WEBVTT - Fan Favorite: What are the Greatest Things We Just Learned about Japan? 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:04.720 I guess what, Mango, what's that? Well, I know we've 0:00:04.720 --> 0:00:06.680 been competing this week to see who could come up 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:09.559 with the best what's big in Japan? Thing? But I 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:12.400 actually have saved one for you. And did you know 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:15.920 that adult adoption is actually a pretty big thing in Japan. 0:00:16.239 --> 0:00:20.239 In fact, most adoptions in Japan are adult adoptions. So 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.360 I don't think I even know what that means exactly. Well, 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:25.960 you know, sometimes it has to do with inheritance. So 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:27.840 say you've got a business owner who wants to keep 0:00:27.880 --> 0:00:30.400 his business in the family, but I don't know, maybe 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:32.680 he thinks his kids are too lazy or not smart 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.400 enough to take it over. So the owner might select 0:00:35.400 --> 0:00:38.760 an executive from that company and just adopt them, you know, 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:42.320 like to keep the business in the family. That's pretty funny. 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:45.279 I mean I have heard of people joking about adopting 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:47.240 college grads so that you have someone to take care 0:00:47.240 --> 0:00:49.280 of you, you know, when you're older. But I mean 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.239 this is kind of surprising to me. Yeah, it is, well, 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:54.360 and and sometimes it's also just like this kick in 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:56.840 the pants that the business owners kids need to start 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.920 working harder, and it gets complicated. I guess with the 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.280 new sibling rivalry. But you know, Japan is such a 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:06.039 fascinating place and we thought we'd just take a deeper 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.480 dive into some of the customs and culture you might 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:32.360 not usually hear about. So let's dig in ya. Hey there, 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.200 podcast listeners, welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm Will Pearson 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:37.120 and as always I'm joined by my good friend man 0:01:37.160 --> 0:01:40.160 Guesh Ticketer and on the other side of the soundproof glass, 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:44.240 super focused on his latest origami creation. That's our friend 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:47.440 and producer Tristan McNeil. So, so what's he working on? 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:49.600 Mangoes trying to look? Is that? Is that a bear? 0:01:50.000 --> 0:01:52.680 I think it's actually a sailboat. Oh okay, well it's 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:55.560 a very interesting sailboat. Keep it up, Tristan, it's looking 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.440 really good. All right. Well, today's show is all about 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:01.920 Japanese society and culture. But rather than taking a deep 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:05.360 dive into the nation's long history, or maybe focusing on 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.160 a single aspect of its culture, we're going to share 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:11.000 some of the strangest, most surprising things that we recently 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:14.359 learned about Japan. So where do you think we should start, Mango, Well, 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:16.520 I mean, something I think we should address up front 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:19.520 is this incredible balancing act that Japan does between the 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:21.200 past and the present. All right, so give me an 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:24.440 example of what you're what you're talking about. Well, one 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.400 simple example is that their smartphones are actually waterproof, and 0:02:28.520 --> 0:02:31.040 this has existed in Japan for over a decade at 0:02:31.040 --> 0:02:33.280 this point. Really, I feel like that's such a recent 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:35.959 technology here in the US. Like all the commercials last year, 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:38.400 we're so focused on that. Yeah, it really is. And 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:40.480 I actually saw this guy at the beach last summer 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.280 and he kept accidentally dropping his phone in the water 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:46.000 then like wiping it off and taking a picture, And 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:48.000 I guess he was doing it to like impress the 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:49.840 women around him were like some of the other people 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.480 he was with, And at first I was kind of 0:02:52.520 --> 0:02:55.000 impressed too, But after like the third or fourth time 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.120 he dropped it, I was just rooting for the ocean 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.480 to take that phone away from No kidding, I would 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:02.400 have done the same. But back to Japan. So, the 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:05.840 first waterproof smartphone rolled out way back in two thousand five, 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:09.239 and according to a number of electronics companies, the reason 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:12.959 waterproofing was introduced so early is that manufacturers quickly learned 0:03:13.000 --> 0:03:15.560 that Japanese consumers were fond of taking phones into the 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:19.200 shower or bathtub with them. Wow. You know, you always 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:21.680 hear about screen addiction and how people are finding it 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.800 increasingly harder to disconnect from their phones, and this kind 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:27.400 of feels like the extreme of that exactly, So that 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.360 that's what I thought it was at first. Two, especially 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:31.680 when you hear like these reports of gamers and how 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:34.519 addicted they are the video games. But that's not actually 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.040 what's going on there. So waterproofing is really the industry 0:03:38.080 --> 0:03:42.760 standard in Japan of all smartphones sold in the country 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:46.839 or waterproof and it's because of Japanese tradition. So as 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.600 you might have heard that time is really important in Japan, 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:53.160 like public bathhouses called cento. They've they've been pillars of 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:56.720 Japanese society pretty much from the start, and thanks to 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.720 the country's many volcanoes, they also have like I want 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:02.360 to say, it's like twenty thou natural hot springs around 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:04.720 the country for people to soak in well, And are 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:07.840 their traditions around these or what? Yeah, I mean, partially 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.040 it's just the health benefits, right, like the warm water 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:13.480 improved circulation and it relieves stiff joints. But there's also 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.040 the social intimacy that comes from sharing a bath, you know, 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.200 with other members of your community. So today, most Japanese 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:22.280 people still take frequent hot baths as a way to unwind, 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.560 and the waterproofing was basically a compromise to bridge the 0:04:25.600 --> 0:04:29.320 old traditions with the new ones. Basically, most Japanese citizens 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.800 were on board with having this new type of technology, 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:33.640 you know, something that you carry around with you all 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:35.880 the time, as long as they could take them into 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.080 the tub with them. That's pretty interesting. And you know, 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:42.039 that's something I actually came across while doing my research, 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.680 and that's the idea of big companies having to bend 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:46.760 to old Japan, you know, and and find a way 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.880 to operate within that existing social framework. So how do 0:04:49.920 --> 0:04:52.320 you mean exactly, Well, one thing is that Japan places 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:55.560 a high value on hospitality and that extends the company, 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:58.479 is not just individuals. So you know, there's this expectation 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.719 among Japanese consumers that companies are going to go above 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:05.159 and beyond just to accommodate them and any of their needs. 0:05:05.600 --> 0:05:07.320 And there's a great example of this, and that's the 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:12.000 Japanese auto industry. So, according to the country's automobile dealers, Association. 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.159 Japanese brands account for nearly n of the cars sold 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.800 there in Japan, and all of that's thanks to the 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.040 hospitality services. Well, it actually is a big part of it. Yeah, 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:24.680 you know that the relationship between car dealers and their 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:27.640 customers is very different in Japan than it is here, 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:30.800 and as a result of that, Japanese consumers are used 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:33.800 to this high level of service that American dealerships have 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.640 yet to really invest in, either at home or even 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.320 over there. Now, The Atlantic did an article about this 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:41.839 last year, and it included this great description of a 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.040 typical car buying experience in Tokyo, and it really kind 0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:48.559 of explains how deep this custom goes. So the author 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.720 of the story rights, the last time Shujiro Urada wanted 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:54.480 to buy a car in Japan, his phone happened to ring. 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.240 It was the local Toyota dealer on the phone asked 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.080 him if he was thinking about buying a new car, 0:05:59.760 --> 0:06:02.039 and we replied in the affirmative, and the dealer and 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:04.800 a co worker showed up at Eada's doorstep an hour 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:08.159 later with two demo cars, which Urada and his wife 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:11.440 test drove around the neighborhood. Theoradas decided to buy a 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:15.039 car from this dealer. The dealer also handles their car insurance, 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:17.560 coming to their home whenever the insurance contract needs to 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:20.239 be renewed. Theorada is bringing their car to the dealer 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.200 every few weeks for a free car wash, or they 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.240 hang out and talk to the employees, who kind of 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:29.480 become their friends. Japanese customers also expect to receive services 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.760 like free maintenance from their dealers after they buy their cars. 0:06:33.400 --> 0:06:35.560 When their cars need to check up, the dealer comes 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:37.920 and picks them up, does work on them, and then 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.240 returns them. I mean, I kind of want that service, right. 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:45.040 It's insane, But is that why American car companies haven't 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.280 taken off their like because of that service element. It's 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:50.400 a bigger part of it than you think. And these 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.159 added services are just too costly and I don't know, 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:56.279 maybe complicated for American car companies to even bother with. 0:06:56.880 --> 0:06:59.600 In fact, Ford pulled out of the Japanese market altogether 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.440 back in two thousand and sixteen. That's because they've sold 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:05.160 like five thousand cars or so on average in any 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.160 given year then, and General Motors now has fewer than 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.800 thirty dealerships in all of Japan. All of this despite 0:07:11.800 --> 0:07:14.320 the fact that Japan is actually the third largest auto 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.040 market in the world, behind of course, the US and China. 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:19.520 Oh that's crazy. I had no idea is that big? 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:21.920 So is this just a U S thing? Like, is 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:23.360 it a problem for the U S? Or is this 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.880 a problem for other manufacturers around the world as well? Well? 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:29.280 Not exactly. I mean European car dealers and Mercedes and 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:33.320 BMW in particular, they've made significant strides in the Japanese 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:36.080 market over the past few years, and as you might expect, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:40.160 they pulled this off by embracing this idea of hospitality. Now. 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:44.200 BMW spent like seven hundred million dollars updating its dealer 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.040 network in Japan back in two thousand and sixteen. And 0:07:47.080 --> 0:07:49.040 this was also that customers are treated to a lot 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.920 of the same services and perks that they're used to there, 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.600 and the company's sales are actually on the rise as 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:56.600 a result of this. So I've got to say I'm 0:07:56.640 --> 0:07:59.560 pretty envious. And it's not just the service, Like I 0:07:59.640 --> 0:08:03.000 kind admire how the culture makes huge companies work for them. 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:04.880 I mean, can you imagine getting that kind of service 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:09.000 from like your cable bill provider or your cell phone provider. Yeah, 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:12.240 and it's pretty incredible. So the American cars haven't been 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:14.720 a hit with the Japanese, but there is at least 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:18.240 one American export that they have taken to, and that's baseball. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:21.840 That Japan is not one, but two professional baseball leagues, 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:24.800 as well as countless high school and university leagues across 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.680 the country. So all sumo wrestling might be the sport 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:31.280 most closely associated with Japan. Baseball is actually the most 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.160 popular by far, and it's watched and played by more 0:08:34.240 --> 0:08:37.480 people in Japan than any other sport, which is insane. 0:08:37.559 --> 0:08:40.280 So I I knew Japan love baseball, but I didn't 0:08:40.280 --> 0:08:43.280 think it had gotten that big, and I do want 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:44.760 to hear about it, but I can't pass up the 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.680 chance to share one of my all time favorite Suma facts, 0:08:47.679 --> 0:08:50.400 which I jogged down in my margins with an asterix 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.280 of my notes. I think I have a feeling I 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.360 know which one this one is. Is this the crying 0:08:55.400 --> 0:09:00.319 babies thing? Manga spoiler alert? But yeah, I've got to 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:03.400 share it. So for listeners, there's this four year old 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:06.559 ceremony in Japan where once a year, parents bring their 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.480 infants to shrines so that Suma wrestlers can try to 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.920 make them cry. It's amazing, But the ceremony is part 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:17.320 of the naki Zumo festival and it's believed to bring 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.360 good health to the babies and help ward off evil spirits. 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:23.360 I feel like maybe I block this out because I 0:09:23.640 --> 0:09:26.520 don't remember. But but how do the wrestlers try to 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:29.880 make them cry again? Well, each wrestler takes a baby 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:32.600 and ideally gets the kid to ball just by kind 0:09:32.640 --> 0:09:34.480 of bouncing them up and down in the suma ring. 0:09:34.840 --> 0:09:37.880 But everyone has their own techniques, so like a wrestler 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.600 might make funny faces or even growl at the baby 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:42.920 a little bit, and then after a few seconds, if 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:46.120 nothing's worked, a referee will actually step in wearing a 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:50.200 traditional face mask, and that's what does the trick wait 0:09:50.240 --> 0:09:52.720 a referee. So is this more of a ceremony or 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.440 a competition? Well, I mean it is an event that 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:57.880 happens all over the country, so the exact rules vary 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:01.440 from region to region. So at us One shrine in Tokyo, 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.120 they call it on baby chry Sumo that it's strictly 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:08.000 a ceremony. In some places, the babies actually do compete 0:10:08.000 --> 0:10:10.480 against each other to see who will cry first, and 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:16.400 whoever cries first is declared the loser. I still can't 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:19.560 believe Japan has this competition where babies are pitted against 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:23.640 one another by sumo arrest. I do love that there 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:26.280 is such a thing, but it's still pretty nuts. Yeah, 0:10:26.360 --> 0:10:28.000 I mean, it does make you wonder why they even 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:31.400 bother with baseball. Well, I do want to get back 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.000 to exactly how and why baseball has becomes so big 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.760 in Japan, but before we do, let's take a quick break. 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:51.840 You're listening to Part Time Genius and we're talking about 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:55.320 some surprising features of Japanese culture. So well, I know 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:58.120 you're itching to explain the origins of Japanese baseball, but 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:00.600 first I just have to tell you about a story 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:03.800 I found while researching KFC in Japan's Love Affair with It. 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:06.880 But don't worry, because it's actually a baseball story too. 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:10.560 So you know how in American baseball we have these 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.000 curses that crop up from time to time. Yeah, of course, 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:14.960 you've got the Cubs and their Billy Goat, and the 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.440 Red Sox and the Curse of the Vambino and all 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.440 sorts of curses like this. Exactly, and and apparently that 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:23.319 baseball tradition carried over to Japan because they have the 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.120 same kind of thing. And probably my favorite curse of 0:11:26.160 --> 0:11:29.199 all time involves a team called the Hanshin Tigers and 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:33.280 a statue of KFC founder Colonel Sanders. So the story 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:37.360 goes back in the Tigers won the Japan Championship Series, 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.360 which is the Japanese equivalent of the World Series, and 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:43.880 to celebrate big wins like that, Tigers fans had this 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.280 tradition where they would gather on a certain bridge in 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.240 Osaka read the names of all the winning team members 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.160 out loud, and then as each name was called, a 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:54.920 fan who resembled that player would actually jump off the 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.400 bridge into the river. I mean, this is already weirder 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.280 than the Babe Ruth curse. And I'm a little confused here. 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:03.480 So is the whole fan base made up of guys 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:06.439 who just look like these players or what? Yeah? I mean, 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.560 I think it was more of a close enough thing. 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:12.000 But the problem was in eight five, none of the 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:14.599 Japanese fans looked anything like the team's m v P. 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.120 Who's this American guy named Randy Bass? And so this 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:21.480 is where KFC comes in because the fans were desperate 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.960 to find a Randy Bass look alike, and when they 0:12:23.960 --> 0:12:27.280 couldn't find when they spied the statue of the KFC mascot, 0:12:27.480 --> 0:12:30.000 it kind of looked close enough, so they snatched the 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:33.439 colonel dressed into Randy Bass jersey and chucked it off 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:35.440 the bridge into the river as they spoke his name 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.000 out loud. Wow. And if you were trying to just 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.200 make up, like, what is the most American name you 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:45.800 could come up with just like Randy Bass just the way. So, 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.839 so I don't understand who put the curse on the team. 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.760 Is it the owner of the KFC or Randy Bass? 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:54.400 I mean, actually, by the way, I just googled and sadly, 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.280 Randy bast does not look much like the colonel at all. 0:12:57.640 --> 0:13:00.520 I mean that makes it better actually, But the curse 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.640 was from the colonel himself. So the real Colonel Sanders, 0:13:03.679 --> 0:13:06.320 I want to say, like, passed away five years earlier, 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.000 and so, according to the legend, his spirit was so 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.360 pissed about the Tigers fans desecrating his statue that he 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.520 cursed their beloved team to never win a championship again. 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:18.640 And it must have been a potent curse because thirty 0:13:18.679 --> 0:13:21.560 three years later, the Tigers have yet to win, despite 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:24.840 making it to the playoffs multiple times. Wow, So has 0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.680 anybody ever tried just putting the statue back, you know, 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.559 just to a peace Sanders. Yeah. So, once a few 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.400 years had gone by and it became clear that, you know, 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:36.240 the team had been cursed by the ghost of an 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.160 American chicken salesman, Barents tried all kinds of ways to 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:44.599 affuse them. So they apologize to the KFC manager. They 0:13:44.640 --> 0:13:47.160 they mounted a few failed dives to the bottom of 0:13:47.200 --> 0:13:49.560 the river to try to find the statue, and then 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.000 in two thousand nine, divers actually found and recovered the 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.960 Colonel statue. I mean, his glasses and left hand were missing, 0:13:57.040 --> 0:14:00.160 but otherwise he was pretty intact. So so of the 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.040 Tigers were hopeful once more, and in fact, the manager 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.720 of the team held a press conference where he told 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.160 the press, when I heard the statue had been found, 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:13.079 I felt that losing history had ended. I do think 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:15.120 if the Cubs could win a series, I have to 0:14:15.120 --> 0:14:17.800 believe the Tigers will get there sooner or later. But 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:21.160 all right, Well, if the KFC curse tells us anything, 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:24.640 it's that baseball is this unexpected source of overlap between 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.880 Japanese and American culture, of course, and so I did 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.440 some digging to find out how the Japanese first fell 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.160 in love with baseball, and the story actually goes all 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:36.000 the way back to the eighteen hundreds. I now, this 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:38.320 was during the Meiji era, and this was this period 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.520 when Japan was moving away from its isolationist roots and 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.880 trying to adopt these more western customs as a result 0:14:44.960 --> 0:14:48.560 of this. Now, one person often gets credited for introducing 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:52.360 baseball to Japan, and that's Professor Horace Wilson. And he 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.080 was an American who taught English at the university in Tokyo, 0:14:55.600 --> 0:14:57.200 and at some point, I think it was in the 0:14:57.280 --> 0:15:01.160 eighteen seventies, he started introducing his students to baseball because 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.960 he decided they needed to get more exercise in their lives. 0:15:04.240 --> 0:15:07.040 But I mean, isn't there plenty of sports opportunity to Japan, 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.160 like martial arts and winter sports, and you know we 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.120 talked about sumo. Yeah. I had thought the same thing, 0:15:13.200 --> 0:15:14.560 but there was one part of this that I had 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.240 not really thought about. So so here's the thing that 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.440 sports native to Japan or super popular in Japan or 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:24.080 that sumo or karate or several others. You know, they're 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.160 mostly one on one activities. So despite the fact that 0:15:27.280 --> 0:15:30.560 Japan is a pretty highly group based culture, for whatever 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.480 weird reason, the country actually hadn't developed that many team 0:15:33.600 --> 0:15:36.320 sports of their own. That's crazy. I actually never thought 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.720 about that. So is that one of the things that 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.240 helped baseball catch on? Definitely? And like I said, so 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.120 much of Japanese culture is built around this idea that 0:15:45.200 --> 0:15:48.200 the group is the central unit of society. So whether 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:51.480 it's your family, your neighbors, or your classmates. So a 0:15:51.480 --> 0:15:54.120 team sport like baseball was naturally appealing to many people 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:57.400 once word of it spread, and actually spread pretty quickly. 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.000 So in eighteen seventy eight, just a few years after 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.000 Horace Wilson taught his students how to play baseball, the 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:07.600 Japanese railway engineer organized the very first Japanese baseball team, 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:13.280 the Shinbashi Athletic Club Athletics. That's an amazing name. Yeah, well, 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:15.920 Japan did get better at naming things than today. There 0:16:15.960 --> 0:16:19.400 are several professional baseball teams there and it's not that 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:22.400 different from the American mascot name, so to go along 0:16:22.400 --> 0:16:25.440 with the Tigers, you've got things like the Buffaloes, the Hawks, 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:28.200 the carp as well as you know a few mythical 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.400 creatures like the dragons and the giants. But there is 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.160 something interesting about the naming there. And we mentioned earlier 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:37.200 that the team was called the Hanschen Tigers. But Hanchen 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:40.680 isn't actually a city, so I mean, is it a 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.720 village or a hamlet or something. No, So that's one 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:48.640 difference between American and Japanese baseball. Hanchen's actually a railway company. 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:51.560 So while American teams are privately owned and name for 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.720 cities that support them, Japanese teams are named for the 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:57.600 corporations that own them. So while we have the San 0:16:57.640 --> 0:17:01.520 Francisco Giants, Japan has the Miori Giants, which are named 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:05.000 for the Yamori newspaper company there. That's pretty interesting, though 0:17:05.280 --> 0:17:06.919 I do feel like I'm missing a piece of the 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:09.640 history here. So how did Japanese baseball go from being 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:12.400 a college sport to a national pastime that has these 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.040 massive companies bankrolling the teams? Well after eighteen seventy eight 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:18.560 you started to see these other teams popping up in Japan, 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.400 and for the next ten years, baseball continued to gain 0:17:21.440 --> 0:17:25.479 popularity at these Japanese universities. The game mostly stayed on 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.520 campuses until well after the turn of the century, but 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:31.720 then in the early thirties, and American ballplayer named Lefty 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:35.480 o'duel started touring these Japanese universities with a small team 0:17:35.520 --> 0:17:38.479 of American players. How baseball of a name is that 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.360 Lefty o Duel. So they were giving lessons to Japanese 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:45.840 players and holding these exhibition games every year from nineteen 0:17:45.880 --> 0:17:49.320 thirty three to nineteen thirty seven. And these exhibitions could 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:51.919 be massive, so sometimes they played the crowds of more 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.760 than sixty thousand people. Wow. And so nineteen thirty four 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.000 in particular was this very important year for Japanese baseball. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.280 And this was the year that left he brought over 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:04.639 this all star American team. That this team included players 0:18:04.680 --> 0:18:08.920 like Luke Garrig, Lefty Gomez, Earl white Hill, Babe Ruth himself, 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:12.360 And so Japan organized its own dream team to face them. 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:15.600 But Lefty's crew handily defeated them in all eighteen of 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.680 the games that they played. I mean that sounds awful, right, like, 0:18:19.680 --> 0:18:21.200 like why would you want to take up a sport 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:24.479 after that sort of humiliation. Well, so there was a 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:28.680 moment during those eighteen games when something truly special happened. 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:31.480 There was a Japanese picture named Agi Sawamora, and he 0:18:31.560 --> 0:18:35.159 managed to strike out Charlie Garringer, Babe Ruth, Luke Garrick, 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.280 and Jimmy Fox all in a row. So even though 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:42.760 the team ultimately lost, Samamember became this national hero overnight, 0:18:43.160 --> 0:18:46.240 like the country saw what was possible, and baseball became 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:49.680 more popular than ever. In fact, organizers rode that wave 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.080 of public enthusiasm and just two years later they formed 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:57.000 Japan's very first professional baseball team. And as a thank 0:18:57.000 --> 0:18:59.160 you to Lefty o'duel, the New York Giant who helped 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.240 spark the base ball fire in Japan, the newly formed 0:19:02.240 --> 0:19:05.760 team named itself the Giants in his honor. I love that. 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.680 And there's actually another unexpected big in Japan craze that 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:10.560 I want to talk about. But before we do that, 0:19:10.680 --> 0:19:25.840 let's take a quick break, all right, Mango, So it's 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.440 my turn for a quick tangent. So we both heard 0:19:28.440 --> 0:19:30.439 the phrase big in Japan, but I just wanted to 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.120 take a second to talk about where the phrase actually 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:35.720 comes from Yeah, I mean, I think it's like a 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:38.879 music industry term, right, Like I remember bands growing up 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:41.240 who didn't hit the charts in the US but would 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:43.680 always point to their number ones in Asia saying they're 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.680 big in Japan. Yeah, that's right. But there's actually an 0:19:46.680 --> 0:19:49.159 origin story here, and so the idea goes back to 0:19:49.200 --> 0:19:52.200 the fifties and the sixties when Japanese youth started getting 0:19:52.240 --> 0:19:55.679 hooked on British and American music. So, for example, there 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.080 was this rock band from the States called the Ventures, 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.000 and by the early nineteen sixty the band was, you know, 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.080 less fashionable in the US, so they tried touring Japan, 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.800 and to their surprise, the country went crazy for them, 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:11.440 quickly becoming the group's most devoted fan base. In fact, 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.480 the Ventures continued to tour Japan every year until two 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.760 thousand and fifteen, and today their albums have outsold the 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.360 Beatles two to one. There isn't that crazy. That is crazy. So, 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.240 I mean, I guess big in Japan started out as 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:28.560 kind of a compliment. Well I don't know about a compliment, 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:30.240 but it definitely started out the way you and I 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.560 have been using And it's just to acknowledge the fact, 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.399 like this band is big in Japan. But you know, 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:37.600 by the seventies and eighties, the phrase was just being 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:40.520 used more mockingly, and it kind of came to represent 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:44.720 the snobbish perception that Japanese consumers were maybe attracted lesser 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:47.480 artists or something like that. But there's actually even a 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:49.280 joke at the end of this is spinal tap. I 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:51.480