the same time, right, because of this crisis. But after thinking about it a little more deeply, I guess, like, if this virus hangs around for a long time, and we end up being locked down for months, right? You could end up with this whole kind of lapse of basically like a whole year of no graduate students, you know, this could then cause like a ripple effect. But other industries industries when they go into like hiring and because especially in Japan, you have this like annual cycle of hiring, right. So when does that begin is that usually
it depends on the year because the rule almost changed. Like every few, few to several years,
Oh okay,
but I would say like generally starts from July to September.
Yeah.
Um, for, um, for people that start working from next April.
Yeah.
Though it's kind of a long process. Yeah.
Well, okay. So maybe in that regard, then, if the process is long, there may be to counterbalance the fact that there are less applicants or less people graduating, they can shorten the process, perhaps.
Yeah, I'm sure. Like, there has been some, like inefficiencies. So. Yeah, to some extent, maybe they can curtail it. But you know, at the same time, there is a limit to it as well.
Yeah. So Yasu do you know the average like tuition fee in Japan for like a university course?
Not to sure. Because the one I went is a national university whose tuition is cheaper than the one for private school?
Okay.
And I believe I was paying about like 5000 or less than 6000 US dollars, which is around like gojuman
is up for a year or for the whole quarter
for a year
for a year. yeah. So that makes sense.
It's not too bad. Yeah. Especially compared to universities in the US, right.
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, that sounds cheaper.
But as I said, private schools are more expensive. Hmm, no. Yeah, it can become a burden.
Yeah, definitely. Okay, so that wraps it up for all the new stories this episode. Now we're on to our final segment Word of the Week.
In this section, we introduce you some useful or not useful Japanese English words. Japanese English or wasei eigo are Japanese language expressions based on English words, or parts of word combinations that do not exist in standard English or whose meanings differ from the words from which they were derived. So, Word of the Week is black company, or buraku kigyo in Japanese, though, Julian, do you know what black company or buraku kigyo is?
Uh, yeah, I've never worked for one but I've heard that this is kind of a famous phrase. I think actually, even for people that don't know Japanese, but I think we know it more as black company, but basically, it just means company that does not treat their employees very well, be that from overworking or workplace abuse or lack of benefits or you know, no paid holiday or sick leave.
Yeah, so we actually covered Nova in the news section. And that's actually a good or bad example, of a black company. And while I'm you know, specifics may vary from workplace at workplace. A typical practice at the black company is to hire a large number of young employees and then force them to work large amounts of overtime without overtime pay. Hmm. And conditions are poor and workers are subject to verbal abuse and power harassment, as we covered in the first episode of our show, which means like bullying by their superiors, in order to make the employees stay, bosses of black companies would often abuse the reputation of a young employee quitting.
Yeah, I hear that a lot like a lot of emotional pressure, or I don't I guess abuse. People have a real difficult time quitting their job in Japan, compared to the west, where if we don't like our boss, I mean, we're more likely to get into an argument with our boss if we don't agree with them. But then if we feel that we're being mistreated, generally like most companies have like an HR department. So if your boss's being out of line, you could speak to someone in HR, and then they would, you know, they would file the correct complaint for you. But actually, this reminds me of a story i saw i think was about last year sometime that company, they might have been in Osaka. But basically this lawyer, maybe he was a solicitor, he started his own company where basically, you could hire him to resign for you.
Yeah.
So basically, people were too terrified to, you know, face their boss and quit so they could hire this lawyer. And then he would go to the workplace, and basically say, so and so quits and they're not going back anymore. Actually, I'm looking at their website now. And actually, their slogan is, yes, again, you can retry your life. So that I mean, just that phrase in itself. It's quite funny because I mean, actually, it's not funny. It's kind of sad. In a way, but there's this kind of thing that is, you know, embedded in the Japanese psyche that like you, you work for a company, and then that's your company for life.
Yeah, so these black companies are taking advantage of the fact that many in our society are used to the lifetime employment system. Which means that once you get employed by some company, you get to work for lifetime. And even though this is changing these days, it also means that once you quit the company, it's harder to find a new job compared to, you know, the situation in other countries.
Yeah. So a lot of these employees, you know, they've joined this company, and they're there for life, right? But it's the reverse, kind of the same. So if a company basically has like, an employee that is not good or not very useful, and can they fire them as easily? Or does they have to think that well, he's employed for life now, so you're gonna, you know, not much I can do about it.
It's actually The ladder. Oh so it's it's a significant risk for a company to fire someone for a full time. because the Japanese employment laws don't allow a company to basically fire anyone unless he or she is involved in criminal act or something close to that.
Oh wow. So if they just bad at their job there's nothing you can do about
You could still maintain the employment and keep paying the salary. There isn't much you can do but some companies actually transfer him to, it's like subsidiaries with no like virtually no nothing to do. No tasks, no jobs
someone else's problem just
and they just wish that does like employees get paranoid about like having nothing to do Just like, you know, coming to the office, sitting on a desk, and like doing nothing.
Yeah. So this bascially here kind of sums up the buraku kigyo. But we also have the opposite of a Black kigyo.
yeah, as you can imagine the opposite of buraku kigyo is called White kigyo or white companies.
Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, these might just be seen as like normal companies to our standards, you know, but in Japan, getting these kind of benefits seems to be, you know, seem as special perhaps.
Yeah, you can say like, they are different ways of interpreting what white kigyo or white companies are. But if it's supposed to mean totally opposite of black companies, then they are companies that provide like high salaries, or not too many working hours. A flat organization With receptive management, yeah, that's ideal for, I suppose for many people, right? Yeah. But of course such white companies are rare. I wouldn't say like, this is not I would say like, that's not just in Japan, but probably in most countries, though those like real, like super white companies, tend to be highly competitive to get in,
from what I've heard a lot of these, like newer startup companies that are founded by someone like yourself, right. Yasu. So you know, younger people who are becoming CEOs of businesses, and perhaps they've studied abroad, or maybe they've just, you know, they've just taken a look at the wider world and see what businesses are like, a lot of like marketing companies and stuff, you know, they've just got a much more modern vibe to them. They're trying to kind of get rid of this whole like, you know, radio aerobics in the morning. You know, lighting like the president is king. You know, kind of thing. And so from what I hear, yeah, a lot, a lot of newer companies, and just just younger people in general. Just don't want to work like that anymore. I guess that attitude in Japan, it came about what like post war I guess, you know, to rebuild the country everyone had to put in like 110% and just give yourself to a company because that was the only way that society would be rebuilt. And it would be better than last time, right? But Japan is it's good now. Right? I mean, you know, there's there's negative still, right?
Yeah I see what you mean.
But you guys are strong in the world. You've got good infrastructure you've got everything's pretty good in Japan. So I don't think you need that like, sacrifice your life to your work attitude anymore. Maybe some people it works for some people, you know, not to say that it doesn't but just basic things like being paid to take vacation or just being allowed to take vacation. I think I definitely things that are going to be becoming much more common as younger people you know, they get experience of other workplaces and they they, yeah, they just want to have these benefits. And that just about wraps it up for this week's episode. Whether you're listening to the podcast or watching on YouTube, make sure that you're subscribed for new episodes every single week.
Thanks for listening, everybody. For more Japan related content, check out RyuTokyo.com You can also find us on Twitter at RyuTokyoNews for any questions or comments about today's show.
Okay, guys, so stay away from those black companies and stay healthy, stay safe. And be sure to check back next week for the next episode of The RyuTokyo podcast.