Only in Japan?

Wow, it’s almost a month since my last post. I will try to keep it up a little better. Not that I think I have any readers yet, but anyways. (^^;)

Actually, it’s in the middle of the night (02.40 am) over here in Sweden, so I should be asleep. But I’m not. So I’m writing this instead.

Last week I watched Koizora (“Sky of Love”), a short 6-episode Japanese television drama-series from summer 2008. It’s about a high school couple and how they fall in love, face obstacles, and eventually overcome them. It’s cute, with some nice plotpoints, but a little overdramatic and not the best actors of the bunch. Worth watching if you like drama/love-series, but no masterpiece.

What is interesting about this drama, or actually more to the funny side, is the note at the end of each episode. A Japanese text roughly equivalent to:

“In this drama scenes are shown with two people riding one bike. This is dangerous and also forbidden by the law. Please do not do this in real life. This drama was shot in a protected environment without danger to the people involved.”

The many other bad things happening in the drama, like beatings, threats, attempted rape, class skipping and so on, were not mentioned.

I wonder if this is because people watching the drama are more likely to ride two people on one bike than to start beating other people up.

Actually, all Japanese media are very careful to point it out when a story is fiction. This counts for both television, books and manga (comics). However, I have only once before seen an “official” (not a joking “don’t-do-this-at-home-kids”) warning not to copy what happened in the story, and that was in one of the Eyeshield 21 (an American football manga) books. They mentioned that even though one of the characters had a very frequent use of lots and lots of firearms, these are forbidden in Japan.

I wonder why all of this is like it is. And why exactly riding two people on one bike was so specifically pointed out. Maybe because it’s a big problem in Japan. Not that I know of this ever causing a lot of problems, any where (even though it’s true it is more dangerous riding two instead of one on one bike), but I know it’s frequently done in Japan. Even though it’s against the law. Especially among school kids, who I guess are the ones mostly watching this kind of dramas. But anyway.

It’s actually forbidden in Sweden too, if the person peddling is not over 15 and the other under 12 years of age. Then it’s okay.

The title of this post points to the fact that as far as I know, this kind of notice is not something that would show up in many other countries.

But also to the fact that both Japanese and Wapanese (wanna-be-japanese) people are very quick to point out something as unique of Japan, even when it’s not. Like having four seasons or never entering a house with your shoes on. I think this is often kind of irritating, and sometimes almost racist. Mostly, however, it’s innocent, and more about ignorance than anything else.

I also know that I, like with this post, am probably often guilty of it myself, especially as I’m, by many people’s standards, way into the Wapanese-area.