Canadian YouTuber explains why she quit working on Japanese TV

Japanese TV, like so many other Japanese institutions, is dying because it is dominated by an out-of-touch clique of old-timers at the top who have protected themselves by sheltering their whole industry from outside competition. They're in for a rude awakening.

I'm not defending the TV studios, but the excuse "nobody mention these TV interviews are not payed" is just bad business. I thought it was common sense in business that you don't agree to anything without knowing all the details!

But to be fair, I once interviewed with a Japanese big company that had this "We're the cream of the top of the industry, you're lucky if we're willing to pay you a salary of 2.4 million a year, many would work for less just to get an entry in their resume, accept or get the hell out, we don't need you" Aura.

I can relate. I've had Japanese clients, not in TV, who have expected me to do work duties for free on a regular basis, like hang around their offices during the business week to answer any questions they might have on projects unrelated to me and for no compensation.

Most did not stay clients for long. I assume their Japanese contractors don't stand up for themselves, or something.

katsu78 is exactly right. The lengths they go to protect themselves from outside competition is abhorrent and also counter-productive to much needed progress here. Once again, Japan shows the 'small man' side that is so fiercely kept out of sight.

The Japanese business model is to exploit all that is possible, use underhanded tactics if necessary - just don't get caught. Foreigners and Japanese alike know to expect no quarter in this country, decency is usually a facade hiding something else more sinister - especially in the business world. This article highlights the some of the general attitudes here in Japan.

Michaela did well to walk away from this, and I hope she gains more respect from her fans for speaking out about the illusion that Japan is some magical place of unicorns and (genuinely) happy people. Most people who this underbelly don't have the luxury of speaking out about it due to fear of reproach. Spitefulness being another common Japanese quality...

“The whole time we were doing this shoot he was just like can you just be more excited… smile more, be more energetic,”

Please be more gaijin, be more crazy and especially SHOUT more like atsugiri Jason and our audience will fall from their chair laughing. That's all the Japanese TV wants foreigners to do, act weird and funny. ugh

No pay? Sounds like slavery. But at least Japanese are trained for it from the beginning so it is widely accepted.

I can't imagine talent agencies book tv appearances and don't receive payment themselves? Why in the world wasn't she being paid?

The whole time we were doing this shoot he was just like can you just be more excited… smile more, be more energetic,”

Same thing with the Eikaiwa and ALT industry.

Please be more gaijin, be more crazy and especially SHOUT more like atsugiri Jason and our audience will fall from their chair laughing. That's all the Japanese TV wants foreigners to do, act weird and funny. ugh

If you're white yes. If you're black they want you to act like an ape like Bobby was made to do. If we did that to them in our countries, we would be accused of racism. Which is exactly what was going on here.

She has it wrong, the problem is the talent agencies took all her money not the TV show. Unless you are in the audience you are going to get paid something, the talent agency in this case took all of the money... she was most likely sold on "we get the money, you get famous" ... and she ate it.... This is VERY common in Japan.

The other issue, if you are trying to get subs from going on TV that isn't going to work. TV is a different market, it would be like saying I'm going to sell fruit in front of walmart and hope people come to my fruit store... people watch TV because it's there, not to learn about the people on it (most of the time).

Due to Japan's somewhat unique position in the world for the last 50 years, it has mainly done things internally with not much outside/international imput or output. Thus I think their extremely apprentice / master relationships to everything work related, also have not changed much with the times. Even when I see a Convinience Store worker being trained on the job it's so obvious from across the store who is the apprentice. In Japan they want you to not only be a beginner, but to adopt a humble almost child like stance when you begin a line of work. Anyone who enters any work of any kind, if they come across as not humbling themselves to the level of a total beginner who's eager to learn will be labeled as a troublemaker. The only way out of it is to be introduced as an expert by another Sempai, in which case you will not have to mutter fake astonishment at the maturity and talent of whomever expert was able to make a schedule for your day at work.

Years ago after the birth of my 2nd child, a local station wanted to do a spot on international marriages with kids.

I was asked and a full day and another half was spent following us around in the house, going to the park, shops etc. Also many interview style questions about me, us, Japan etc. Lovely, friendly crew - nice guys.

The hours of film was edited into a 10min piece on a popular local wide show. Surprise, Surprise!

Not one of my try-hard-to-speak-Japanese bits was shown. Everything was dubbed over in comical Japanese. A Japanese friend who watched the program said they made me sound like a "country hick", probably because they thought my antipodean accent sounded like someone from the Ozarks. I recall a big "Ehhhhhhh!" in the show was the focus on me cooking (peeling potatoes & carrots actually) and washing / drying dishes, took over 2mins of the 10mins. And the lady "talents" were squealing and "いいな-ing"

I wasn't upset over the prog.at all, but understood how false tv is first hand. Essentially little of value was reported and it was just a "fun" piece - which is what they wanted from the start. Naive me thought it was a bbc style doco - ha, ha. I met the "director" again when he called on us to give us a video of the event. He was really nice - but a bit embarrassed. I'm sure his senior producer boss had different ideas to his.

Of course all of this is probably consistent the world over, just the emphasis here is different - more focussed on titilating with the banal.

As Katsu said - easy to see why tv is dying.

Not one of my try-hard-to-speak-Japanese bits was shown. Everything was dubbed over in comical Japanese. A Japanese friend who watched the program said they made me sound like a "country hick", probably because they thought my antipodean accent sounded like someone from the Ozarks. I recall a big "Ehhhhhhh!" in the show was the focus on me cooking (peeling potatoes & carrots actually) and washing / drying dishes, took over 2mins of the 10mins.

It's incredible really. You've given them this wonderful opportunity, and instead they turn around and try to force you back into the box they've painted for themselves by editing and doctoring to fit their narrative.

Disgusting.

Bit of a connendrum here imo as youtube competes with tv and it's in no one's interest (certainly not tv) to promote youtube channels and risk losing even more viewers.

French prankster/youtuber Remi Gaillard faced the same problems 10-15 years ago (on a much bigger scale obviously) and complained french tv didn't pay much, if anything, yet had no problem stealing his ideas for their new shows. Plagiarism, exploiting 'talent' etc and tv go way back am afraid, this young canadian youtuber isn't alone.

Great story browny, had a good chuckle.

She's more naive than the people watching her YouTube channel. No one held a daikon to her head to do these, and someone was getting paid for every appearance on TV.

What a completely self-absorbed social media princess...

I have met a few producers here. They are creative in the same way beige walls are creative. One guy was telling me about a new band idea he had, which sounded like every other Jpop band idea I have ever seen while here. It was creative only in the extent that it had a new name. I would not let that guy touch my creative work as it would be instantly infected with mediocrity and mainstream beige-ness.

What is worst is that he was constantly asks why I wasn't more "genki" or more energetic. "Are you sure you are American? You seem more quiet and maybe European." What? I don't know where they get this idea that all foreigners behave as if they are on four types of illegal stimulants and laughing gas all at once. But even when trying to place voice over for corporates I often hear that the person didn't sound genki enough.

As long as Japanese producers expect foreigners to behave like hysterical morons on speed, then they will chase away all the truly talented personalities and be left with only the sheepish, hard up people who are willing to compromise who they are to fit some idiotic stereotype some producer who has never left Tokyo thinks is representative of the western person.

She's more naive than the people watching her YouTube channel. No one held a daikon to her head to do these, and someone was getting paid for every appearance on TV.

And

Wow, somebody's full of herself. She's a great poster child for 2016.

Proves my point that everything, anything, and everyone will always be derided on JT.

How dare this girl be unhappy about not getting paid for work. Talk about full of herself. Who expects to get paid for working on 2016?

Ahhh, poor thing! It's awful that the mean tv people only wanted to pay her what she was worth!

I have a feeling the King of the Weab, Victor, is going to make a video ranting about her....

I'm an American.... and I've never seen any TV programming in the USA where a foreigner, new to the USA, was filmed as a segment for a TV show. I've seen some movies, mainly comedies, like Coming to America, which were fun to watch, but nothing else. My point being.... why are the Japanese so curious as to how foreigners cope when living in Japan? And it is constant. You can barely go a week or two without some mockumentary on a foreigner living in Japan or a Japanese living in a foreign country. Why? To me, programs like this only help to solidify the foolish idea that the Japanese are vastly different than the rest of the world. I'm sorry to inform them but... they're not... yes, a different culture but all cultures are slightly different and that makes them the same.

When it comes to "exotic" non-Japanese celebrities and aspiring TV talent in particular, the Japanese TV industry is run with a hostess club mentality. The same applies to AKB47-type girl groups; and yes, often even to English conversation teachers to a large degree.

Micaela’s example of being told to act like she was awed by the convenience store bentos was one good example — titillating the audience by catering to their preconceived notions about what foreigners ought to find impressive about Japanese culture. Its a continually repeated worn out script, but it never seems to get old, particularly among Japan's older generation.

Also, I always have to laugh at how they parade famous foreign celebrities visiting Japan out in carbon copy press conferences, and at the voices used in dubbed foreign movies. The Japanese voices of the female characters are invariably high-pitched and excessively "girly" while those of the male characters are at the opposite extreme, gruff and excessively "manly." Very few are portrayed with what I would consider to be a normal sounding Japanese voice, and most often the voices they use don't match the character.

Well, she qualified it at the end with the "maybe it's just not for me', so I'd say it's pretty objective. More than anything she's saying is just be aware of what you're getting into, and don't be afraid to get out.

I am sure many Japanese and Chinese watch long duck dong on sixteen candles and wonder "why do they think all Asians wear glasses and act like morons?"

I had this Japanese student who wrote an essay about how foreigners should behave in Japan. She supposedly won an award for it. And I was really interested in reading it until she was telling me, a teacher, to be more energetic and clown-like at the Open Campus for my school. Of course I am always friendly and full of smiles for new prospective students. I'm actually that way with all of my students. But there's a borderline between being naturally excited and crazy excited. And unfortunately many Japanese have a stereotyped idea of this "crazy" foreigner image.

I really understand what Micaela says about people trying to “give me a personality that is not mine”. Good on you, Micaela.

titillating the audience by catering to their preconceived notions about what foreigners ought to find impressive about Japanese culture. Its a continually repeated worn out script, but it never seems to get old, particularly among Japan's older generation.

And it is not just minpo channels. NHK World is full of that stuff all day long. Gradually it makes both foreigners and Japanese culture itself into cliche and all ripe for spoof or satire. The big difference is that NHK World has pretensions that its audience is foreign. Otherwise I agree with you, Sensato and you, jpn_guy.

"... unfortunately many Japanese have a stereotyped idea of this "crazy" foreigner image."

Very true. That's why I killed my neighbours' cat and wore it as a hat to a wedding.

Maxjapank: "But there's a borderline between being naturally excited and crazy excited. And unfortunately many Japanese have a stereotyped idea of this "crazy" foreigner image."

That's why Atsugiri Jason, or whatever his name is, was so successful.

This young lady was VERY SMART to ditch j-tv, be very thankful you didn't get sucked into that world, as it clearly sucks!

Anyone know how much programs here pay for an appearance? Years ago, I recall chatting with a model for life drawing class during break and she mentioned being on Oprah. The show paid for her flight and hotel room, maybe a meal, but no compensation for her appearance. She was a guest on the show about women who hook up with their children's friend and I guess she was skewered as she got a bit teary-eyed as she recalled her time on the show. She didn't hate on Oprah, though, as Oprah was doing what she had to do. By the way, I do realize members of SAG are paid scale vs the regular Joe off the street. Similar operation here?

That's why Atsugiri Jason, or whatever his name is, was so successful.

@smithinjapan

Good example. Obviously Micaela's producers were looking for a much more overblown performance that fits their image of what all foreigners are supposed to act like.

The producers obviously seek something more along the lines of Atsugiri Jason, who plays the over-the-top gesticulating foreigner stereotype to great fanfare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u44nj0ckVRc

OK. I guess this is a rare thing. I have been on J-TV about four or five times. Did some modelling and other spots too. I finally said "enough is enough" when Waratte II tomou wanted me to drop my whole life and do several shows for them.

The whole thing is dumb. People just seem to expect that everyone is so star struck and excited to be in front of a camera that they will do anything. A lot of eikaiwa teachers have that personality, though, so I guess it is a pretty fair bet for the producers to make that assumption. The money is bad. The people are bad. The expectations are idiotic. All the incentives are wrong. It is a complete waste of time. Forget about owning anything.

Now I can really see a youtuber going up against that culture and hitting a wall. If you really stop to think about it, Japanese TV is everything that youtube isn't, which is actually a horrible indictment of Japanese TV. People can produce better stuff for youtube with zero budget and zero staff than FujiTV can do with millions. And let's be clear that the TV people were desperate when they got this Canadian unknown to work with. They are fading fast.

this would end a lot faster if foreigners had a zero tolerance for all the stereotypes and were unwilling to sell out themselves no matter the situation and just stand up and walk out.

After those who start seeing what's going on and move on, it simply never gets any better because there's always a newbie ready to do anything they want

This is a situation we're perpetuating

Judging by some insider's comments here, it seems that J-TV is not much different to the porn industry...

Though I have no connection with the entertainment industry in Japan, none of this surprises me--katsu78 and thepersoniamnow have summed up why and it's found in all industries across Japan.

But chopping up interviews and personalities to fit a scripted narrative happens anywhere. I got interviewed by a local paper here in the U.S., and was shocked to read the final article made me sound like a totally different person. You have to make everything more exciting or outrageous in order to gain readers/viewers--Japanese TV is no different, except that people labelled "foreigners" have to display enough "hijoushiki" (lack of Japanese "common sense") to provide the comic relief from routine Japanese middle-class lives.

Japanese husband agrees this media trend seems to show Japan won't be accepting foreigners as legitimate members of society anytime soon.

These youtube bloggers are sure full of themselves. Some of them think they are A list Hollywood celebrities fer crying out loud.

How about getting a real job instead of complaining about making videos.

Judging by some insider's comments here, it seems that J-TV is not much different to the porn industry...

So, how's the porn industry these days, AgentX?

I used to do occasional work as an extra on TV, films etc. While it was somewhat novel and interesting at the start, I quickly became aware of how terrible the industry is here. Sometimes jobs were easy. You'd be in and out in an hour or so. Sometimes though they would be seemingly endless. On one NHK drama we spent about 16 hours on set. We had to fight with NHK management to get extra pay and a bento. I did several episodes of Aibou as an extra. We were treated fine, but the Japanese extras were all unpaid and were told to walk to the nearest station while we were bussed to and from. Eventually though the deteriorating conditions and low quality of the finished productions allowed me to decide that this was not worth one more minute of my time. I did several days shooting on a drama called "Japanese Americans". The director was a complete a-hole. Slightly bigger than average Japaneae guy who used his size and bark to bully everyone. He'd even physically shove people around. Saw him shove an almost elderly woman around where he wanted her placed on set. Absolute talentless scumbag. The finished show was so laughably bad that he wouldn't have a job in film and TV outside of Japan. Thankfully, I didn't rely on that job, but some do. I feel sorry for them.

Leigh

you allow the perpetuation of their behaviour by engaging in it. If you never worked in that industry again, could you?

The final edited product of the shoot included a narration describing Micaela’s thoughts – a lot of which the producers made up without asking for Micaela’s permission. Micaela says the producers would often “give me a personality that is not mine”

Oh but this also applies to all of those "COOL JAPAN" crap shows, it's so sad how they try to brainwash the monolingual japaneses that's funny sometimes.

american guy: hmm, nice idea, I think I've never seen these before

japanese captions: OMG!!! THIS IS OUT OF THIS WORLD!! YOU CAN'T FIND THEM ANYWHERE ELSE, JAPANESE ARE VERY CLEVER!!

Keep expressing yourself through your Youtube channel. It is the your channel so you have complete control and freedom. It's too bad that you lost income but bad experience is still experience so you can walk away with.

Your YouTube channel is amazing!

Keep it up!!

Good luck Micaela,

I think especially in Japan this is true: 'If you do something well, never do it for free.'

The Net has long been eating print and traditional broadcast media's breakfast, lunch and dinner. While canny advertisers snipe at niche online demographics, the clueless shotgun ever-distant TV and print audiences.

TV directors, who 'own' relationships with major brand's ad buyers (chaperoned by Dentsu or its competitors) propose content that follows comfortable, unchallenging, ratings-eliciting formulae to risk-adverse suits who only dream of retirement. A tired old dog chases it tail, worn-out sticks are slapped, revenues decrease, navel-gazers ruminate, and costs are trimmed.

Many successful scams rely on the mark's greed to succeed. Micaela's director used her YouTube followership as bait for advertisers, and TV exposure as bait for her, just as I've seen directors over-promise and under-deliver exposure for sponsorship in the form of free meals, accommodation, or use of premises.

My J-TV director clients of old were myopic, bullying parasites with the ego of John Ford but the mindset of Henry. I'm well shot of these morally bankrupt, intellectual midgets, and advise everyone to steer well clear.

There's also the fact that there's never anything negative said about Japan. Part of the whole "Be more excited, smile, blah blah blah" is making it appear that all foreigners love Japan unconditionally. Japan has many great features, but by never allowing any negative speech about it during their programming, everything they say feels fake (because it is.)

Er... was she forced to appear on Japanese TV? Bit confused about that.

they offered almost nothing in return except for the chance of more exposure. She says she had “tons of TV offers” but “not one of them paid”

OK, this is her main complaint.

The Canadian born YouTuber has been living in Kyushu for around 10 years uploading hundreds of videos about Japan

How much does she earn from the videos which she uploaded to YouTube? Isn't YouTube exploiting her in much bigger scale than Japanese TV?

Japanese TV offered her exposure but did not pay. She was not happy. YouTube offers her exposure but does not pay. She is happy. I am wondering what the difference is.

Wow! They were telling her to act all excited in a conbini? She has been living here for 10 years! What's so exciting about a conbini? My friend, who came over this summer was awed when she stepped in my local FamiMa but it was her first time in the country. It's true that they have this misconception here in Japan, that all foreigners are loud, ignorant people who cannot speak Japanese. Even if they are long-term residents. I had friends telling me to go to an agency and get on Japanese TV because I am a blonde white person yadda yadda yadda but I am sure I would straight up quit after a week especially if they wanted me to speak broken Japanese, which I refuse to do. Might as well rip my JLPT N1 into shreds!

Someone is being exploited? This kind of thing must only happen in Japan.

Eventually it's all boiled down for being aware, know your contract and always surround yourself with people you can trust. In Hollywood as I know hundreds of peoples hoping to make it big but because of bad contract and wrong connections some of them just give up.

@sf2k

I'd never work in that industry again here. It was only ever occasionally for me anyway.

Thankfully I'm not photogenic so the cameras at the airport always look for the pretty people lol.

Back on topic and if I was ask to act excited at the sight of a combini bento by a TV company I would politely say no. I have that little spark of self respect still within me. I made a vow never to make a fool of myself in public.

The media still aren't interested in foreigners as ntelligent beings with any type of life,other than over exuberant clowns. I was cornered flying into KIX by a film crew this month and the same old boring typical questions came out! What do you do in Japan?Oh wow,can you speak Japanese?What business are you in? Where are you from?

After the fourth rather banal question I had to tell them that I was late for my next connection and had to go.

The interviewer gave me one of the stoniest stares I've ever had in Japan as I made my exit with a polite 失礼します！

Break out the world's smallest violin and play me a sad melody...

How dare this girl be unhappy about not getting paid for work. Talk about full of herself. Who expects to get paid for working on 2016?

If you do work with the expectation of not getting paid, you can't blame others for not paying you.

TV is dying everywhere You Tube is getting bigger world wide. She just wanted fame in japan and she hasn't master You Tube with what she's learned in Japan.

today ever TV company uses you like that; as customers are so much demanding, so every advertiser uses advertising companies like that too; so if you are wise never enter these two fields, though supposed to be some 'great' jobs, in fact you just get downgraded much earlier than you expected. anyway i am sorry how you were treated, just today 'greed' rules the mind of every business outfit. indeed a truth.

I lasted 2.12 minutes.

I generally don't like listening to people who talk about themselves for more than about 30 seconds....

I like Micaela Braithwaite, I am a year or so older, our opinions differ, but I find Micaela's attitude to life inspiring and am impressed with Micaela's work ethic. Japanese TV has been a negative stoney ground experience, Micaela's had the initiative to walk away.

If Micaela's is motivated by wealth then lobby commercial enterprises for direct sponsorship. All the best.

Japanese TV offered her exposure but did not pay. She was not happy. YouTube offers her exposure but does not pay. She is happy.

You are misinformed. Youtube pays about 1$ of ad money per 1000 views. Too much in my opinion, considering that most popular youtube channels are not any better than TV quality-wise.

Younger generations tend to watch YouTube or anything via internet rather than TV.

That a talent agency is trolling YouTube talent for broadcast TV (and the TV stations are lapping it up) is an indictment on the current state of the television medium. TV is rapidly reaching irrelevancy with more people switching to online streaming every year.

After years of living in Japan and agreeing to be on tv non paid many times, and she doesn't like it, umm..

why are the Japanese so curious as to how foreigners cope when living in Japan?

I'm sure the answer is a similar reason as to why they ask foreigners "Do you like Japanese food? Is it better than Korean or Chinese food?".

@kurisupisu

Ah yes the camera crew clowns. Probably another group to avoid if we were making a list of stereotype-rs

Michaela is lacking the awareness of how money can be made from TV broadcasting.

A understanding about prospects to income., Talent agencies insipidly view that talent work for the agencies not vice versa. Michaela most valuable asset is the international reach of her blogging community. It is a question of how to turn that into business.

My two years on Japanese TV were similar in the sense that the pay was terrible. However, unlike this woman, I was given tremendous freedom to design, edit and "star" in my show. My producer trusted me and set me free....

You can actually earn fairly well on YouTube, know a few people who upload local racing, etc news and get paid for it. Not sure if it depends on subscribers or views if Videos.

Self-starter books are available here, same for other local Docs sites

Can someone please define 'integrated' for me? I keep hearing talk about how foreigners are not and cannot integrate, but without a definition of what this means, it sounds meaningless to me.

I mean, even in other countries I've lived in, people's race/nationality are always mentioned, unless they are white. Japanese-Americans are not just American, but Japanese-American. Indian-Canadians are 'East Indians'. For that matter, the indigenous people in most countries have that designation put upon them. So if acknowledging race/nationality means one is not integrated, is there any country in the world that has integration of the minorities in that society?

Indian-Canadians are 'East Indians'.

Had never heard this bizarre moniker until I was on a bus in Seattle, and some random asked a Sikh guy if he was 'East Indian'. The Indian guy had no idea what he was getting at, but the guy pressed his line of questioning, so knowing my geography and wanting to end the confusion I eventually informed the guy that he is a Sikh, so technically North West Indian. The guy looked at me like I was mad. 'North West Indian?! Ha! What, you think he is a Haida?!'

Eh?

After a bizarre and bewildering exchange, he eventually righteously informed me that a West Indian lived in the Caribbean and an East Indian came from India.

I deduced he himself was from Absurdistan.

Had never heard this bizarre moniker

That's why I put it in quotes. But I was told in Canada it was to differentiate from the natives, who used to be called Indians.

Nothing bizarre or self-righteous about it. In some parts of the West Indies (Trinidad for example) over a third of the population has its roots in India. "East Indian" avoids confusion if ethnicity is at issue.

Otherwise you get confusion: "Asian" means Pakistani etc. in Britain but Japanese etc. in America.

Bullfighter: have you actually worked in anything related to the Japanese tv industry? Your making all these assumptions about what it's like but I bet you would last or want to work in any area of that seedy seedy business.

My husband works in the TV/ movie industry here in Japan. I don't know very much about it, but for sure I understood that there's a lot of company who aren't serious and go on just exploiting boys s d girls like this girl, so you need to watch out.

@Bullfighter hit the nail on the head. On all points.

All the righteous indignation on this thred is really funny. And pathetic.

I've rarely seen anyone on TV just act normally. It's a given that everyone has to be overly excited

...Who?