This is an English translation of my friend's Japanese blog.
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Charlotte Journal 08/10/2014
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I'll talk about
cartoons this time. Do you know that Doraemon has been on air in the US since
this July? I was waiting for the series to start, and watched the program right
away. I felt uneasy when I first heard "Godzilla" pronounced in an
English way, but "Doraemon" is pronounced almost in the same way as
we do in Japanese and sounds all right. Since I have a complex about my poor English,
Nobita (Nobby in the US version) looks rather sharp when he fluently speaks
English. He does not look to be the same person that cannot catch up classes at school.
Well, what I was bothered about in the
series was that Doraemon has been "localized". This US version of
the cartoon was made in Japan, but many scenes were changed to fit into the
life-style in the US. For example, the characters have a meal with knives and
forks instead of chopsticks, and eat pancakes instead of omelet-rice. A
Dorayaki, which is a Doraemon's favorite bean-jam pancake, is called a Yummy
Bun. As a marketing strategy, it's good to localize products to
increase the sales (or the number of audiences for this case). But this time,
a Japanese TV company is exporting Japanese culture. I wondered why they do
not export Japanese culture, life style and dietary habits as they are. If
children in the US watch the program and see the characters eating omelet-rice,
they may want to know what it is. They might be interested in Japanese foods
and want to travel to Japan and try them. They would also be interested in
eating foods with chopsticks and ask their parents to buy them. By exporting
Japanese culture, we can sell various Japanese products associated with it.
Cupcakes appeared in
SEX and the CITY attracted public attention, and they became a fad in Japan. It's
become a common style in Japan to walk in the city with a Starbuck’s takeout
cup in hand. No one tries to replace cupcakes with traditional Japanese
Daifuku cake because we are less familiar with cupcakes. As I see the
Doraemon’s case rather critically, the US, which always exports its culture,
is trying to avoid foreign culture to be imported. I imagine that there were
a lot of difficult negotiations made in exporting Japanese cartoons to the
US, but I want Japan to take pride in disseminating Japanese culture. I want
to say it aloud here, because I often find in the US that Japanese culture is
confused with the other Asian culture. A word "Dorayaki" already
exists in English although it is not well known. I want Dorayaki to be as
popular as cupcakes. Besides, you cannot say that Doraemon is a character who
likes the sweets called Dorayaki if they are called Yummy Buns.
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