Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Ahh, ok - they came from "a foreigner"

Right now the big story the Japanese media is focusing on is the apparently impossible-to-accept-and-move-on-with-life tale of Noriko Sakai, a 38 year-old Japanese pop singer who was recently arrested. As far as I can gather, the story is that her estranged husband was arrested on suspicion of drug possession and told police that she was involved. Her apartment was searched and drugs found, and a warrant was put out for her arrest. She disappeared with her kid for a couple of days, but was eventually found and apprehended. Although she has admitted to the possession charges, she has also said that she didn't take the drugs herself.

The part that has the gaijin community somewhat upset is a statement that was made to police and then leaked to the Japanese media. Apparently Noriko got her drugs "from a foreigner." At first, the media's coverage of the event consisted of every TV show centering in on stupid little details of her life - for example, her decision to dye her hair. I saw one TV show that was studying a picture of her from a few years back, trying to determine if she had a tattoo. Oooh, that must have been where she went wrong.

Now, as you might imagine, the media is focusing in on this foreigner business. See, Japan is a pure society. If people are using drugs, foreigners must be connected somehow. Despite the fact that Noriko's brother has ties to the yakuza. I think there's a lot of blame to go around, but the police and the media deserve a fair share, considering how much coverage this story is getting in Japan. If a celebrity were busted for drugs in America, do you think they would be able to deflect so much attention by claiming they bought the drugs from a black man or a hispanic? I would hope not. Then again, this is Japan. More on the story at Japan Probe.

(Photo Source: AFP via Yahoo)

9 comments:

  1. "I hope would hope?"

    Paul, are you smuggling drugs into Japan again? You can tell me.

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  2. Ooops. It would appear so, wouldn't it?

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  3. Yeah, enough with this Noriko Sakai shit. I mean, how much was the media focused on her before this nonsense? I had never heard of this person before. And I've been living here and watching TV for years. It's almost as if they jump on shit like this here as an excuse to avoid having to cover "uncomfortable" subjects like America getting on good terms with N. Korea. Damned Americans! Why don't they just do us Japanese a favor and nuke N. Korea?

    I mean, if Sakai had been some media darling before all this, I guess the endless coverage would be justified to some extent.

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  4. I suppose like all celebrity news in this country, they must feed off of this story until all that is left is a sad, desiccated husk.

    So until the next SMAP schmuck gets arrested for getting drunk and exposing himself, we're stuck looking at old photos of Noriko.

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  5. Oi!
    I am American (Living in America) and I really hope NO ONE ever gets nuked again! I didn't know we were getting on good terms with N. Korea though...that is certainly more interesting and valuable news than stories about what's her face? Oh yeah, Noriko.

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  6. Ok, I should've said ever-so-slightly better terms ;)

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  7. :P It's all good. I'm sure you're not the only person to say or wish that. Can't we all just get along? LOL. Ah, I can be Oh So Naive sometimes...

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  8. Wait a minute...that made absolutely no sense on my part, eh? I was spacing out obviously, hehe. But yeah...I got it now, woah. Anyway, I still stand by the last two sentences in my previous post. :P

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  9. Peace is good, of course, but it's hard to be friends with a country when their leader is a stark-raving-mad military leader.

    Agreed, though - news on North Korea would be a lot more valuable than news on Noriko. But (news shows excluded), Japanese TV shows never talk about serious and important issues like that.

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