Welcome back, everybody to Episode 14 of this week in Japan presented by Ryu Tokyo coming to you live from Roppongi Tokyo. I'm your host, Julian Domanski and joining me, as always, is my co-host and founder of Ryu Tokyo Yasuharu Matsuno.
Hey, welcome back, everyone. I really don't want to be talking about Corona every week. But just briefly, Tokyo just saw 224 new cases yesterday, which is the highest number for a single day since the outbreak of the Corona. No matter where you are, I hope you stay safe and strong to overcome this difficult situation.
So Today is July 10. And in this episode, we're going to be discussing the following big news stories. At least 60 are left dead as record flooding in Kyushu puts both people and businesses at risk. The company Fujitsu is to half its office space to support Remote working. Former Johnny's entertainment idol quickly gains over 1 million followers. Robotic employees are coming to Japanese convenience stores, and a Corona tracking app has only three registered cases so far. Japan is no stranger to flooding and landslides during the annual rainy season, which typically lasts from June to July. However, this year is seeing record breaking amounts of rain. In particular, the island of Kyushu has faced massive flooding from the many rivers that run through it. This Tuesday, the death toll surpassed 60 as the Chikugo river overflowed in Oita prefecture, videos online have surface showing entire buildings, cars and even bridges being swept away under the torrents of water, with many citizens still missing or unaccounted for emergency workers are in a race against time to find possible survivors. Many mountain residents in Kyushu were stranded after losing access to phone lines, electricity and running water and had to be rescued by local authorities. Fukuoka Prefecture requested that the Japan Self Defense Force be dispatched to assist after over 200 citizens will stranded in evacuation centers when floodwaters closed in around them. To make matters worse, local tourism businesses who are already suffering from the impact of Corona have been devastated by the rains, dozens of local resorts and warehouses have received massive amounts of damage or have simply been completely swept away. We're halfway through 2020. And it's probably been one of the worst years for the world in a good long while. And this event seems to have, you know, for the people of Kyushu, piled upon top of all of that stuff, even more tragedy. And it's really, really sad to see.
Mm hmm. You know, so many things are happening in Japan these days, right. I mean, on top of the Corona, we just had a Meteor last week, although there was no damage, and earthquakes. There was one in Tokyo yesterday, and typhoons and floods. I just feel it's a bit too much for many people in Japan to experience all that virus and natural disasters coming at the same time.
So just some more details on the story as it is at the moment. Actually, from our research we had it confirmed as 50 people passing away yesterday, but literally minutes before we started recording. The update figures are now 60 confirmed dead 1.3 million people were ordered to evacuate from their homes. And apparently there were 12 separate landslide events which caused, you know, unfathomable damage to local houses, businesses and people's lives in general.
You know, in Japan, many people build their houses on the flat field at the foot of a mountain. And these landslides can sweep out or swallow those houses, you know, very quickly. And that's kind of like, causing the death like so many deaths.
Hmm, yeah, like we already said like this kind of event is not that uncommon in Japan. And just two years ago in 2018, there was a pretty big typhoon that came through.
Oh, yeah. I remeber.
Yeah, it did some pretty big damage to the Kansai area. The biggest thing I remember was there was like a boat that was it was moored in one of the harbors. And it basically broke free was pushed down the river or down the canal. And basically just like plowed straight into the bridge that connects Kansai International Airport to the mainland. So they just had to, like close it all down. And there's actually people in the airport there were like just, you know, they were just waiting for connections or whatever. Obviously, the flights were canceled. So they were just told to sit tight and, you know, flights would resume in the morning, but obviously Little did they know that basically the airport would be out of commission for the next three weeks. So, so like you said earlier Yasu on top of everything else that we've been through already this year. These people really didn't need just yeah, more more suffering, unfortunately.
Exactly. I know. you know, again for the heavy rains and floods this month. It's not just Kyushu, but also Hyogo, Nagano and Kyoto I hear.
Yeah, they're all very kind of mountainous areas as well right.
But mostly the western part of Japan.
Yeah. I guess like, the flattest part of Japan is Tokyo, isn't it? I don't know if that's the natural landscape of the country or has like Tokyo been kind of teraformed over time into such a flat area?
Yeah, that's a good question. And it's actually a combination of both. So it was originally mostly a flat land. But also, there was a Shogun from Edo era and he has invested a lot into river works. And that's one major reason why we're seeing less number of floods in Tokyo.
Yeah, true.
And it's quite rare for riveres in Tokyo to be out of control.
Yeah, true. I mean yeah most the rivers like can think of like, like the Sumida River for example. It's quite a big, one of the biggest that goes through Tokyo, right? On a regular day from like ground level where you stand, you know, down to the surface of the water it's quite a few meters drop right so even if it did rise up quite a lot, it would take a lot of water to make that spill over onto the street, so most rivers in Tokyo are like that I think. they have their very very deep banks, right. And also Tokyo underneath has like a massive like drainage system. I don't know if you've ever seen like, videos or pictures of it before.
Yes, I've seen some pictures. Yeah,
yeah, it looks like you know that scene in Lord of the Rings when they go into Mordor and like they run into that big room full of pillars and all the orcs are coming down. It looks exactly like that. It's like such a uncanny resemblance. It's crazy. But probably you can go in there and take a tour. I'd love to see that be super interesting.
I hear that tour is quite popular. So you need to win a Ticket Lottery or something.
Oh okay, fair enough. Yeah. It does look super interesting.
Yeah, and I do want to go,
it's a kind of a testament to the engineering, you know, it's got underneath the city, you know. But that kind of thing makes me wonder, like, How hard would it be to implement that kind of stuff to other cities that are more prone to flooding? You know? Because, you know, obviously, we have the technology and the know how to do so. But is it just the fact that perhaps, you know, the population is so low in some areas that it's not even financially viable? Or? I don't know, really? I can't really think of a reason.
Yeah, that's right. So in this case, I saw the news that there was actually planned to build a huge dam in Oita. But like some politicians just canceled the plan to save the cost.
That's interesting
and, you know, look at what happened now.
Yeah. I mean, there's obviously there's always risks that come along with living in particular areas, right. This is quite a common issue in England, actually.
Oh is it?
So, yeah, flooding is quite, quite normal. but the severity always changes. So usually it's just like flooding and you know, like the main High Street in a small village is flooded. And you know, there's some damage, but people don't usually die. But I think that's because we don't have so much like high land. So we don't have these landslides, right. And maybe a lot of houses in England built of brick and stone, so they can't be washed away so easily. But in Japan, basically every house is built of wood, right? So when you see these, like floods come through, it's just almost like there's no resistance. Like as soon as the water hits the building, it just, it just collapses and just floats away. So yeah, it's been a bad year for everybody. And, you know, hopefully these kind of things will stop we'll get a bit of a break from this kind of stuff. Our thoughts go out to everybody in Oita and the affected area and I hope that the Japan self defense force will be able to find more survivors. Hopefully Soon and the the death rate will will stop rising.
So now on to the second topic of the week, Johnny's and Associates agency, also known as just Johnny's is the biggest idol agency in Japan, one of their most popular and controversial idols, Yuya Tegoshi of the 4-man idol group NEWS recently announced that he will be leaving the idol group and ending his contract with Johnny's. the 32 year old singer and rumored playboy had been accused of going out drinking with groups of women during the state of emergency from various news outlets. There are claims that the continued pressure from media and online critics are what influenced him to leave. However, in the recently held public press conference Tegoshi came forward to address the rumors surrounding him, his alleged drinking with women and many details about his time at Johnny's, after the press conference, his openness and honesty regarding his situation we're positively received thanks to his turn around from the press conference Tegoshi's recently created YouTube and Twitter accounts both surpassed 1 million followers, making it one of the quickest gains on YouTube and Twitter in Japan's history. So before we even start talking about this guy, do you know about Johnny's entertainment?
I've heard of it. I'm not really like into like idols and Japanese pop music in general, but from what I understand it's just one of the biggest idol agencies and is it also a label like a music label?
It is. Yeah.
It kind of just covers everything right? Most of the big the artists in Japan are signed up to Johnny's right.
Yeah, just to give you more context. They even have an English like Wikipedia page for Johnny's and it says Johnny's and Associates is a Japanese talent agency formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962. which trains and promotes groups of male entertainers, yes, male only, known as Johnny's, Johnny Kitagawa, or Johnny-san passed away last year. But the agency itself is still dominating the geinokai or the world of entertainment in Japan. People call it Johnny's teikoku. You know what teikoku means?
I don't actually
teikoku means the Empire.
Oh, that teikoku Oh, yeah okay
Yeah so that's how powerful the agency has been in Japan for many years. over 50 years. And I find the news quite positive. Actually, not only that, I kind of liked this guy's eccentric, like, personality and energy. But you know, there's a bad tradition in geinokai in Japan, which is that if you don't belong to a large, powerful agency, you can't appear on TV or other other large media.
oh okay.
And once you leave those agencies, you'll be taken away chances to appear on the media.
That is interesting. Is that why, like, on the very rare instances that I do watch Japanese TV? Is that why like I see the same people in like every TV show?
It's definitely one of the main reasons.
Yeah, like I like I quite like Degawa, I think is really funny, but he's in like every show. And I don't know like any others names. But does that one guy who's got the mushroom haircut? I don't know. He's like every comedy show.
yeah. Yeah. I think you were talking about this guy, right?
Yeah, yeah that guy.
Yeah, this this guy's Hoto-chan. and, yeah, so the guy you were talking about, Hoto-chan. He actually belongs to yoshimoto Kogyo, which is another maybe the biggest or the second biggest talent agency in Japan.
Oh okay, maybe that makes sense.
And if you anger yoshimoto, then it's, it makes you know things really difficult for you.
Right yeah. I mean, this guy has a very like specific appearance, but like a lot of these other like Japanese comedians, entertainers, I couldn't really describe them because they just look like regular people. There's nothing like distinct about them, you know? Or about their appearance should I say, not their personalities, but they're their appearance. They're just like, men or women, and you know that they're attractive, and they're just on TV. Right? So I don't really know who they are. But I see the same faces in like, almost every TV show.
To me. Yeah, it's definitely one of the reasons why. You know, I don't watch TVs in Japan. I mean, I'm Japanese, but I don't watch TVs because there is no diversity. And there it almost seemed like you're repeating the same type of like content with the same people.
Yeah. So in just just talking about this Tegoshi guy just for a brief moment. He was in a band called NEWS, which is ridiculous name I will add. just capital letters, NEWS
it's it's ours already, right? It's no longer English.
Yeah, stop stealing our words. But yeah, you know As to be expected he's a very attractive man in a boy band. So you know, he gets a reputation as a ladies man allegedly out and about during the Corona, you know, fraternizing with females. And apparently, in this press conference, he said that a lot of these rumors were false. He wasn't actually kind of partying he was actually having business meetings. And, and I guess I didn't see that at the press conference, but I'm just kind of getting the roundup from the news, but it sounds like he kind of had evidence to back this up. And I guess that's why so many people as well as him just being honest with the facts. It's the fact that he didn't get caught lying about it. You know, he was honest. But he actually was honest, you know. So that's kind of how he's managed to make this transition so seamlessly.
And what I was impressed about this Tegoshi guy is that I saw a couple of his videos, and he has only released like five videos. So far. All the videos has got millions of views ready. And I noticed that he's really good at talking on the camera.
Oh, yeah.
Because, you know, sometimes, like when you're watching, like videos and YouTube, you can tell that, oh, this guy couldn't make this scene in like one cut. So you know, kind of like combine the multiple cuts. But in his case, he's almost doing like all the scenes in one cut.
Oh, wow. That's impressive.
Yeah. And,
I mean, as a singer like, we have have to memorize all these lyrics and stuff and then performing in front of the audience.
Exactly so, you know, she joined Johnny's like agency at the age of 15 and
Oh wow that's young.
You know, he's been working in the frontline of the entertainment world for 17 years by now.
Yeah, that's crazy.
So he's super used to, and he's like so comfortable you know talking like publicly and of course on the camera
well that's the kind of person that makes a good youtuber I guess. So yeah, Interesting. Interesting. Well, all the best to Tegoshi-san I'm sure he'll have 2 million subscribers by the end of the week. But it's definitely not the last big entertainer we'll see make the transition to YouTube. So onto some business news Next, the Japanese tech company Fujitsu limited has unveiled plans to cut its office space in half by March of 2023. The company already set an impressive example by reducing around 80% of office commuting from February when the breakout of Coronavirus began. The company is now adding further incentives that continue to push that over 800,000 domestic employees to work from home, one of which includes paying out five thousand yen a month to help employees set up a remote office space to work from home. Fujitsu employees will also no longer be required to come in during specific core hours and will be able to work a flexible schedule from the comfort of their homes. Less office space will also equal less rent money for the company to pay. In a statement by Fujitsu corporate executive officer Hiroki Hiromatsu, we want to realize a smarter working style that is not constrained by time and location. This trend of pushing for telework follows suit with Fujitsu rivals such as Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba. While the Coronavirus continues to negatively affect many industries. The work from home response of the corporate world could lead to permanent changes in how people work. I think this is fantastic news. And I think for far too long, regardless of virus. The emphasis on having like an office space, punching in punching out every day. In a world when we can like work on computers. Most work is done in spreadsheets and word processes. Why do you need to be like sat in a cubicle to like work on your own? You know, everyday, you know what I mean?
Yeah, I totally agree. So I'm impressed how quickly a large Japanese Corporation like Fujitsu made this decision. Because I was talking to a friend last week, he works for another large corporation in Japan. And she was saying that since the beginning of July, they're expected to come to the office like more often. And I hear that now many of them need to come to the office like three days a week. That's over 50%. Right. So I kind of had a hope that many large corporations in Japan would naturally shift to the remote working environment, but it seems like they're kind of like going back to square one Gradually,
based on the amount of like, you know, copy and paste salary man I'm seeing on the trains nowadays. It certainly seems that way. bike, I suppose like one of the reasons that it's not such an easy thing to implement in Japan mainly is like cultural, right? There's this kind of hierarchy system that exists in companies. And there's a lack of kind of autonomy that is given to lower ranking employees. So if you are kind of even if you're responsible for something, but you have like a higher up or a manager, you still have to pass everything through them. And I guess doing that remotely maybe is more difficult. If you know, people really value like face to face communication. So yeah, it's interesting to see a company like Fujitsu, who, which is massive, right, 80,000 employees, you know, they're pushing for this change. I guess, ultimately, in terms of like business for Fujitsu. This is all about the cost saving, right. If they're constantly putting their employees in a higher risk having to commute to the office every day, then that could ultimately lead to staff quitting or taking long periods of time off sick and that's gonna affect the business. Right. So it's surprising the more businesses aren't kind of eager to impose these kind of, you know, changes.
Yeah, I felt the same, you know, and I just think that many salaryman in the senior executive positions still want to be kind of like surrounded by their like juniors or subordinates. And I think it's just a part of like human nature. You want to feel like you're surrounded by people. And you're kind of like, you just want to be in that environment physically. I mean, I don't care. But I think many people do. So one of my friends was saying that there's one boss that he has. He doesn't have office space in his apartment. So he needs to bring his laptop to the park and then join the zoom conference.
Oh, really.
But in the There are some like pigeons like approaching him. you can you can hear them like chirping right and all his subordinates are kind of like laughing behind the behind the scenes yeah they're like exchanges they're exchanging messages using chat functionality like ah like that guy is in the Park again, the pidgeons are coming out chirping I think yeah those like, not quiet like tech savvy. bosses are afraid that they may lose the the influence you know if this kind of like working environment becomes standard.
So it's kind of funny I saw one story last week actually, it was pretty funny. It was a company had requested to I think it was to zoom. They had requested to zoom to build like a plugin or a function that will basically allow you to see Set the kind of stature levels for people in the call. So like in in the whole window, the very top of the window would be like a large box would be like shachou, the boss of the company. And then below him smaller boxes would be the managers. And then right at the bottom even the smaller would be like the kohai really so even on the screen, it would look like the power structure the boss would have the biggest window
I think that's what you know, executives are looking for
I think so. Yeah. But that really matters to them, right?
Yeah, yeah it does.
I guess by default, it's just everything and everybody's the same size on the screen right? And I guess like I can I can understand the psychology behind that right. If you're just like a regular employee, you just another cog in the wheel, right. You're just sitting there you can be a, you've got the boss and then your manager and all your other like colleagues, but they're all the same size on the screen. I guess it kind of humanizes the higher ups, right. It makes them seem like normal people. I mean, they are normal people but it makes them seem less authoritative, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
I think that's kind of like the venture spirit from the, you know, coming from the west coast of the US. But I'm not sure if that applies to the large traditional like corporations in Japan.
So yes, definitely, definitely interesting. And yeah, we'll see what happens in the future.
So onto the next topic related to tech. Many movies in the 20th century depicted the early 2000s as a futuristic paradise with flying cars, holograms and robots. While this vision of the future may be a bit off one aspect, it's on the verge of becoming a reality. The convenience store chain Family Mart has announced a partnership with tele-existence, a robotics firm based out of Tokyo, to implement robotics workers into their stores. The goal of this partnership is to have these robots stock shelves with merchandise instead of being fully automated, the robots are planned to be remotely controlled by workers using VR headsets and gloves at a different location. This would allow smaller, more remote stores to remain in operation. Even with few employees. This could also give more job opportunities to those with disabilities that prevent them from working on side. Test trials are set to begin in select Family Mart stores in Tokyo this summer. And with having robotic shelf stalkers in 20 branches by 2022 depending on the success of the experiment, more robots could be in store for the future of convenience stores. Yeah, so this is cool. It sounds like we are starting to live in the world of ghosts in the shell.
Kind of I guess. Yeah. I mean, I think these robots are a little bit more janky a little bit more clunky. But I saw some pictures of them. They're pretty cool. They've got like, they've got like separated finger like digits, you know, and their arms move. But they they move around on wheels or like tank track mechanism. But I guess in like in the convenience store, the floor is just flat, right? There's no you know, like crazy terrain that they have to traverse. So from what I understand is like one employee could be sat at home or you know in the office whatever and he has he's like VR headset on. And he could be like there's a there's a store in Roppongi that I need to log into. And he just logs into that robot takes like, takes over stocks, the shelves, and then he's like, Oh, now I need to go to like Shinagawa. And he logs into like Shinagawa. So like he's saving all that time, like commuting. And also like just the fact of like stocking shelves sometimes it's not a case of like, it's gonna take hours, right? Maybe the store is not that busy. Maybe we didn't make that many sales that day. So like there's only a few items need to be replenished. So there's not really a point of having a whole person working your whole shift to fill that time where one person could log into like 10 different stores in the same room. It's interesting. Yeah.
Yeah, you made a good case. And also, I thought about this, but these, you know, robots obviously have zero risk of getting infected by the virus.
True. Yeah. Or it would be a different kind of virus that affects them, right? If they get hacked, if it turns into like, I don't know the term here, Skynet, they get hacked.
But at least you know, um, they have no risk of like, infecting their, their customers.
Sure sure.
So, um, you know, I guess such technology. I mean, technology behind this is really complicated. so it may have, like, some glitches in the beginning.
I think so. Yeah. I mean, I don't think we'll see a major leap forward until these robots become almost as functional as a human being
right right. And it may take some time, right.
Yeah, they are still gonna be slow and clunky, but I think the biggest benefit, the moment is almost two benefits, right? One You already said is that, you know, the risk of infection is zero. And the fact that what I mentioned earlier was that that the employee can basically just teleport to a different location almost instantly. And I guess in terms of like cost cutting for salary and stuff that really does add up, I would assume.
Because basically, you don't need to know you don't need our human employees to be like standby all the time.
Right. Yeah.
But one thing I'm a bit concerned is that they sell a bunch of different types of merchandise in conbini. I mean, Japanese convenience, right? Yeah. You know, they sell things like onigiri like rice bowls, that are soft. Or beers that are relatively hard, you know, in the aluminum cans. So, um, I imagined that it will be quite challenging for the robots to kind of like grab Those soft objects and hard objects, they're not just about, like, you know, in terms of like sizes. But um, if they kind of like grabbed the these all these objects with the same power.
Just crush it.
Yeah, it can, you know, crush the bread or onigiri, or they even sell like eggs. So I think that will be one of the challenges.
I'm sure they'll get used to it, whether it's an egg or a human skull, you know, as thtey crush customers and take over the world. But it'll be certainly interesting to see. And I hope these robots come to a store near me, that'd be that'd be super fun to see. Okay, so on to our final story of the week. With Corona virus infections on the rise again in Japan, many people are turning to tracking apps to ease their fears about becoming infected. One tracking app is called sashoku kakunin apuri or the contact confirmation app if you have registered yourself as having The virus than any other users of the app that you have crossed paths with will then be notified. In theory. This would make users aware of those who are affected around them and allow them to take the proper precautions. However, several problems are affecting the functionality of the application. Even with current cases of Coronavirus, surpassing 1100 people throughout the country, the number of users who are actually reporting themselves infected on the app is extremely low. As of this Wednesday, only three users have registered as having the Coronavirus out of the over 6.1 million people that have downloaded the app in order to prevent the further spread of the Coronavirus. The Ministry of Health has asked for everybody's cooperation in downloading and using the contact confirmation app. But the stigma that could come from admitting infection may be influencing many to stay silent. Only three, it's kind of comical if it wasn't so serious. It's kind of funny. I can understand what people mean that the stigma, you know, but it's all anonymous, right? So I don't know. It seems weird that you wouldn't just mark yourself down. But you've downloaded this app, right Yasu?
Yeah, I downloaded this yesterday, and as you said already 6.1 million people downloaded this app in one week. And I think this number itself is quite solid. And the problem is that during which time there were 1100 new cases. So you know, we have a population of like, 120 million in Japan. So based on the rough calculation, there should be about like hundred people who were infected by the corona, and using this app.
Okay.
But you know, as you mentioned, like only three people registered that info through the app. So the question is like, why aren't people reporting right?
Interesting yeah.
My hypothesis is that even though this app was created, and you know, run by the government, I think many people are afraid to register as tested positive, because they don't understand how it really works. I think the minister of health needs better explanations for people infected to feel safe about registering their information.
Yeah. So I guess they need to let just stress the fact that it is anonymous, you know, and it's not traceable or anything like that.
right. Because, you know, when you download the app, you just need to, like, read through, like, the lengthy document, like the about the mechanism of the app. Yeah. And it's very technical.
nobody reads those things, right.
Yeah, except for me, I guess. But I still like have to read like multiple times, to like, fully understand, like how it's working. So basically, you exchange an encrypted key with whomever that you've crossed past with.
Interesting. It's almost like it spreads in the exact way that the virus does. Okay. In an Ironic twist
Quite an ironic metaphor
But yeah, there are downsides to this one being that the range of Bluetooth is not that great, right? It's not so solid. So, you know, or even if you're close to someone, but perhaps you're in a crowded train and there's many signals, right? Could be interference, even if you're one of these three brave people that have admitted to having Coronavirus. Even if you're one of these people, there's a chance that you won't alert everybody within your presence. But in all honesty, like if you've been tested positive, you shouldn't be alerting anybody who should be in the house, you should be staying home, right? So that's another reason you know, it's kind of like you shouldn't be getting alerted about people. Because if they know that they have it, they shouldn't be going outside in the first place right
no no, So basically, you get to keep those like encrypted key for like two weeks, so like 14 days, so even if you test, even If you are say like, tested positive today, the record go goes back to, you know, like all the way, like up to like a past two weeks and not for all that you've like encountered in the past 2 weeks.
Oh, so you're constantly logging keys of just everybody that you go past. Oh, okay, that makes sense. That makes sense. Fair enough.
So, in the app there, there are no like graphics that are used to explain the the mechanism for for this App. So it's really hard to understand the general like idea.
Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of logic, you know, and technical insight that goes into this a lot of like, statistical analysis of numbers, right. It's not just like, you know, you walk out somebody had a virus and then you just send alerts to everybody because that would just cause widespread panic, right?
Yes, I'm sure like, these thresholds are not like set to like cover all the cases. You know, it's it's like impossible, but if they could maybe like find, let's say like more than 90% of the hidden cases then maybe that's good enough.
Yeah I guess so.
and not cause the unnecessary like panic.
Yeah, so that wraps it up for all the news stories this episode. Now let's jump into the final segment of the show Word of the Week.
Okay, so today I'm going to introduce you an interesting Japanese phrase. We discussed the news about the floods in Oita in the western part of Japan today. And because historically, Japanese people have been suffering from various natural disasters, we have many old sayings related to natural disasters. Okay, so the Word of the Week is jishin kaminari kaji oyaji. Have you heard of this?
I've not heard of it. But I mean, based on your brief description, I can pretty much Guess what it means? So jishin is earthquake. Kaminari is like a storm, thunder. Kaji is fire. Oyaji, I don't know That means the flood maybe. What did I miss?
Right so um, yeah, everything you said is correct except for Oyaji, Oyaji means a father.
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
Oya and like, like oh yeah, okay.
Yeah and Oyaji's ji is a kanji for father right
yeah okay yeah.
and Oyaji's oya is
is parents. Oh yeah, okay
Yeah. you can tell what's common among the first three words right like jishin and kaminari and Kaji they're all like natural disasters. Although kaji could be, you s, caused by humans. Then what is Oyaji in this context?
In the west I guess you could say it's almost referring to like a god right. So the power of the God but I mean, you don't have that in Japan. The kamisama there's no like one overruling God, right. Um, is it something to do the Emperor maybe
not the Emperor, but I would say it's not too far off in a sense that it is meant to compare all the scary, like, things-
to your father.
Yeah, so that is why this is tough because it's not like this in Japan anymore. But in the past, oyaji in Japan used to be as scary as, or it could be even more scary than natural disasters, because in the past, Japanese society was very like patriarchal and seniority was valued. Right. So if I may, like many fathers were acting very like arrogantly, and he could just like hit you like if you don't follow what he says.
Okay I've got it.
You know, fortunately, like not many people are are afraid of their fathers anymore. So this saying is becoming a bit out of date.
Hmm, interesting. yeah
But I particularly find the same interesting because it kind of reflects how we saw the world in the past.
And I guess yeah, if you look at the probability of facing wrath from your father is probably like an everyday occurrence compared to kaminari or jishin is kind of an infrequent event. Right? So I guess, maybe the severity is lower, but the frequency puts it in line with those other kind of disasters. Interesting.
That's a good explanation. Yeah, yeah. But these days, some people just swap the oyaji with nyobo, for example, and which means wife or other natural disasters such as tsunami.
a. I've never heard that word before.
It's a way of describing your your wife so my nyobo, but it's a bit how to say, like old fashioned way of referring to your wife.
It sounds old fashioned even though like I don't really know, Japanese to that depth. It's just got, I don't know something about that word. It sounds old fashioned.
Yeah. interesting that You say that Because Yeah, in reality, I've never heard my. for example, like friends of the same age using the word nyobo.
Have you heard older people using it?
Oh, yeah, yeah. Quite often. So yeah, what is your most scary thing, Julian?
My most scary thing? I don't know. I guess like I've not experienced it yet. But the thought of being in a giant earthquake in Japan, because I'm not from Japan. Right. So I've never experienced them from a young age. But like, I've seen, like videos of like, people in the office and the buildings are shaking and like, it's almost like the force launches you across the room. Right? And there's like shells falling down and it looks scary. I'm not into the idea of that to be honest. I wouldn't say a lot of stuff scares me particularly. But yeah, that would be scary. If I just happened to be at the top of a very tall building, when an earthquake came, I'd probably cry.
Right. So maybe in your case, it's only jishin, kaminari, kaji.
Yeah
and
not nyobo. Lovely nyobo.
Jishin, kaminari, kaji, nyobo
Nyobo nashi.
I hope your wife is not listening to this.
Yes it's alright it's fine, she doesn't listen. Okay, so that brings us to the end of this week's episode, whichever platform you're listening to make sure that you're subscribed for a brand new episode every single week.
Thanks for listening, everyone. If you have any questions or comments, send us a message on Twitter at RyuTokyoNews. We are also releasing videos every week on YouTube. So find us there.
So stay healthy, stay safe, everybody. I hope your nyobo or oyaji doesn't cause you any problems this week. And we'll be back Next week for the very next episode of this week in Japan Transcribed by https://otter.ai