a post-blog
This month's teddy is apparently a drunken white-collar bear who has strayed too close to the track in an alcohol-fueled act of sociopathy. When I snapped this pic, a little girl was studying the ad for about a minute - why does this bear have a tie around his head like some sort of corporate commando? Indeed, little one, why? Apparently she doesn't know the whole conceit of drunken Japanese businessmen undoing their necktie and wrapping it around their heads. Mom will tell you about it when you're older.
The poster's text aims for triggering the antisocial shame reflex over some imaginary Puritan guilt complex by never calling the intoxication itself into question, just the antisocial behavior caused by the overindulgence. The odd combination of cute little teddy bear with public drunkenness makes sense to us grownups, but must have confused the living daylights out of the kindergardener in front of me in line.
Posted by marxy at December 1, 2004 11:42 PMthe tie around the head is a symbolic reference to bonenkai season which is just ahead. This is a timely reminder that when you are drunk out of your mind on the way home from the company year end party, dont stumble off the platform into an oncoming train, afterall, someone will have to clean up your bloody corpse.
A secondary implied warning is that for the next few weeks the station platforms will be a sea of vomit after about 9PM since those same drunken salarymen will be spewing forth fountains of Asahi and yakisoba as they wait for their train home.
Posted by: Chris_B at December 2, 2004 12:15 PMI like your use of Ruth Benedict's Shame v. Guilt cultures idea here. It is indeed a feature of Japanese society to condemn things only insofar as they cause social disharmony, not because they're inherently sinful. I think we saw that with Japan Tobacco's recent 'considerate smoking' campaign. Like all governments, the Japanese government gets a lot of revenue from smoking and drinking (but a lot less from happoushu)!
I'm less of a fan of the way you're now portraying yourself as an ally of Japanese children versus Japanese adults, in the same way you've been, up to now, portraying yourself as an ally of the Japanese public against, well, all its institutions, really. If this trend continues, there'll soon be just you and one 'great Japanese individual' against the whole nation. You'll no doubt tell us, though, that this individual incarnates the true spirit of Japan.
Posted by: Momus at December 3, 2004 9:27 PMI don't think I meant my comment as some sort of call to protect Japanese children as much as I was poking fun at the fact that the Japanese authorities' use of childish images to target adults ends up confusing the kids who see their own toys on posters doing inexplicable things.
But nice attempt to slander the messenger. Gotta keep on chipping away at me, before people start figuring your 1970s pro-Japan beliefs are outdated.
Posted by: marxy at December 3, 2004 10:42 PMAlso, the Japanese government makes a ton of tax money from happoushu. Since it's cheaper, the demand is higher and more revenue is collected. That still doesn't mean it's not an inferior good (劣等財) though.
Posted by: marxy at December 3, 2004 10:44 PMBut nice attempt to slander the messenger
Now, Marxy, you know very well that slander, 'the evil tongue', or 'lashon ha-ra' (as my good friend the Rabbi of Cracow calls it) is not my intention here at all. In fact, since the Talmud makes it an offense (punishable by fasting) to even listen to slander, I'm going to block my ears right now. (Blocks ears and hums.)
Posted by: Momus at December 4, 2004 3:11 AM