What do you think of the quality of Japanese TV programs this time of year? Seen anything you like?

Terrible, self-congratulatory. And no.

The quality this time of year is, frankly, the same as that at anytime of the year. See post above.

Same as the above posts + low budget this year.

I think some of them are awesome, and some of them are claptrap. Like the rest of the year really.

Anyway it's a nice change-up from the usual. Back to normal tomorrow I suppose.

I just saw that pro-golfer Rika something or other talking with her dad about her upcoming marriage to lounge lizard Junichi Ishida. Rika's dad hates his guts, and so do I!

I wanna punch you in the face Junichi!

Is this a serious question ???

I think they have taken an interesting turn. Their approach to history subjects and those of world issues, seen from a very Japanese eye, are being very nicely questioned, researched, almost conflictual, thus creating less communication, but then being in the presence of media, the opposite opinions struggle at being understood to each other. Very stimulating, except the politicans are more cautious :D

Though mind before the new year there was some really good words thrown around, very insightful-by the politicans thats is

99.9% crap year round! We hadnt watched tv for almost 4yrs(heaven!) but the with forced me to get an antenna for when the MILaw shows up, thankfully after 4yrs of peaceful bliss even the mrs has trouble watching the crap that is J-tv, other than a bit of news & some odd bits & the usual DVDs that idiot box is blissfully OFF!!!

I like the drama "Saka no ue no kumo" - the Japanese perspective on the wars with China and Russia, how Japanese armies were formed in the Meiji era and what drove Japan form its international politics.

Chibi Maruko chan and Shin-chan still crack me up.

All I'll say is that Japanese TV talento-driven (that the mrs likes) and the people who inhabit it area world unto themselves. The endless 'discussion' and 'interview' programs (usually involving lots of standing up, pointing and yelling in mock outrage and/or excitement) where they themselves are ultimately the focus of interest. Points in case - the 'impersonation' programs/segments where talentos dress up and often perform as other talentos (who are often in the audience themselves, or who magically appear appear after the impersonation performance has begun to the SHOCK and AMAZEMENT of all concerned). Another case in point - this morning I awake to my wife watching a show where the talentos are being interviewed at Narita and/or in Hawaii on their year-end mini-breaks. Like I said, this element of Japanese TV - this talento world - bugs the hell out of me. And suggestions to turn it off...well, I can forget about that happening as this is the height of entertainment to the mrs.

The anime Erin on at the moment is fantastic. I wont miss tonight's drama Ryomaden

Under normal circumstances, I don't watch J TV, so, it's a good time for me to catch up with the programmes at this time of the year, to find out what had happened during the last year and what's the latest J stuff...:)

I enjoyed sasuke. The people that get to the final stage are amazing. Everything else was garbage.

I think the comedy shows are pretty funny specially if you are drinking something... but "music" related TV shows here are plain horrible. Japanese pop/rock music needs some serious help. I really hate those. Arashi? Exile? This really sucks

It's basically rubbish. The same tired old faces doing the same tired old things. There are much more interesting things to do over the holidays than sit in front of the box, so I can't say the lack of quality really bothers me.

I enjoyed My Fair Lady on BS last night.

Most of it is mind-numbing but if your mind is already numb from a hangover then I suppose it's alright!

I do not like the noice on tv - everybody shouting, laughing even without reason, everybody talking simultaneously not listening to what other people say. The cooking/restaurant inspecting shows are terrible too. However if tv stations cut the costs, it means we will have 24 hours food shows and foodadvertising - cryi cry

ps some of the dramas are interestings but what puts me off is the bad acting. For example the drama where a Japanese woman marries a Foreigner (I think its title is My honey is a foreigner or something like this) the foreign actor and the Japanese actors were so terrible that I was not able to see more than 4 min of the drama.

No. Just no. I do not watch much at all, but every time I see something... whether waiting somewhere or being near someone watching, I just shake my head and thank God above that TV is not mandatory.

Even the food shows are uninteresting.

I rent things or turn to my library. Life is too short. Considering the implications, maybe Japan's long life spans explain SMAP.

20 years in Japan without TV; so I really can't comment.

this time of year? all year long it is garbage, crap, horrible, childish, i could go on. there is nothing on japanese tv that i watch. thank goodness for satellite and cable.

Mindless, moronic, nauseating, irritating, infantile,

It's all a fallacy and exudes stupidity to no end.

I would rather stick a spike in my ear than sit through j tv watching talentless idiots. If the mrs puts it on then I go for a bath with a good book.

20 years in Japan without TV; so I really can't comment.

This is the most intelligent decision I have ever seen someone living in Japan make.

If you keep paddling the channels hard enough you'll find the occasional gem.

The Mrs lies in the kotatsu sucking up the drivel talk shows and song fests hour after hour. Yuck... buggerlugs would have to have baths all day long here.

Sasuke only and even that is getting a bit tired, too many "talent" dorks with zero athletic ability making asses of themselves - trying to bump ratings no doubt. Other than that, I can safely assume it was par for the course. TV shows here are what someone must have been watching when he coined the term "omnidirectional sludge pump"

I heard Susan Boyle was on the Kohaku....oh boy....

what mostly everybody said

I don't mind the talento shows in small doses and it's no more moronic than most of the crap you get on British telly. Some shows like 'Food Prejudice' are pretty good. On the whole though TV is mostly rubbish wherever you are - that's why god invented DVD box sets; anything worth watching you can buy or download.

It's dull and painful to the ear when those tarentos scream. So me and my husband made a deal no J-tv shows until 8:00 pm.

i enjoyed new year programs a lot. Expecially SASUKE!

but i hate the music awards. Winners are told before hand, so there wasn't any excitement.

It's dull and painful to the ear when those tarentos scream. So me and my husband made a deal no J-tv shows until 8:00 pm.

It's gotten to the point where I can't stand being in the room when my wife watches these shows. Things that are really irritating - No-tarento shows with the yelling and screaming; Food shows where everything is “sugoi ne!!! oishii!!!" (or just the number of food shows in general); Sing song voices used by narrators for J TV shows and commercials - why do they speak like that?

Then again, I often wonder about the decibel level in everyday Japanese life. Everywhere you go there is some noise blaring but it is especially bad in supermarkets.

perspective: Exactly. Noise is natural in Japan, and especially on TV. kjkjkj:Yes, other countries have crap TV - and the TV would be on far less if I was back in my home country. But many homes in Japan believe that the TV must be on at all times. Such is my situation.

All I can add is "thank God for cable". At least the Golf Channel had Tiger Week going this past week, and there were some decent movies and re-plays of NFL games. I make it a general rule to never watch any channel below like #12, except the NHK "news".

this time of year? all year long it is garbage, crap, horrible, childish, i could go on. there is nothing on japanese tv that i watch

I'm with you. Every show is either about cooking or it's about some celebrity that does something while poeple in TV land watch him live his life. Boring!

I cant believe how everyone has the time to comment/complain on what they have obviously or maybe not so obvious, watched and wasted more time on aside from the commenting here. Japanese tv is the best. If you cant realize that you havent listened properly, or are able to have cable from the start, so who watched Ryomaden last night?

I went cable, to avoid J-channels. But even cable is starting to SUCK. It all reverts, eventually.

The stupidity of the Japanese TV programs is relieving at a time like this, I guess. I watched a couple of tarento programs and last night Die hard 4 was on. Plain fun.

Its the same as the other rubbish thats served up throughout the year - i.e no difference.

It doesn't help that most talent shows are a thinly veiled attempt to sell products. The other day there was a whole program where people were talking about the different ways to eat and prepare KFC. Of course, there were KFC commercials during the breaks. I don't see how these programs are much different than the shopping channel. I also can't understand how people keep watching them. Back home people would turn the channel, ratings would plummit, sponsers would withdraw and the show would be cancelled. Why is that not happening here? I don't get it.

Extremely boring.

Interesting. "Quality" and "Japanese TV" in the same sentence, never thought I'd see that. With the exception of the odd documentary program or news feature, mostly produced by the NHK, Japanese TV is uniformly loud, insipid, vile, inane and just plain unwatchable.

We have cable TV (movie channels), but basically, although my wife (Japanese) enjoys some of the Japanese programming, she shares my opinion. So, we tend to keep the TV OFF most of the time.

Uninterrupted silence is pure gold in this country. Sadly, I suspect only foreigners understand this.

the odd documentary program or news feature, mostly produced by the NHK

Even most of the supposedly NHK documentaries are actually licensed from the BBC, History Channel or whatever, and then dubbed over in Japanese.

Considering how much money NHK receives from the licence fee, one has to wonder where it's all spent. Britain has half the population of Japan but the BBC owns NHK on every single level: nature, history, politics, news, web, dramas, iPlayer...hell, everything.

All the NHK old boys should stop wasting our money on no-pan shabi-shabu.

Irritating. Annoying. Don't like cruelty shows. Saw one on New Years Day: parents give their young child (4 - 6 years old) a difficult task. One hated fish. His parents made him carry raw, whole fish. He was so afraid when the box strap broke and they fell out - and he had to pick them up. Another slightly built little boy had to go and buy 3kg of stuff. Painful to watch. My (Japanese) relatives liked it, but then my wife was born in a house where the television's always on.

I like running, so how about watching the Hakone ekiden (2 Jan)? So much traffic on the course. So many cops in cars, on bikes. Are the runners criminals on parole? Couldn't see two runners at the same time. Often couldn't see one - except when they fell at the line when I noticed the lack of even rudimentary medical assistance. Must be character building J-style. Can't figure it out.

Talent shows with a dearth of talented performers: a couple or three gems on Kohaku, but the rest... they had to import a non-Japanese (Ms Boyle) to give the show some life.

Did anybody see any in-depth investigations into topics in the news? Any documentaries?

All in all, I'm pleased my Japanese is bad enough not to be able to understand what's on the box.

All in all, I'm pleased my Japanese is bad enough not to be able to understand what's on the box.

I second this motion.

Seems like there are quite a few of us in the same boat.... with J-wives who watch this crap. I can get no sensible answer from my wife why she needs to watch so much of this stuff. Anyone got a clue what the attraction is?

J-guys seem to like it too. I don't get it either. It's 90% nonsense all year round and it doesn't matter what time you tune in...you basically get the same thing. Loud talking, laughing, lots of 'oishii'... and nothing with any substance that you can really sink your teeth into. Purely for zoning out.

people,

like booze & cigarettes, j-tv is opium for the masses, it pacifies them like a soother for a baby, keeps them from thinking too deeply about whats really going on around them, works very very well!

Sasuke!!!!

"Seems like there are quite a few of us in the same boat.... with J-wives who watch this crap."

I cannot tell you how proud this makes me of my wife, who irritates the heck out of me, but who is ultimately one of the more reasonable people in the whole world. Avoid people who LIKE Japanese tv as you would moldy bread. Eschew them.

I knew a young woman once who "watched" 12 hours a day as she did... well... everything but work. Filling your head with TV leaves little room for anything else.

People need to get out more, even if it is to do nothing but watch other people.

At least Beat Takeshi has stopped hitting people with his squeeky plastic hammer... I was forced to watch the Kohaku New Year's Eve "singing" contest. The singers here are so bad even the "singing contest" is LIP SYNCED!

When I asked my Japanese family members how singers can get away with this, they looked at me like I was crazy and said "Because this is a dancing singing band, dummy."

Silly me...

"20 years in Japan without TV; so I really can't comment.

This is the most intelligent decision I have ever seen someone living in Japan make."

I will accept the compliment even though it was not aimed at me. But you might not realize how right you are. Submitted for your approval: Dubya and I have each saved about

96 man in NHK fees That is more than 10,000 US dollars AFTER taxes, my friend.

48-132 man in cable or satellite fees, which is 5,000 to 15,000 US dollars AFTER taxes, sir

and if you assume that we would have spent 5 hours a day watching TV and that we used that time instead to work flipping burgers at McDs (800 yen per hour), then we are ahead of TV watchers by about 2,900 man yen, or about 320,000 US dollars BEFORE taxes. 10 hours a day? Double that.

The icing on the cake is that you cut your advertisement intake at least in half, so you do not buy carp with your hard earned money.

So, what do you think everyone? Would you rather own a house or a TV? After 40 years of TV, of course you will worry about retirement. After 40 years WITHOUT TV? No problem. Give up smoking too and you are a millionaire.

SMAP's domino show on Fuji TV from 7pm looks like it could be alright, especially the domino part, but I accept zero responsibility. It goes for four hours though, so I'm sure everyone can find something to hate and complain about.

Oh my god Tsuyoshi just fluffed it and sent them crashing.

Ha ha just kidding. They put a plastic guard in some places to minimize the damage.

What antics.

Japanese TV is like American TV 50 years ago. Particularly the lack of selection, the reliance on big names over a good product (hey, Kimutaku is on it, so people will watch it and it doesn't have to be good!), and the product placement and over-advertising that is SHOVED IN YOUR FACE even outside the commercial breaks. Also, the inanity. (Did I mention the inanity? The inanity, the inanity, the inanity.) The fact that someone who is above the age of 5 finds it amusing is worrying.

Thank god I wasn't alive 50 years ago and that I don't own a TV now.

Thank god I wasn't alive 50 years ago and that I don't own a TV now.

Are both of these lies? You sure have a chip on your shoulder, gramps.

Use Slingbox. And bittorrent is the new VCR/DVR.

Give up smoking too and you are a millionaire.

You might as well throw drinking in as well; it's amazing how much my work colleagues blow on poisoning their bodies in a bid to throw up all the 'oishii' food they just ate.

But take away the pacifiers in Japan and what fills the aching chasm? Another ill-informed international military escapade? Mass suicide? Warring prefectures? Closure of all international borders?

History has taught us that the Japanese need their "oishii" shows and bright, blinking lights. Let them have their TV and Pachinko!

Chewing gum for the brain...

Chewing gum for the brain? I thought watching Japanese TV comedians all day is more like frontal lobotomy!

Agree with fishy. Sasuke is good for the first few hours. Physical comedy at its best. Everything else on regular TV blows chunks.

Sasuke has my vote. J-cops was an eye opener. don't know what happened to that one.

Gave up TV here 6 years ago. Considering getting one for rented/downloaded movies, though. A 24" computer screen is relatively small watched from the sofa.

Seems to be a lot of negativity. I wonder how many of these people have native Japanese ability? I do, and I got it from watching TV. I usually only watch the news, but I did enjoy the enka singers on the kohaku.

I have been in Japan 18 years and am a professional translator so my Japanese will probably suffice. And Japanese TV is horrible. Nice try bicultural. The enka was lip-synced by the way.

I have been in Japan 18 years and am a professional translator so my Japanese will probably suffice. And Japanese TV is horrible.

It appears the authority has spoken, people. Case closed.

Seems to be a lot of negativity. I wonder how many of these people have native Japanese ability? I do, and I got it from watching TV. I usually only watch the news, but I did enjoy the enka singers on the kohaku.

You fit right into Japan mate; instead of pulling the race card, you pull the language one. Enjoy your life here.

very bad. no

Many of BS digital programs are not so bad. "2000 years between Japan and the Korean peninsula" as part of Project Japan series on NHK is superb as a historical TV program. Also I'm looking forward to a drama "Soukyu no Subaru" featuring the Empress Dowager Xi-taihou.

As for a music program, I enjoyed "Promise for Christmas (Kurisumasu no Yakusoku) " projected/directed by Oda Kazumasa which has become what I cannot miss at this time. The medley of songs titled 22'50" sung by each singer in turn and unison was quite moving. The voices of Aqua Timez and Ikimonogatari and Fumiya and Shimizu Shota, how wonderful natural voices they all have.

the fact you lack japanese knowledge does not make japanese tv bad. I don't speak english, but I won't label american tv as "trash" and publish my foolish conceptions in a japanese language news site.

Kitano Kunikara

Most of the programs are terrible, even painful at times. You tend to see the same tarento on different channels. The documentaries are pretty good, though. Fortunately, I was able to get a Slingbox which allows me to watch stateside tv.

Like all things in life, a lot Japanese TV is horrible, some Japanese TV is bad, some Japanese TV is meh, some Japanese TV is alright, and a little bit of Japanese TV is very good. It seems though that absolutism is flavour of the thread, so perhaps I should post some imbecilic statement that tries to include as many stereotypes as possible.

I saw a special the other night on a young Japanese guy from Hokkaido who set out to reach the summit of some of the most challenging mountains on each continent. It was really fascinating until my wife walked in and switched channels to some conventional variety show. Sigh. Some of the educational shows for kids on NHK that my daughter watches are pretty good, and some are not. I used to love 'Downtown' but their end-of-year special (getting beaten if you laughed) went on waaaayyyy too long. Just once, I'd love to see someone on a cooking show take a bite into a culinary dish and exclaim "Mazui!" or even "Futsu."

"the fact you lack japanese knowledge does not make japanese tv bad. I don't speak english, but I won't label american tv as "trash" and publish my foolish conceptions in a japanese language news site."

Thunderbird: Your argument is of course correct, but please do not automatically assume that foreigners do not understand Japanese. Many of us do, and very well at that. And we still think most (not all, mind you) TV here is bad.

The same thing can be said with some movies from Hollywood, but - you know - "fool-proofing" is what is making those TV programs so lame. There used to be a lot better shows in Japan in 70's and 80's.

ahocchau: I have been in Japan 18 years and am a professional translator so my Japanese will probably suffice. And Japanese TV is horrible.

I'm guessing you haven't been watching other countries offer much.

I think Japanese TV is the best.

Most of the television is done in the way of 1950s American TV. The same talents cycling on and out of poularity, crossing over into movies and music. The lack of exportability of Japanese TV is an indication of its quality. Many parts of the world are mad for Korean dramas, but comparatively few J-doramazu are popular outside these islands. The TV here is crap. Crap production value. I watched a group of 6 tarento sing karaoke for 2 hours on new years day - WTF is that??? It probably cost 20 bucks to make that. It reminds me of how they used to ad-lib stuff on Muchmusic, 20 years ago. So far ahead, yet so far behind...

I'm guessing you haven't been watching other countries offer much. I think Japanese TV is the best.

I used to watch Skyperfect channels, I see your point. I did enjoy the news channels, discovery channel, history channel, National Geographic channel, and Cinefil Imagica, but the rest of them were a load of crap.

Ah, I take that back, Super Channel used to show TNG...