Cool Japan - Season 15 / Year 2020

Japanese people's daily lives are filled with Engi. With ceremonies for obi tying, name giving and 60th and 90th birthdays, Japanese people are surrounded by lucky objects from birth to death. They are always mindful of Engi, for example with tea with standing tea stalks and visiting spiritual sites. They eat a lot of New Year cuisine, draw fortune slips on each year's first visit to a temple or shrine and pray to the gods for success in romance each year. We investigate the mysteries of Japanese people and Engi from the perspective of foreigners.

In recent years, the number of vegetarians has been growing around the world. Healthy meals in which vegetables are central are popular in the West, where lifestyle related diseases are becoming more serious. What's receiving attention amidst such circumstances is Buddhist cuisine. Buddhist cuisine exists in Asian countries such as China and Korea as well, but Japan's Buddhist cuisine is attracting attention coupled with the Japanese food boom and the popularity of tourism in Japan. There are casual Buddhist cuisine restaurants, and new styles for foods such as sweets and ramen are appearing one after another. We uncover the appeals of Japan's Buddhist cuisine from the perspective of foreigners.

Japan is one of the few countries with heavy snowfall in the world. It holds the top 3 spots in the annual snowfall ranking for cities with populations over 100,000 people. Regions nationally designated as having heavy snowfall covers about 50% of Japan. Many foreign tourists who visit during the winter come seeking this snow. Snow itself is becoming a tourist attraction with things such as experiencing blizzards in Tsugaru and snow shoveling tours in regions with heavy snowfall. We compare Japan's culture related to snow with the world's. We discover what's cool about Japan's snow culture.

Fukushima Prefecture was significantly damaged from the Great East Japan Earthquake. The number of foreign tourists fell to under one third of the previous year. However, 6 years later the number of foreign tourist lodgers increased over fourfold, surpassing the numbers prior to the earthquake. This time, the cast goes on an outing to Fukushima Prefecture. What was it that restored a disaster-stricken area to a popular tourist destination? We search for new hints for Cool Japan to send out to the world.

Foreigners who come to Japan are surprised by the many variety stores. Japanese people love to decorate their everyday lives. Bookends, tableware and cushions are all cute, of course. Masking tape, which was originally a construction material, has now become stationery for decorating various items. Also, Kazari metal fittings, which are indispensable for shrines and mikoshi, are filled with Japanese people's decorative ideas. How will foreigners view Japanese people who decorate everything in a cute way?

2019 was the year in which the name of the era changed from Heisei to Reiwa. What kinds of wishes do parents infuse the names of their children with? Differences with the world emerge one after another. The culture of Shumei in Japanese traditional performing arts and long-established shops, in which names are inherited, is full of strange things from the perspective of foreigners. 8 foreigners in the studio introduce cool Japanese names. Seals, people's names and the names of colors. We investigate the cools of Japanese names that surprise foreigners too.

Fermented foods are popular among young people right now. The size of the natto market has reached a record high, and the number of restaurants and cafes using fermented foods is quickly increasing. "Fermentation girls" who dearly love fermented foods for beauty and health have emerged. Japan has created a wide variety of fermented foods, from traditional seasonings that have many local flavors such as soy sauce, miso and fish sauce to over 3,000 kinds of pickles. Foreigners get excited over the smells that you need to get accustomed to, solid umami, and intense acidity. We investigate the fermentation culture of Japan.

The first episode in our series on SDGs (sustainable development goals). Foreigners have repeatedly pointed out that Japanese people use too many plastic bottles, wrap snacks more than they need to, and have been half-hearted about environmental problems. So this time's theme is "Recycling." How will the world see Japan's recycling initiatives, such as middle and high school students working to reduce marine debris and a town sorting garbage into 27 different categories?

Japan is going through an unprecedented muscle boom. People go to the gym, buy salad chicken to build muscle, and watch muscle exercises on TV. Why are Japanese people fascinated with muscles right now? Are what is appealing to foreigners and what Japanese people consider to be ideal different? The differences between the muscles that Japanese people and foreigners like and the admiration for muscles not only by men but Japanese women as well. Is Japanese people's muscle worship cool from the world's perspective?

Consolidating in small spaces and functional. "Compact" could be said to be Japan's specialty. Japan beat the world to invent a portable audio player and established the ultra-compact car genre called the Kei car, which doesn't exist overseas. Recently, small yet functional things such as ultra-compact handy fans and clothing compression bags continue to be created, and foreigners lavish praise on Japan's spirit of compactness. Foreigners search for new cools with Japan's "Compact," which is gathering attention from around the world, as the theme.

There's currently a bit of a boom in Japan for escaping the city and moving to the countryside. The number of people who moved to the countryside increased fourfold in the 5 years since 2009. The style in which people move is also changing. It used to be senior citizens who had retired from work moving to the countryside to live a second life, but recently young people are also moving. How do foreigners view life in the Japanese countryside? We investigate the differences between how the world and Japan think about the good life while looking at the actual circumstances of life in the Japanese countryside.

Japanese schools are packed with events such as the opening ceremony, field days, culture festivals and school excursions throughout the year. Autumn is the season that's especially filled with events. School events are standard for Japanese people, but in fact they are uncommon in the West. There are no opening ceremonies after the end of long vacations, and it is common for school to resume as if nothing had happened. We discuss school events, which can be said to shape the orderliness, cooperativeness and national character of Japanese people, from the perspective of foreigners.

Historical plays have become rarer on terrestrial TV. In fact, they are very popular on satellite TV and specialized channels. Japanese people love historical plays. When the hero of a large-scale TV series is announced, related locations are enlivened and people get excited about revitalization. Are there any other countries that love historical plays as much as Japan? We investigate the cools of Japanese historical plays in Japanese people whose hearts are captivated by historical plays and their productions sites at the end of this year in which they were a hot topic.