msiamsia

A friend of mine referred me to a Japanese TV program where TV crew stake out at Narita airport to interview foreigner visiting/leaving Japan.
Has anyone ever interviewed by this TV crew?

One episode I laughed so hard was a pair of high school graduate from Netherland(?) with roughly $8KUSD to spend for 3 months stay in Japan. The pair bought "Lonely Planet, Japan" and was doing "close my eyes and finger point the random page, then let's visit the venue where my finger pointed." The pair did not have any plan whats so ever, and making it super funny.

It was soo hillarious. I am sure lots of FTers are transiting/traveling to Japan. Just curious if you ever met with these TV people.

*moderator
Please move to appropriate forum, if not suitable here. Thank you.

Pureboy

No, but in 2012 at NRT, my wife and I participated in a quick video interview where we kissed the day on a calendar, talked about our visit for Japan, and gave moral support to the victims of the Fukushima disaster. Her video was posted here, but mine never was, and from looking at the channel, it doesn't look like they ever use the videos of men.

abmj-jr

I have been stopped - and bothered - several times over the years. Once by a TV crew, a couple of times by JNTO survey takers and a couple times by university students completing some assignment. Although I try to be polite, I really hated all of the interruptions. The questions are nearly always stupid and difficult to answer without sounding equally stupid and the assumption that my time is not as important as their need to fill air time or a survey sheet is offensive. "Why did you come to Japan?" "What did you like about Japan?" "What didn't you like?" I very much enjoy interacting with people I come into contact with during my travels but these manufactured, artificial "meetings" are a different thing entirely. I have thought but never actually came out and said "What didn't I like? Well, this pretty much tops the list."

I guess the above is my crusty old curmudgeon side coming out more than usual but the question pushed one of my hot buttons.

BuildingMyBento

I was interviewed by a Japanese tv crew at a summer camp in the early 90s, and was on Kanazawa tv in 2000 writing calligraphy, but other than that I'd be interested to share my thoughts.

5khours

I've only been interviewed at NRT by the police who for awhile had some routine where they were randomly questioning foreigners at the airport.

BuildingMyBento

When was this?

An undercover cop - or so I'd like to think - interrogated me at the Okayama train station in 2008. No idea why, and I wonder if anything happened around that time to engender random questioning.

ksandness

I was interviewed by the Sapporo TV station in Portland, Oregon at a Sapporo-Portland sister city event. However, I have never visited Sapporo.

txflyer77

I was interviewed by an NHK reporter in Hiroshima last November asking why I chose to come to Hiroshima. We spoke for about fifteen minutes, no idea what came of it.

5khours

A few years back. Happened a few times. Both times, I politely asked if I was legally required to answer, and when they said no I apologized and told them that for reasons of liberty and privacy I was compelled to refuse to answer their questions.

jib71

Did you submit to being questioned without asking who he was and/or why he was questioning you?

Sigh.

BuildingMyBento

I did ask, but I'd been stopped in Japan a few times before so I chalked it up to one of those days. Another sigh. In any event, I reckon that my age and solo traveling ways at the time didn't help.

ROCAT

------

msiamsia

Owww, I never thought about the other aspects of seemingly common question. But the way you described above is completely understandable, too.

I was just thinking about what happened after those interview, did these TV crew invited you to any event/venue afterwards so you have a not-so-typical touristy experience in Japan? Kind of thinking...

Then, oh boy. I also did not think about the police questioning the random tourist, either. My oversight.

The only "interviewed by" experience we have is Mr.msiamisa interviewed by Washington Post on CherryBlossom in DC(?, I blieve), then his name was printed on the next day newspaper.

msiamsia

Delete - duplicate post

gnaget

I actually watched this show once for about 10 minutes. I think it was on an obscure terrestrial station (Tokyo MX?) that sometimes shows FC Tokyo games, so it must have been tuned to it for that reason when I turned the TV on.

Big part of it was to humiliate and make fun of the target. Particularly this half English kid when they were ridiculing his Japanese. Pretty awful.