‘They’re not prudes’: What is Japanese humour and why don’t we get it?

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Takashi Wakasugi’s offbeat sense of humour helps him pay the bills.

After moving from Japan to Australia, Mr Wakasugi decided he’d combine his passion for comedy with the need to improve his English.

“So I tried [stand-up comedy] and I loved it,” he says.

Mr Wakasugi now performs stand-up around the country — using this Western style of performance to unpack his Japanese identity and poke fun at it.

In one set, for example, he laments how his Japanese obsession with cleanliness means he can’t watch the Lord of the Rings films without wondering when the characters last brushed their teeth.

“F***ing shampoo, Gandalf!” he pines, before adding, “I’m so Japanese”.

A Japanese man in a colourful shirt, performing stand up comedy — Takashi Wakasugi says there are some big differences between Australian humour and Japanese humour.(Supplied: Takashi Wakasugi)

But when asked to sum up the humour of his homeland, there’s no easy answer — a country’s humour is complex, layered and in the case of Japan, very opaque to the outside world.

“I think the most popular answer to what is Japanese humour is: It’s physical and it’s quirky,” Mr Wakasugi says.

He says again, “quirky”.

So what exactly is Japanese humour and how did it develop over the centuries?

A comic-erotic diva

For Tomoko Aoyama, an Associate Professor of Japanese at the University of Queensland, one of the earliest figures in the history of Japanese humour is not a person, but a goddess.

An illustration of a Japanese woman in traditional dress. — Meet Ame-no-Uzume: Comic-erotic performer and shamanistic trickster.(Getty Images)

In Japan’s Shinto religion, Ame-no-Uzume is the goddess of humour, or as Professor Aoyama calls her, “a diva”.

“[She was] Japan’s first comic erotic-performer and shamanistic trickster,” Professor Aoyama tells ABC RN’s Late Night Live.

Quirky stuff.

Ame-no-Uzume appears in the 8th century texts Kojiki and Nihon Shoki, which chronicle mythology and history.

In one story, the sun goddess Amaterasu retreats to a cave and the world descends into darkness. Cue Ame-no-Uzume, who uses a comic-erotic dance to invite her out. She succeeds and light is restored.

In Professor Aoyama’s eyes, this “diva” rescued the world with laughter.

She says the goddess of humour is “brave and powerful” and in having no taboos about sex or her body “is quite different from the stereotypical image of Japanese women”.

‘Wacky and iconoclastic’

Australian Roger Pulvers is an author, translator, playwright, filmmaker and reporter, who has mostly lived in Japan since 1967.

Mr Pulvers says contemporary Japanese humour is centuries in the making. He traces its origins to the Edo period, which started around the year 1600.

Then, bawdy comedy ruled.

“You had an incredibly ribald, broad, in-your-face sense of humour with satires and raunchy stories.”

He cites the work of Edo artist Katsushika Hokusai, famous for the print The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and whose manga sketches included “people in all sorts of positions”.

But he says when Japan entered its modern period, beginning with the Meiji Restoration in 1868, things changed.

“The Japanese took their social conventions primarily from Victorian England — the social conventions became very rigid and full of decorum and propriety.”

This Victorian sensibility has rippled through to today.

“So a lot of the Japanese sense of humour is like the British sense of humour for that reason. It’s wacky and iconoclastic because it tries to break through the surface of these very stiff outward social conventions that most Japanese follow.”

Mr Pulvers says humour continued to evolve in the 20th century, but in ways outsiders may not understand or appreciate.

He cites the 1953 film Tokyo Story and other works by filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu.

“These are viewed in the West as super serious and Zen-like … Yet I look at them as comedies of manners. They’re very whimsical and wry. The humour is a lot like [Samuel] Beckett or [Harold] Pinter.”

Author Roger Pulvers says some critics call Tokyo Story ‘the best film ever made’.(Wikimedia Commons)

He says there’s also a more recent tradition of black humour and satire. He mentions writers Ango Sakaguchi, who was “very decadent and very funny”, and Yasutaka Tsutsui, who “attacks all of the holy institutions of society with great humour”.

Meanwhile, the appeal of erotic humour continues to this day.

“Remember, the Japanese are not Christian. And so they don’t have this kind of prudery. They have a sense of shame, of course, and out in public there’s always the decorum and civility that has to be kept. But they’re not prudes,” Mr Pulvers says.

He also says there’s a “silliness and wackiness” which “offers a kind of safety valve for a very formal society”.

And sometimes “silliness and wackiness” is an understatement.

‘Audiences want unrealistic things’ on TV and stage

Today, international audiences often associate Japanese humour with some of its variety or game shows on TV, which can be very over-the-top.

Often, the more outrageous, the more well received.

“There’s physical punishment, hitting, very crazy stuff,” Mr Wakasugi says.

He says, while Australian audiences want relatability and personal connection with mainstream TV or stage comedy, many in Japan want escape and distraction from everyday life.

“[Japanese] audiences want unrealistic things … [Things] that people cannot do or should not do in real life,” he says.

He says mainstream TV and stage comedy is much more of a production, with “more acting” where “[individual] personalities are not as important”.

“Acting is a big part of Japanese comedy. If you don’t understand that, you cannot laugh.”

So, is there anything like stand-up in Japan?

“In Japan, stand-up is not popular,” Mr Wakasugi says.

He says the closest equivalent is manzai, a traditional style of Japanese comedy involving a live double act who converse.

One is straight-laced (the ‘tsukkomi’), the other is over-the-top (the ‘boke’). Laughter ensues.

But Mr Wakasugi says while Australian stand-up is all about “opinion, experience, viewpoints”, manzai is much more about “acting in a character”.

Misunderstood

Mr Pulvers says Japanese humour can also be self-deprecating, drawing an unlikely parallel to the kind of humour he grew up with — Jewish humour.

“[Jewish humour] is all about self-deprecation. And the Japanese sense of humour is also very self-deprecating and sardonic … They’re very, very similar,” he says.

“The difference is [Japanese people] don’t want other people to know the bad things about their society, because they want everybody to think well of them. Whereas the Jews wanted everybody to know everything about them, and make them laugh, so that they would be well disposed towards [them] … The Jews hang their dirty linen out in public for all to see.”

He says as a result, “if you really want to get to know the Japanese sense of humour, unfortunately, you really need to speak Japanese”.

Professor Aoyama says it’s not only the difficulty of translating Japanese humour but also “the lack of will to translate”.

But she says “things are changing”, pointing to the work of prominent women writers Hiromi Itō and Yoko Tawada, a Japanese writer who lives and works in Germany.

“They’re widely translated and discussed … They are both noted for the humour that crosses cultures and languages,” Professor Aoyama says.

‘Sometimes I don’t laugh’

Mr Wakasugi’s time in Australia, immersed in the world of stand-up comedy, has rubbed off on him.

“Before I started comedy in Australia, I used to love Japanese comedy … Now if I watch Japanese comedy, sometimes I don’t laugh.”

Takashi Wakasugi says his attitude to some mainstream Japanese comedy has changed.(Supplied: Takashi Wakasugi)

Mr Wakasugi says he’s more aware of the sexism and racism that features in some mainstream Japanese comedy.

“Japan is very traditional or conservative … But it’s changing.”

And the longer Mr Wakasugi spends in Australia, the more he finds himself embracing local stand-up.

“At first I was so surprised … [Now] I love watching other comedians,” he says.

“Aussie humour is all about personality and opinion. That’s what makes it so interesting.”

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