A small Asuka Sawamoto note

This is just a small note, but on アキバblog, Asuka’s several articles she had about her lady-parts made her the most popular topic. In fact, she filled 7 out of 10 of the top read articles on that site.

So public relations students should take note: intentional exposure of lady parts is apparently the most effective type of exposure you can get.  I think Ms. Sawamoto is much more popular and well known now that all of Akihabara, and likely most of Japan, has seen her buttocks and nether regions, even if they didn’t want to.

Well, I say that, but we know it’s not really universal. Miley Cyrus would lose all her fans with an act like that.  We also have seen from Ms. Spears that accidents are bad publicity. 

But what about intentional acts?  They’re less scandalous because they’re not slip-ups or faults. And as indecent and lewd as the acts of Ms. Sawamoto and Ms. Spears seem to Japan/America, what about Rihanna’s music videos? What about the girls in the backgrounds of rap and hip-hop music videos?

While I frown on Sawamoto’s acts, she really didn’t do anything more lewd that what can be seen on regular cable TV.  Why is it fine if it’s behind glass, but totally wrong in public? Ironically, Asuka Sawamoto’s Akihabara exposure was most likely seen by less kids than A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila. Even more ironic is that Ms. Sawamoto was more tasteful in her actions than Tila.

You can argue that it’s a cultural difference, except that’s wrong too.  If situations were flopped and Sara Bareilles was seen handing out concert tickets sans pants in silicon valley (best Akihabara substitute I can come up with) it would cause an uproar.  Then I’d be sitting here drawing the same comparison.  Or if it really suits you, I could compare this hypothetical event to images seen in a Koda Kumi music video.  Koda Kumi was the one on the right without clothes.

Both cultures have this double standard.   It’s not like being in public means that you’re exposing yourself to more kids. I can’t imagine many kids being in a place like Akihabara.  Yet nearly every kid with a TV has seen reality tv, plastic surgery shows and/or music videos.  Who do we protect with this standard?

Not that we as Americans, or they as Japanese should let people run around exposed. I just wanted to point out that either:

A) It’s not really a huge deal when someone’s too exposed in public.

B) We expose too much in our trashy television, yet don’t care.

As a culture, I think both sides are guilty of the double standard, but I’ve never seen anything on cable in Japan that was as lewd as American reality TV. Their reality TV seems to be more innocent.  If I have this wrong, please comment and post some examples.  To qualify it has to be something normal that aired on cable.  Not some weird DVD that came from Akihabara or Nipponbashi.

~ by James on March 27, 2008.