BBC’s Tokyo Olympics promo and the reaction in Japan

As part of its Tokyo Olympics coverage, the BBC did a big, expensive-looking promo. It’s packed with fantasy-land Japan stuff (which is quite different from how the country actually is!), playing to different notions and expectations that visitors often have.

If you haven’t seen the spot, you can check it out below. The promo is filled with Japanese manhole covers, arcade games, capsule toys, neon signs, and more.

But what do commenters on 2ch, Japan’s biggest bulletin board, think? The response is mostly made up of people noting that it doesn’t represent the country they live in–often suggesting a conflation with Hong Kong–although some admit it’s somewhere they wouldn’t mind visiting!

Below is a cross-section of comments.

“Hey, it’s Cyberpunk.”

“There has been zero progress since Blade Runner.”

“This is totally Japan’s Showa Era image lol”

“Hong Kong was mixed in, no?”

“The way the footage was done is quite good.”

“This looks like a lot of money was spent.”

“There’s too much Hong Kong mixed in.”

“This is not Japan, but I think as a clip, it’s very cool.”

“Looks like China.”

“Osaka-esque.”

“Seems that Tokyo has this neon image.”

“Cool. Sorry that Japan isn’t like this.”

“Isn’t this kinda dorky?”

“Whoever made this doesn’t know the difference between Japan and China.”

“It’s all Blade Runner’s fault.”

“This seems somewhat dated…”

“[Japan] is totally different, but this is good.”

“The music sounds like it’s from Innocence.”

“It seems like they worked relatively hard on this.”

“Half of this seems like it’s making fun [of Japan].”

“The image of Japan that foreigners have stops in the 1980s ~ 1990s. This seems somewhat old.”

“I want to visit this kind of country.”

What did you think? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below.

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