Here’s something you need to know about Japan’s next first lady, Miyuki Hatoyama: she used to be an actress. That may help to explain why Japanese voters were apparently not worried about handing her husband, Yukio Hatoyama, a landslide victory and the keys to the prime minister’s office despite the fact that he is married to a woman who wrote last year that she traveled to Venus in a U.F.O. in the 1970s.
On Wednesday, The Times of London’s Richard Lloyd Parry reported from Tokyo that Ms. Hatoyama, “a musical actress, cookery writer, clothesmaker and television personality,” is given a sort of free pass by Japanese voters because she “falls into the category of public figure known as ‘tarento,’ or ‘talent,’” who are expected to be kooky.
She has apparently been making good use of that pass. As Mr. Parry reports, Ms. Hatoyama wrote in “Very Strange Things I’ve Encountered,” a book published last year, that before she divorced her first husband and married Mr. Hatoyama, she may have visited our neighboring planet:
“While my body was sleeping, I think my spirit flew on a triangular-shaped U.F.O. to Venus,” she said. “It was an extremely beautiful place and was very green.” Her first husband suggested that it was probably just a dream — but Mr. Hatoyama, she insisted, would not be so dismissive. “My current husband has a different way of thinking,” she said. “He would surely say, ‘Oh, that’s great!’”
As Reuters reported, Ms. Hatoyama also amazed a daytime television audience this year with the information that she personally knew Tom Cruise during a past life, when he was Japanese, and still hopes to one day make a film with him. The film, she assured viewers, will win her an Academy Award “for sure,” and “will change your values.” Ms. Hatoyama added that, in his spare time, her husband is helping to make her vision a reality by “translating the script into English even though he is tired after work.”
Apparently Mr. Hatoyama is paying his wife back for her help with crafting his image. The Telegraph’s Julian Ryall noted last month that Ms. Hatoyama, who is 66, now “describes herself as a ‘life composer’ who selects people’s clothes and food — including those of her husband — and designs home interiors.” Mr. Ryall also reported that in a more recent television interview, she “appeared wearing a skirt she had made from hemp coffee sacks purchased in Hawaii.”
The Guardian’s Justin McCurry adds that the couple, who met when both lived in California in the 1970s, seem quite happily married. Mr. Hatoyama says that seeing his wife gives him a boost: “I feel relieved when I get home. She is like an energy-refuelling base.”
16 Comments
Somebody once said: “Indians accept politicians with vices they won’t tolerate in their neighbors; Americans demand politicians with virtues they won’t expect from their neighbors”.
Seems like the Japanese are like Indians, in so far as not minding a bit of masala with their politicians.
— RSAs someone who has lived in Japan, I have a love/hate relationship with these kind of stories, as, while I find them amusing, I also think they fuel a certain view prevalent in America right now of Japan as a bunch of goofy weirdos.
The truth is that these images, snips from commercials, game shows, and all the other stuff that westerners find so weird either tend to be so uncommon that even Japanese people don’t know about them (anime) or they are ripped from their proper cultural context.
Though the article does make reference of the fact that Ms. Hatoyama is a “tarento,” it is not merely enough to say that “tarento” are kooky, they are actually a cross between pundit/comedian/actor/host. Basically there is an entire class of people that is paid to be on tv and part of their job is to say entertaining things. Half the time they are joking and part of the fun for Japanese is that you can never really tell where the line between reality and fiction ends and begins (there are even tarento whose entire image is built on the fact that they are dumb or uneducated. they read chinese characters wrong, hilarity ensues etc). Very few tarento are actually professional actors/actresses even though they do appear in TV dramas. They are used in this way because Japanese like to see familiar faces. So this can’t really be compared to an actor in the US going on TV and talking about their private life. Their public life IS their private life. They are paid to be rich and do things that normal Japanese can’t.
There is also very little in the way of lines betweens professions for celebrities/artists or whatever. Once a person has entered public life, they can do virtually anything they want and are encouraged to widen their portfolio into other mediums. This is why Ms. Hatoyama is described as “musical actress, cookery writer, clothesmaker and television personality.” They start in one place and expand to the others.
— BradLEDE BLOG NOTE: Thanks for adding to the description of “tarento,” but is it possible that, by seeing this as post about the kookiness of Japanese society, you are reading something in to it that was not written above? In fact the post in no way refers to Japanese culture as kooky or exotic. It doesn’t seem to the author to describe or treat Ms. Hatoyama any differently than a kooky American actress, like say Shirley MacLaine, might be treated. And a candidate for the Demcocratic nomination for the presidency last year, Dennis Kucinich, described seeing a U.F.O. with the same triangular shape as the one Ms. Hatoyama recalls. If this story concerned an American or indeed a European or an African actress turned first lady, we would have dealt with it exactly the same way.
I might also add (being married to a Japanese woman) that the measure of a good husband among modern Japanese couples is their ability to listen to the wife and “accept her feelings.” Even if you don’t understand or disagree, you’re supposed to be supportive and come to terms that “that’s how she feels.”
This explains this portion:
“My current husband has a different way of thinking,” she said. “He would surely say, ‘Oh, that’s great!’”
This shows that Mr. Hatoyama is an understanding man and makes him appealing to Japanese women.
— BradEven if you don’t understand or disagree, you’re supposed to be supportive and come to terms that “that’s how she feels.”
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Brad, I think that’s appealing to ANY woman (generally, of course there are exceptions), not just a Japanese one. One of the reasons I love my husband is that he doesn’t try to understand why I’m upset, but accepts that I am, tells me that it’s okay to be upset, and if applicable, will do what he can to right the situation.
— IellaDon’t believe these stories for a minute! The Venus spaceship is an ellipsoid, not “triangular”.
Triangular, indeed…..what rubbish! Why are Kucinich and Mrs. Hatoyama spreading this disinformation? Are they in the pay of the Martians?
— Red GauntletBrads comment above is spot on, but could be further improved simply by removing the word “Japanese”.
— JanneWhat happened to the rigid royal family of Japan in cultural terms? Are they loosening up a bit?
— trudyShe seems totally normal to me.
— Matt CveticGive me a break. In Japan, the spouse of the Prime Minister would only be seen if needed to meet the spouse a foreign head of state. Unlike the U.S., political spouses here do not figure into the picture at all.
— AlanAs another member of the foreign community in Japan, I have to agree with Brad’s comments. Everything is always almost taken out of context, and it gives Japan a “unique” appeal to many people.
I for one can’t stand this woman. She had the audacity to compare herself to Michelle Obama (who she is absolutely nothing like in character or experience) in order to promote herself and her husband. Now, she is already talking about campaigning for her son. Meanwhile, I thought that the DPJ was trying to move away from “inheritance” candidates. It’s almost as if he’s been married too long without giving her a grandson or something.
— BridgetIf you have spent time in Japan, you have probably come across women like Miyuki Hatoyama.
They frequently have an artistic, expressive nature which ripens when they spend a little time abroad, particularly in California as Ms. Hatoyama did. Unusual creative women actually have a long history in Japan (Tale of the Genji, anyone?)
— gabriella brandWhat if she’s right?
— L BurnhamIt could not have been Venus that she visited. Its surface is way too hot for any living thing to survive, and there is sulfuric acid rain.
— NeilI think Brad’s point is that “actress” and “tarento” are not synonymous, although you treat them as such. The connotations are quite different. While I appreciate the good-natured tone of this post, a little more research into the differences between Japanese actresses and tarento would have given it greater credibility among your English-speaking audience in Japan.
— DanielDear Lede Blog:
Yeah, just a regular bit, one that “in no way refers to Japanese culture as kooky or exotic. ”
One question, however. What was the last story you ran on the Japanese? Oh, yeah, drugs in Sumo … nothing that in any way “refers to Japanese culture as kooky or exotic. “
— Yeah Right> I also think they fuel a certain view prevalent in America right now of Japan as a bunch of goofy weirdos.
I agree. Articles in the past few months about Japan have included an article about the increasing popularity of hostessing as a career (the whole hostess bar industry is viewed as somewhat weird/goofy in the US) and another about guys without girlfriends who go around with inflatable pillows with pictures of scantily-clad anime girls on them.
Of course, there are lots of serious articles as well, but the proportion of these weirdo-type articles is probably higher than for any other country.
— Mike K.