BOOK
REVIEW Dissecting the Japanese boob tube
The Couch Potato's Guide to Japan: Inside
the world of Japanese TV by W M
Penn
Reviewed by Jamie Miyazaki
As the author W M Penn,
the television columnist for the English-language
version of the Daily Yomiuri, the biggest circulation
Japanese newspaper (10 million), concedes in her
introduction to The Couch Potato's Guide to
Japan, a book dedicated entirely to the act of
watching Japanese TV, her effort is pretty esoteric. By
stringing together some of her past columns from the
Yomiuri, factual side-boxes, and her own knowledge and
research into the Japanese TV industry, Penn attempts to
weave together a book that is part social commentary,
part overview of Japan's entertainment industry and part
potted history of Japanese TV.
Structured as a
"TV tour guide to Japan", the book starts off with a
brief history of Japanese TV before moving on to an
analysis of the plot structures of Japanese dramas, the
status of scriptwriters in Japanese TV, Japanese comedy,
news and variety programs, and favorite Japanese TV
themes, before wrapping up with great Japanese TV
moments. Quite an eclectic mix of subject matter and an
ambitious amount of ground to cover in just 200 or so
pages.
Perhaps the most interesting parts of the
book are Penn's analysis of the importance and status of
Japanese celebrities and the powerful Johnny's Jimusho
talent agency within Japan's entertainment business. The
profile of SMAP, a chillingly popular group of male
entertainers, and Morning Musume, another group of
female entertainers, are nice concise profiles of two
groups that have effectively become social institutions.
The triumvirate of comedy kings that dominates Japanese
airwaves, Beat Takeshi, Sanma Akashiya, and Tamori, are
also profiled well.
The section on Johnny's
Jimusho also provides a telling insight into Japanese
show business. Behind all the manic gags that seem to be
on non-stop broadcast across Japan's airwaves, the
Japanese entertainment business is dominated by the same
preponderance of egos and competitive ruthlessness that
characterizes the entertainment business in the United
States. However, while Penn is critical of the
stranglehold Johnny's Jimusho has over talent, it is
worth remembering that this is not unique to Japan. The
William Morris Agency and Creative Artists Agency
maintain a similar stranglehold in the motion picture
business in America. Japanese TV in this sense is no
different from the tube industry in other countries.
Penn is certainly well versed in Japanese
television. A native of Pittsburgh, she is said to have
arrived in Japan in 1973, bought a TV in 1982 and has
been watching it ever since. But where Penn does fall
down is in trying to cover too much ground in too few
pages, and she often ends up diluting her message just
as she begins to make interesting points. While she
proclaims "television is the best sociology and language
textbook around" her use of TV as a medium of social
commentary often feels shallow and not altogether
convincing. For example, her brief profile on Tama-chan,
an arctic seal that somehow wound up in Tokyo bay and
became a national celebrity, only briefly touches on the
issue of the seal being awarded a residency permit and
the influence of a bizarre sect called Pana Wave
Research Center. Yet serious social issues such as
residency being awarded to seals and not second and
third generation Korean residents, the rise of cults in
Japan and the bizarre nature of celebrity in Japan are
never really fully explored. Moreover, her reliance on
columns that she wrote for the Yomiuri occasionally have
a recycled air to them.
A reader looking for a
more in-depth exploration of any aspect of Japanese
television, be it comedy or the structure of the
industry, will probably be disappointed by the book.
However, non-Japanese speakers who have just landed in
Japan and are baffled by what they find on the box and
students of Japanese culture looking to get a handle on
TV will probably find the book a useful introduction to
all things televisual. As Penn herself admits this book
is "best appreciated when ingested in small, carefully
measured doses rather than downed in large gulps".
Jamie Miyazaki is a freelance
journalist and political risk analyst specializing in
North Asia. He can be reached at
miyazaki@nildram.co.uk.
The Couch
Potato's Guide to Japanese TV: Inside the world of
Japanese TV by W M Penn. Forest River Press, May
2004. ISBN:4-902422-01-8. Price 1,800 yen (US$16.22),
paperback, 202 pages.
(Copyright 2004 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
As the author W M Penn,
the television columnist for the English-language
version of the Daily Yomiuri, the biggest circulation
Japanese newspaper (10 million), concedes in her
introduction to The Couch Potato's Guide to
Japan, a book dedicated entirely to the act of
watching Japanese TV, her effort is pretty esoteric. By
stringing together some of her past columns from the
Yomiuri, factual side-boxes, and her own knowledge and
research into the Japanese TV industry, Penn attempts to
weave together a book that is part social commentary,
part overview of Japan's entertainment industry and part
potted history of Japanese TV. 
