One of my twitter followers from France sent me a link to a French blogpost titled "Christmas in Fukushima".
JR (Japan Railway) apparently has a special PR blitz that pushes Tohoku - Yamagata, Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima as travel destination. It has launched a TV commercial featuring young women having a good time traveling in the region.
The color scheme of the ad seems intentionally "dated" - it has a 1930's look to me. The first ad has a woman posing as if she was either shielding her eyes or saluting military-style.
The ad is for Fukushima Prefecture, and it says: "I'm coming, Tohoku" (in a diction used predominantly by men, colloquial, slightly vulgar); and "Nothing will happen unless I go there." (Hmmm, is it alluding to the decon volunteer work in high radiation areas in Fukushima?)
The second ad says: "If I don't go to Tohoku now, when would I go?" (i.e. "It's now or never" or "This is the best time to go.")
At JR East's website, you can download an ad poster for your favorite prefecture in Tohoku.
As the French blog points out, the ostensible (or "tatemae") reason for the PR blitz is to commemorate the 1 year anniversary of Tohoku Shinkansen (bullet train) between Tokyo and Aomori), while the real reason is likely to be to prop up the sagging ticket sales and "help" the tourism industry in the disaster-affected area.
I personally do not think JR should be promoting tourism using young women in an area severely affected by the fallout from the nuclear plant accident. I don't think young women like those in the TV ad below should be in Fukushima for fun, but it's just me. Learned experts clearly have different opinions (here and here).
(H/T Aizen Kaguya)
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17 comments:
Absolutely not an ounce of honesty and respect left.
...strange looking... they remind me of communist posters ads from the ol' USSR.
Something like this, comrade? WTF is with the five pointed star.
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/276139/276139,1225272817,2/stock-vector-ussr-poster-with-jets-19651987.jpg
y'know, what's most insidious about these posters is that the design work is ace. part of me wants to compliment the designer, but what i really want to do is chew him out for his outrageous lack of ethics.
Despite being called a "democracy", my experience after living in Japan for several years is that the thought is closer to communism. However, in communism what the country has is shared and divided, in Japan it's suffering and badness that is divided and shared.
-W
It is not a big secret to the people of Fukushima that Daiichi is constantly emitting radiation. If you asked them they would say it is better to stay away. No more beach days in Iwaki. No more skiing near Inawashiro. At least don't take your kids.
It's not just communist.
It's a common aesthetic from the 1930s-1950s. Some of it can even be traced back even to the 19th century and the Belle Epoque commercials: nation, youth, progress, relentless optimism.
But here: things we cannot wish or will away.
All I know is that I will be an old woman before I visit Japan...:(
I think I'll be dead before I visit Japan. Double :-(
NO BANANAS COS THEY KILL..NO XRAY COS YOU WILL DIE..NO AIRLINE FLIGHT COS OF THE COSMIC DEADLY RADIATION.
NO SITTING IN YOUR HOME COS OF RADON GROUND RADIATION.
ONLY ONE SAFE PLACE TO GO...
YEEEEEE HARRRRRRR..
COME ON YE COME ON COME ON DOWN TO FUKISHIMAAA.
THE ONLY COOL SAFE PLACE ON THE PLANET..
FUKISHIMA WHERE THE COOL PEOPLE GO
TO DIE...
bro, do i know you??
The Japanese propaganda machine is really going full force. Maybe this should be features on the blog too: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2011/12/20111279615456805.html New Science and Education Ministry material teaching children how natural radiation is.
I did a feature of this (where I translate and show some of the material) a little while ago - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeV0j06jAWA
If this is an information war, then only the DUMB will die.
SMART people won't visit Fukushima.
So this is actually a waste of time for the elites. The elites are certainly grasping and desperate and thus, dangerous right now.
"If this is an information war, then only the DUMB will die.
SMART people won't visit Fukushima."
By my calculation that's 80% of the population . Only the people posting on the nuke engineering forum will survive. Not good news at all.
It's freezing cold. There's an out of control nuke. The food is circumspect. Much of the land has been devastated. The local economy is in tatters. Much of it's population has fled. The remainder are depressed as hell. Some towns are under water twice a day thanks to the tide. Everything is probably contaminated. The governments lie. Mistrust is rampant. The once famous seafood is avoided like the plague in the rest of the country.
I think I would rather go to Kiev for a holiday.
The shinkansen has only one real purpose and that is to speed those who have the sense to abandon ship. The North East is sadly a goner. RIP.
Nuclear Power. It's brilliant and cheap. Thankyou Tepco.
Where's next?
"No one is more of a slave than he who thinks himself free without being so."
--Goethe
These posters are plastered all over my train station. They strike me as surreal. Thanks for the translations into colloquial and the explanation. Pretty much what a thought...followed by, "WTF?"
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