Around the same time, Japan boasted a lot of sexually explicit games airing late at night, which went on to become “weird Japan” staples as well. These shows featured segments where men competed with the objective often being to reveal a woman in either skimpy clothes—or nothing at all (NSFW example here). These shows weren’t primetime staples, and it wasn’t like sex-soaked TV was unique to Japan in the early 1990s, but they did have a heyday.

So the wacky-Japanese-game-show cliché reflects real programming that once ruled the airwaves. But for a show in 2013 to pretend this model remains dominant today is off base. That’s because, even though shows featuring physical punishment and nudity were popular, there were also plenty of Japanese people outraged by them. The non-profit, non-governmental Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization set out to reform Japanese television, and in 1997 established The Broadcast and Human Rights / Other Related Rights Committee. This arm of the organization “aids parties whose honor, privacy or other human rights have been violated by broadcasting.” The group proved to have sway, and by the year 2000 the “punishment games” and sexy late-night programming were gone or toned down drastically.

This, coupled with an interest in the show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, ushered in the age of Japanese game shows that remains today—ruled by quiz shows with famous contestants. Only one program, Panel Quiz Attach 25, features regular people playing. Everything else stars celebrities, finding them answering trivia question while riding in fake rockets or guessing the price of items at grocery stores. The shows with actual physical contests are far more tame than Takeshi’s Castle or anything from the ‘90s; the challenges these days more resemble those on Nickelodeon’s Double Dare.

Save for the viral spreading of “Brain Wall” (Human Tetris) and the continued success of Sasuke (closer to ESPN than The Game Show Network, and inspiring American shows Wipeout and Ninja Warrior), very little considered a game show in Japan as of late has been worthy of the “wacky” tag. A recent viral clip, dubbed “Orgasm Wars,” appeared on a late-night cable program on a special pay channel and introduced another round of Western tittering about Japan’s supposed zaniness. It’s not reflective of anything most Japanese people watch, and the clip was met with as much surprise by the nation's online community as it was overseas.

Many viewers are starting to tire of what most of the nation watches, though. Stories on Japanese news aggregator sites like Matome Navier, Blogos, and Nifty News have focused why viewers have taken to the Internet to bemoan how boring Japanese TV (in particular, variety shows) have gotten. Popular TV presenter Dave Spector says the ease in which people can watch foreign television programs—and then compare them to Japanese programming—has also made audiences less interested in terrestrial options. Whatever the reason, Japanese TV today isn’t pumping out anything as strange as outside nations make it seem.

Marblemedia writes that Japanizi has already been pre-sold in over 120 countries, and will debut on Disney Channels around the world next year. The show claims to double as an introduction to the Japanese language and Japanese culture, and as a means to spread that language and culture far and wide. It’s too bad it’ll also be spreading a woefully outdated stereotype.

*This post originally misidentified Matsumoto Hitoshi as Yoshimoto Kogyo. We regret the error.

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