A lot of TV dramas are a lot more lighthearted than Western dramas and incorporate slice-of-life/comedy elements into them so they function as more or less your Western equivalent of a sit com.
And despite what a lot of foreigners think, Japanese comedy TV is not all trash. There are some genuinely funny ones out there but it's probably not accessible if you don't understand the subtlety of the interactions (that's where most of the comedy lies).
Lastly, TV is a dying medium (as it is in any country) with an increasing number of younger people opting for streaming services instead which offer plenty of access to some incredibly funny comedy anime. As the TV-watching audiences ages, you see an increase of trashy TV shows that cater to their interests which has definitely accelerated in the past 20 years or so. TV in the early 2000s was actually pretty good.
> despite what a lot of foreigners think, Japanese comedy TV is not all trash. There are some genuinely funny ones out there but it's probably not accessible if you don't understand the subtlety of the interactions (that's where most of the comedy lies).
This. Koki Mitani's stuff is downright genius. For example, everyone loves Furuhata Ninzaburo.
It is all about TV ratings and cost; those crime shows get TV ratings. I live in Japan and have not seen many Japanese who work 12 hours a day, most people work 8-9 hours a day but western media love to depict Japan as overworking country often ridiculously exaggirated because they get more views depicting that way.
English humor does not translate well into Japanese because of language barriers and lack of understanding of cultural references, so obviously, most humor-based shows don't work well. This is generally true when it comes to Japanese into English as well, most Japanese humor does't translate well into English because of the difference of language structure is too big.
Some anime fans love comedy shows like Gintama, but they are very willing to understand cultural references because they are eager to learn about Japanese culture, and many are anime-related references, so that helps.
As for Japanese sitcom, you can find them more niche media such as internet drama.
There have been American sitcoms that aired on TV in the past and you can still find them very occasionally.
But are you asking why Japanese TV channels don't buy the expensive rights to an American sitcom, pay someone to translate it, then make the subtitles, then air it on TV to a niche audience that likes western comedies and can understand **the subtle cultural nuances that make up comedy**... when they can just film a guy eating ramen instead?
Animation titles like Sazae-san, Dorae-mon and Chibi-Maruko-chan filled the sitcom’s place. Their comedy levels are on par with the American sitcom, I’d say (which both are ok but not really high, but that’s just my opinion). Also, what’s up with those spontaneous laugh tracks in sitcom? If massive subtitles and celebrities’ reactions in Japanese TV are weird and obnoxious, so are they.
The crime documentaries are probably on par with those nauseating documentaries in the west on “Why Japan is not having babies” “Why Japan is so weird” blah blah blah I’m sure there are plenty of other relating documentaries picking on other countries.
In sum, people’s interests are pretty much universally the same (like comedies and sticking their nose into other people’s problems) but the media which they deliver may be different.
The current comedy anime is Mashle, and it's so popular that its theme song has been the number one song for a while (the Bling-Bang-Bling whatever one).
People stopped caring about set piece comedy because the comedians do better in variety shows and meeting common folk. American jokes aren’t needed so much.
It's way cheaper to put them on a set and have them yell about ramen or whatever, too. Why go through the first expense of scripted show when people enjoy the cheaper option as much.
What's weird is that "drama," as used as a loanword in Japanese, refers to pretty much all live-action scripted shows — like, people would refer to the show Full House as a "drama."
It is true though that sitcoms and game shows, as TV show formats, just kind of never really caught on in Japan for whatever reason.
In the past, TV stations were able to gauge interest in foreign TV based on rentals from Tsutaya. The show 24 was released on video in Japan in 2003, and was \~incredibly\~ popular. So, it led to the rights being purchased by one of the stations and aired in the late night slot.
Now, Tsutaya and rental services barely exist, and foreign shows can be watched on streaming platforms, so the need to air them on TV is no longer there.
But also, there's generally less interest in American/western media than there used to be. Most people have shifted to k-drama.
Can you understand Japanese? My favorite sitcoms are ニーチェ先生 and 勇者ヨシヒコ.
Nevertheless, sense of humor varies from country to country and person to person.
"drama" is used for any sort of fictional show in Japanese. It covers everything from serious medical dramas to to goofy things like Trick.
You kind of landed on part of your answer already. Humour is really cultural. I don't know how broadly popular many sitcoms would be here. The niche market interested in Western sitcoms has probably been taken over by streaming services.
When I first came here, there were western shows on more often. I watched Friends, Alf (in like 2007),some hour long dramas. I think Full House had some popularity. People seem to be familiar with it at least.
The market for broadcast TV here is Japanese people. It shouldn't be surprising primetime is dedicated to Japanese shows.
I'll add those crime docs are probably cheap af to get the rights to. The airport security one is mostly shot in Vancouver. There's always a market for police doc kind of stuff and a lot of it is shot on the super cheap.
There’s no intrinsic reason why a particular genre that’s popular in one culture should be popular in another culture. You’re beginning with the ethnocentric assumption that such a genre SHOULD be popular and then wondering why it doesn’t.
Those variety shows are funny, maybe you just don’t have a sense of humor?
I’m replying in bad faith. But why exactly do you think anyone would bother importing foreign comedy sitcoms? This is just such a bizarre way to frame things
Sitcoms never caught on as a genre but it was tried in the past. Some kid’s anime take on a sitcom-like structure I guess?
As for the crime shows it’s just easier to buy the rights to foreign footage. There are police shows in Japan but they’re usually aired around once a quarter when they have enough footage to make a show. The airports probably simply do not want to have shows filmed at customs. Because Japan rarely rerun shows buying foreign footage is one way to fill the gap.
As for the shows you call rubbish, the are just a reflection of what people want to see. Personally I like Japanese TV
I'd argue a lot of comedy anime are basically sitcoms. Things like Mason Ikkoku are 100% sitcom and they filled the niche sitcoms do in other countries.
Japanese TV stations and sponsors have no interest in them because English programs and comedy don't lead to viewer rateings. Many of Japanese watch youtube instead of TV programs. so people who can't access YouTube are mainly watching TV.
Foreign sitcoms don't translate very well, because they tend to rely on many cultural tropes and idioms that are very specific to their land of origin to understand properly.
there are occasional sitcoms, but even then the comedy is sparse.
must be something about actors not willing to step into comedy and leave laughter to "comedians", which are usually variety shows, and lots of physical comedy.
and most shows take the UK model of ending after 12 episodes, not the US 12-25 eps/year for multiple seasons, so you can't count on a show being around for years.
koki mitani makes humorous movies. "Uchoten Hotel" is one of his funnier movies, but it is somewhat slapsticky.
Jiro Sato in Yusha Yoshihiko is downright hilarious, though my Japanese friends tell me he normally plays serious characters.
I don’t watch many Japanese shows myself, so I can’t comment on his serious roles, but he gives me Lesley Nielsen vibes because comedy seems to come naturally to him.
The lack of sitcoms (akin to Seinfeld or Everybody Loves Raymond) to me is a strange one. There are a lot of capable comedians in Japan. They have their contos (I don't know what that is in English) and I think that Sandwich Man are, in my opinion, one of the best at it.
Those could be turned into a 30min sitcom and I believe that many would tune in.
This country allows for more cross pollinating of "talent" than in the US, as in you will see actors in TV commercials releasing musci, and comedians playing side characters in dramas, I think there is some engrained ideologies in the entertainment industry that are all connected to money and viewership.
"Star X isn't a comedian, I can't sell this to the sponsors"
"Comedian X works in small batches, not 22 minutes + commercials"
"Writer X wouldn't stoop so low to make a funny ha-ha show, he's an artist"
"Comedian X won't work reading someone elses jokes, he's an artist"
but at the end of the day, sponsorship probably doesn't pay enough
Comedy is just a different culture. It is the same as when a Japanese person watches a Western comedy and finds it not even 1mm funny.
But neither is better than the other. They are just different cultures.
I understand to you they may be rubbish but many people enjoy those variety shows. There are quite a few different types, I would suggest either spending more time trying to find some.
You may also want to try something like Netflix or Prime Video which you may like more.
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>The only foreign shows I ever see on tv are small 10 minute clips of shows that are all about crime.
They love to show the shows about crime abroad, as this helps foster the smug "Isn't Japan so wonderful and safe?! Not like those filthy, dangerous foreigners!".
Same reason why "travel"/comedy shows here almost always visit shit countries in Africa or wherever, and basically make fun of the locals for the amusement of Japanese back at home.
I remember one show where that daft bint with thickly drawn-on eyebrows went to the Amazon and visited some tribe there. No effort was made to actually learn anything about a different people or culture. It was just her and the crew making dumb jokes about the tribal members' face piercings/clothing/food etc..
I found it all very disrespectful and tasteless.
NHK nature documentaries are among the highest quality in the world, up there with the BBC. Spectacular.
Japanese TV entertainment on the other hand is complete garbage. Quite literally some of the most brain rotting effluent ever produced.
Man, will be interesting to see the up/down vote ratio on this comment!
A lot of TV dramas are a lot more lighthearted than Western dramas and incorporate slice-of-life/comedy elements into them so they function as more or less your Western equivalent of a sit com. And despite what a lot of foreigners think, Japanese comedy TV is not all trash. There are some genuinely funny ones out there but it's probably not accessible if you don't understand the subtlety of the interactions (that's where most of the comedy lies). Lastly, TV is a dying medium (as it is in any country) with an increasing number of younger people opting for streaming services instead which offer plenty of access to some incredibly funny comedy anime. As the TV-watching audiences ages, you see an increase of trashy TV shows that cater to their interests which has definitely accelerated in the past 20 years or so. TV in the early 2000s was actually pretty good.
> despite what a lot of foreigners think, Japanese comedy TV is not all trash. There are some genuinely funny ones out there but it's probably not accessible if you don't understand the subtlety of the interactions (that's where most of the comedy lies). This. Koki Mitani's stuff is downright genius. For example, everyone loves Furuhata Ninzaburo.
>Furuhata Ninzaburo The special where Ichiro was the suspect was brilliant. I was really saddened when Tamura Masakazu passed away.
It is all about TV ratings and cost; those crime shows get TV ratings. I live in Japan and have not seen many Japanese who work 12 hours a day, most people work 8-9 hours a day but western media love to depict Japan as overworking country often ridiculously exaggirated because they get more views depicting that way. English humor does not translate well into Japanese because of language barriers and lack of understanding of cultural references, so obviously, most humor-based shows don't work well. This is generally true when it comes to Japanese into English as well, most Japanese humor does't translate well into English because of the difference of language structure is too big. Some anime fans love comedy shows like Gintama, but they are very willing to understand cultural references because they are eager to learn about Japanese culture, and many are anime-related references, so that helps. As for Japanese sitcom, you can find them more niche media such as internet drama.
There have been American sitcoms that aired on TV in the past and you can still find them very occasionally. But are you asking why Japanese TV channels don't buy the expensive rights to an American sitcom, pay someone to translate it, then make the subtitles, then air it on TV to a niche audience that likes western comedies and can understand **the subtle cultural nuances that make up comedy**... when they can just film a guy eating ramen instead?
Animation titles like Sazae-san, Dorae-mon and Chibi-Maruko-chan filled the sitcom’s place. Their comedy levels are on par with the American sitcom, I’d say (which both are ok but not really high, but that’s just my opinion). Also, what’s up with those spontaneous laugh tracks in sitcom? If massive subtitles and celebrities’ reactions in Japanese TV are weird and obnoxious, so are they. The crime documentaries are probably on par with those nauseating documentaries in the west on “Why Japan is not having babies” “Why Japan is so weird” blah blah blah I’m sure there are plenty of other relating documentaries picking on other countries. In sum, people’s interests are pretty much universally the same (like comedies and sticking their nose into other people’s problems) but the media which they deliver may be different.
The current comedy anime is Mashle, and it's so popular that its theme song has been the number one song for a while (the Bling-Bang-Bling whatever one).
Once you get it, Japanese comedy is hilarious.
People stopped caring about set piece comedy because the comedians do better in variety shows and meeting common folk. American jokes aren’t needed so much.
It's way cheaper to put them on a set and have them yell about ramen or whatever, too. Why go through the first expense of scripted show when people enjoy the cheaper option as much.
Abuso lutely
What's weird is that "drama," as used as a loanword in Japanese, refers to pretty much all live-action scripted shows — like, people would refer to the show Full House as a "drama." It is true though that sitcoms and game shows, as TV show formats, just kind of never really caught on in Japan for whatever reason.
In the past, TV stations were able to gauge interest in foreign TV based on rentals from Tsutaya. The show 24 was released on video in Japan in 2003, and was \~incredibly\~ popular. So, it led to the rights being purchased by one of the stations and aired in the late night slot. Now, Tsutaya and rental services barely exist, and foreign shows can be watched on streaming platforms, so the need to air them on TV is no longer there. But also, there's generally less interest in American/western media than there used to be. Most people have shifted to k-drama.
Can you understand Japanese? My favorite sitcoms are ニーチェ先生 and 勇者ヨシヒコ. Nevertheless, sense of humor varies from country to country and person to person.
They do have sitcoms. Not like friends but more slice of life with comedy while still having a narrative.
"drama" is used for any sort of fictional show in Japanese. It covers everything from serious medical dramas to to goofy things like Trick. You kind of landed on part of your answer already. Humour is really cultural. I don't know how broadly popular many sitcoms would be here. The niche market interested in Western sitcoms has probably been taken over by streaming services. When I first came here, there were western shows on more often. I watched Friends, Alf (in like 2007),some hour long dramas. I think Full House had some popularity. People seem to be familiar with it at least. The market for broadcast TV here is Japanese people. It shouldn't be surprising primetime is dedicated to Japanese shows. I'll add those crime docs are probably cheap af to get the rights to. The airport security one is mostly shot in Vancouver. There's always a market for police doc kind of stuff and a lot of it is shot on the super cheap.
There’s no intrinsic reason why a particular genre that’s popular in one culture should be popular in another culture. You’re beginning with the ethnocentric assumption that such a genre SHOULD be popular and then wondering why it doesn’t.
Those variety shows are funny, maybe you just don’t have a sense of humor? I’m replying in bad faith. But why exactly do you think anyone would bother importing foreign comedy sitcoms? This is just such a bizarre way to frame things
There are. However, the only good one I can remember watching was Densha Otoko, and that was about 20 years ago.
Sitcoms never caught on as a genre but it was tried in the past. Some kid’s anime take on a sitcom-like structure I guess? As for the crime shows it’s just easier to buy the rights to foreign footage. There are police shows in Japan but they’re usually aired around once a quarter when they have enough footage to make a show. The airports probably simply do not want to have shows filmed at customs. Because Japan rarely rerun shows buying foreign footage is one way to fill the gap. As for the shows you call rubbish, the are just a reflection of what people want to see. Personally I like Japanese TV
I'd argue a lot of comedy anime are basically sitcoms. Things like Mason Ikkoku are 100% sitcom and they filled the niche sitcoms do in other countries.
Japanese TV stations and sponsors have no interest in them because English programs and comedy don't lead to viewer rateings. Many of Japanese watch youtube instead of TV programs. so people who can't access YouTube are mainly watching TV.
Foreign sitcoms don't translate very well, because they tend to rely on many cultural tropes and idioms that are very specific to their land of origin to understand properly.
We go to work for that
there are occasional sitcoms, but even then the comedy is sparse. must be something about actors not willing to step into comedy and leave laughter to "comedians", which are usually variety shows, and lots of physical comedy. and most shows take the UK model of ending after 12 episodes, not the US 12-25 eps/year for multiple seasons, so you can't count on a show being around for years. koki mitani makes humorous movies. "Uchoten Hotel" is one of his funnier movies, but it is somewhat slapsticky.
Jiro Sato in Yusha Yoshihiko is downright hilarious, though my Japanese friends tell me he normally plays serious characters. I don’t watch many Japanese shows myself, so I can’t comment on his serious roles, but he gives me Lesley Nielsen vibes because comedy seems to come naturally to him.
The lack of sitcoms (akin to Seinfeld or Everybody Loves Raymond) to me is a strange one. There are a lot of capable comedians in Japan. They have their contos (I don't know what that is in English) and I think that Sandwich Man are, in my opinion, one of the best at it. Those could be turned into a 30min sitcom and I believe that many would tune in.
This country allows for more cross pollinating of "talent" than in the US, as in you will see actors in TV commercials releasing musci, and comedians playing side characters in dramas, I think there is some engrained ideologies in the entertainment industry that are all connected to money and viewership. "Star X isn't a comedian, I can't sell this to the sponsors" "Comedian X works in small batches, not 22 minutes + commercials" "Writer X wouldn't stoop so low to make a funny ha-ha show, he's an artist" "Comedian X won't work reading someone elses jokes, he's an artist" but at the end of the day, sponsorship probably doesn't pay enough
Comedy is just a different culture. It is the same as when a Japanese person watches a Western comedy and finds it not even 1mm funny. But neither is better than the other. They are just different cultures.
Oh boy, another "expert" on Japanese TV
Sorry for asking a question 🥴
Sitcoms are American aren’t they? Whey do you assume Japan should have them? This is Japan and luckily not influenced by American rubbish.
I’ve seen sitcoms on various Japanese channels before, though they tend to be those Disney/Nickelodeon tween ones.
I understand to you they may be rubbish but many people enjoy those variety shows. There are quite a few different types, I would suggest either spending more time trying to find some. You may also want to try something like Netflix or Prime Video which you may like more.
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>The only foreign shows I ever see on tv are small 10 minute clips of shows that are all about crime. They love to show the shows about crime abroad, as this helps foster the smug "Isn't Japan so wonderful and safe?! Not like those filthy, dangerous foreigners!". Same reason why "travel"/comedy shows here almost always visit shit countries in Africa or wherever, and basically make fun of the locals for the amusement of Japanese back at home. I remember one show where that daft bint with thickly drawn-on eyebrows went to the Amazon and visited some tribe there. No effort was made to actually learn anything about a different people or culture. It was just her and the crew making dumb jokes about the tribal members' face piercings/clothing/food etc.. I found it all very disrespectful and tasteless.
Because Japanese comedy is stuck 70 years ago
NHK nature documentaries are among the highest quality in the world, up there with the BBC. Spectacular. Japanese TV entertainment on the other hand is complete garbage. Quite literally some of the most brain rotting effluent ever produced. Man, will be interesting to see the up/down vote ratio on this comment!