Why Japanese TV is Full of Text
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- čas přidán 28. 06. 2024
- Why does Japanese television often make very heavy use of large subtitles or colorful caption in TV shows? Isn't it too much and weird?
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■Timestamps;
0:00 Japanese TV
1:05 The Reason No.1
3:19 The Reason No.2
4:56 The Reason No.3
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I can't imagine how tired the Japanese tv editors are with their job
That’s why Japanese are overworked
To be fair, these days they probably have a help in the form of speech recognition software. Then the only thing they need to take care of is to ensure they're using the right kanji for the particular word.
Koreans and Taiwanese too.
Dead tired
Ever heard of Japanese work culture? Everybody is tired.
Basically Japan was *40 years ahead of react trends on CZcams and Twitch 😮🤔
@@tsdfghjkl I love hypocrisy
Personally, I find the onscreen text annoying, but I understand the logic for doing it on Japanese TV and videos.
They even continued the trend with their own media platforms on the internet, with Nico Nico Douga (NND). You could tell the difference between the tech, where a CZcams comment section takes its influences from forum posting and BBSes, NND took its influence more from the style of Japanese TV text on screen.
subway surfers in the corner of the screen.
They were?
As a Japanese learner, having subtitles on every video is pretty helpful sometimes as I can't always follow full speed speech. Although on CZcams, I kind of wish they'd use the built in subtitles so I can turn them off if I don't need them or want to see the screen more clearly.
Indeed
I can't see any subtitles
100% agree, subtitles are really good for us learners
It's actually a point of contention to always have subtitles in UK at one point because having subs help with children literacy, made it easier to understand the speech and it's baffling how every tv shows doesn't have subs.
@@ariavachier-lagravech.6910 It just depends on the show, creator, etc. While helpful, subs can be time consuming or even expensive depending on how often they are being made and if they are being translated at all. I can see how some people wouldn't have the time or budget to subtitle everything. Older content is harder as well as there wasn't an easy way to attach subtitle information for a while.
Before CZcams was ever a thing, having the subtitles on Japanese TV was one of the ways I learned kanji.
Yeah you start to grasp the grammar too.
Japanese TV might have pioneered "react" content. Interesting. And I always though the walls of text were a sort of way to emphasize whats happening on the screen, kinda like how manga does in a way.
React content has always been popular tbh, take a look at any talk show host programming, even Beavis and butthead from the 90s.
they also have walls of text on social media, like niconico
@@janusmcgee8909You misused a comma.
@@AwesomeHairo you missed a brain
@@janusmcgee8909
Never heard
that's surprisingly reasonable,
honestly the part of the Captions that give me Culture shock is the excessive amount of different formatting in the text, which i assume is another way to convey tone (?)
Yeah, I don't think it would be so bad if they kept with one color scheme. But all of the clashing color schemes just look terrible.
You misused a comma.
@@AwesomeHairo which one?
@@Artista_Frustrado "That's surprisingly reasonable. Honestly, the part..."*
If you're gonna deny you made a comma splice, which I have a feeling you will, then I invite you to have some humility and look up what comma splices are.
@@AwesomeHairo i see
for me, Japanese TV looks like an advertisement for pizza or something you'd get mailed through your door!
"I will never become editor of a Japanese TV" 🤣
I have watched a lot of TV-Japan with my wife when we had cable TV and I had to eventually ask her what's the deal with this. She told me it was so older people or people with hearing problems can watch TV and understand what's going on.
The other 2 options you mentioned make sense as well. :)
Thanks for going over this.
Which is your favourite
Yeah, I'd never edit for Japanese TV either, subtitling is already mind numbing work, to the point it makes you consider if it's worth having food on the table if the video is any longer than 15 minutes... Now, subtitling a tv show, and adding those effects, transitions, yadda yadda in the subs... I feel sorry for whoever does that, I'd knee down to these ppl in respect of their work, SPECIALLY if they're also the ones who does the transcribing
Hopefully they make good money lol!!!
@@user-rx7pd1xv4k according to some accounts, they actually make below minimum wage, because each program has a 'bounty' and you get paid no matter how quickly it's made.
Me who thought that subtitling was a good idea as a job
that job is maybe even more chaotic than a Japanese animator.
“Write this 1000 word story”
“マジか？”
“マジか“ is a Japanese word (I think it’s slang so definitely don’t use this in front of your superiors, even though the situation I made does exactly that) that means something like “Seriously?” “Are you kidding?” or “Oh my god” in some cases.
Edit: I’m also starting to notice people using periods more.
This is also very common in Korean variety shows. There's so much text and captions in every screen. A lot of them are descriptive captions of what the people in the show think or how the audience are supposed to think. I think it's also supposed to fill in the gap of information that the host or commentator missed to say. It also gives context.
As a japanese learner, this made me feel so much better. I can read a good number of kanji and can understand the gist of a lot of japanese shows and videos with japanese subtitles. But without subtitles, I don't understand much just from listening. I'm so relieved to know that Japanese people also struggle a little bit with this. I'm assuming those who speak a different dialect may have a more difficult time understanding spoken dialogue on TV or radio
I'm an American learning Japanese, and I absolutely love the inclusion of text.
I feel bad for the editors, but it is immensely helpful for Japanese learners.
I also find that I just enjoy subtitles in general, too. I often put on subtitles when listening to media in English, my native language, just because it's easier in case I don't catch something a person said. My reading skills have always been at a higher level than my listening skills, I suppose.
Don’t feel badly for them, software these days even CapCut can make captions like that within seconds
English is technically my second language but I speak it as well as any native speaker and I enjoy watching anything with subtitles more as well, though in my case it may be that I always had subtitles as a child
Yes, subtitles all the time for everything! I also read much, much faster than anyone can speak, so it's nice to be able to see something I might have missed.
With Japanese it is especially useful because of kanji, like he mentioned.
Sometimes if I don't know a word at all, if I can see all the kanji I might be able to figure out the word or the sentence.
Thank you for not making comma splices.
For language learners it's a huge blessing how there's text included in so many things from japan.
I work as an English captioner for NHK and I always wondered this! Thanks for sharing 😀
There’s an NHK international channel, airs on UK TV (I’m guessing US too). It’s interesting to note its setup in a western style (entire channel is in English), there’s no huge gaping Japanese text anywhere on any of the programming on the channel.
As someone who learn Japanese, I think it's obvious and even for native japanese speaker as well which is context. Japanese consists of words that have same pronunciations but different meanings so text really is important so people will not misunderstand by just listening which even native japanese struggle to understand by just listening.
Take songs for example. Some japanese songs are too fast that it needs lyrics to be shown.
Yup super smart people over there
I’ve listened to a quite a few Japanese songs where the lyrics are shown because someone needs to sing at mach Jesus
@@purpleplays69420Mach Jesus lmaoooo
Having Chris onscreen at 2:27 synced up to you saying "BROADcasters" is some amazing subtle humour
Also showed Chris’ segment mocking Japanese TV.
@DarrenOConnor3 Glad to see finally someone noticed it!
This is one of those things ive wondered about but have been too lazy to google. Thank you Nobita for the video!
Here is a better idea, make broadcast captions to be able to be turned on and off. I best event some Japanese viewers would like to enjoy certain content without caption. And those who want it in, can have it on all the time. I best most people would prefer to have options.
Agreed. In my context being a Canadian watching American, British, Irish, Scottish, Australian, New Zealand and South African media, it feels so rewarding and enriching learning to understand the different accents and dialects without the help of subtitles. It's kinda crazy to think that someone in, say, Tokyo would need so much of a helping hand to understand what someone from, like, say Okinawa is saying.
Some other observations-
Since Japanese houses are relatively small (and the TV location is usually close to the Kotatsu) this results in sitting closer to the TV which results in TV volume being lower naturally , also since walls are thin this results in TV volume being lower to not disturb the neighbors - in that situation, if you add both environmental noise such as an air conditioner and multiple people in a house, then reliance on reading information on screen becomes greater because the audio is more difficult to hear.
Additionally, in the case of a family, young kids who sit closer to the TV (because they are smaller) have better hearing ability (because they are young) will hear the TV fine but older adults may not, due to being farther from the TV and having naturally deteriorated hearing ability due to age.
This often results in a fight over the TV volume.
On a side note, I also think the lack of text in Anime is also related to adult disinterest of Anime - because they can’t hear it when watching with their kids -as kids fight to keep the volume down. If you can’t hear it, then understanding is diminished.
Of course there are kids that like to keep the volume louder I suppose. So this theory may not be correct in all situations.
We're starting to see something similar on CZcams and TikTok with these big subtitles everywhere. They're supposed to grab attention and help follow the content.
But yeah, I think we're a little bit at a disadvantage compared to Kanji. Kanji can be read intuitively and quickly, like seeing pictures when you're used to them from childhood.
This is in contrast to the Latin or Latin-alike alphabet, which takes longer to process. That's also why Japanese websites still look like the 90s internet.
Something I learned was that mostly adults know kanji like that. This is the real difference when I'm manga. Shonen isn't in kanji while seinen is. So a 14 year old would have trouble reading it.
Great information. Chinese has plenty of text too, but largely because there’s many dialects so they might not understand the spoken dialect. I started to use captioning more often for English broadcasts because often the actors don’t articulate as well they did a decade ago.
Also Korean TV too, it has also plenty of text
I've seen the same formatting in shows from other parts of Asia as well. I do think part of it is from cultural borrowing, and also in places like China and Taiwan where there are way more dialects and accents and things to consider in pitch and tone in the language(s) than most people realize it makes sense to have captions in the language most people/groups can read. It just makes sense all over
I hadnt thought about context changes like tv remotes or family time at dinner becoming more lonely. I have ADD so text on screen foes help me stay focused on otherwise uninteresting moments, and keeping volume low and considerate while remaining accessible to the hard of hearing is good practice for everyone.
But, im glad these techniques arent always used. Things like serious movies are enhanced much more when viewing beautiful photography and thinking in the silence between actions without distraction.
Oh my god, as soon as you pointed out that constant subtitles and picture-in-picture were used to increase viewer retention, it all clicked into place: this is exactly what everybody has been doing in Shorts for the last few years to increase viewer retention too. Japan already had it figured out decades ago.
The ticker endlessly scrolled so that the gen z could endlessly scroll…
3:20 (pseudo captions to accommodate for thin walls)
🤔👀❗️That makes a whole lot of sense as far as the thin wall thing. That kind of sounds like the little highlight summary points you might get on some youtube vids around here at different time stamps. Although i think the summary blurb thing only happens w/ AI or something 🤷♂️, unless someone does it manually in some cases.
How interesting, thanks! I watch a lot of Japanese CZcamsrs even though I am still learning, and have found their simple captions on the screen have really helped me learn a lot.
When visiting last year it felt like every single program was someone reacting and talking about something with text everywhere - this is an interesting explanation for the style
Honestly, this was always an interesting mystery to me. Really glad you talked about this! Thank you Nobita-san!
Japan seems to have spread this style to most other countries around Asia; you see it in Korea, Taiwan, even Thailand now. But I think the roots are deeper than what you mention. I have been in Japan 51 years, and even then the huge volume of text one encounters every day took some getting used to in the first several years. In manga, for example, every page is crammed with information or gags or ads or jokes, even in the margins or between panels (even though a typical Showa-era manga would have 50 times more pages than an American one ! Same in other magazines. When Popeye first came out I was surprised to see how many short articles they could include in one page. Newspapers, books etc, all pretty similar. Maybe it's a reaction to the "minimalism" which I do not feel is truly Japanese but imported via religious philosophy from other countries. I feel Japan is actually a culture of clutter...
Awesome video Nobita! It's really interesting how it can seem so strange at first, but if you watch a program with the text bombardment for a while you kinda stop noticing it.
Good info. Especially those thin walls.
I was surprised just how quiet Japan was, i suspect that it is convenient to be able to watch TV while it is muted, and what little Japanese i learned showed me that the written form could clear up miscommunications from the spoken form. Also i have a pet theory that the reserved nature of the Japanese results in them over compensating with over expressing in other ways.
I am hesitating to say this i'll just go ahead, i remember a discusion in which people reached the conclusion that Japanese P0rn is so crazy because of how their culture shuts down people, make them stay in line, be overly respectful, etc. So they require crazier content to actually feel something, those kind of culture do bad things to some people's minds
This theory has legs imo.
@@timmyturner327 what does that mean? That it's an overstretch?
@@jestfullgremblim8002 That it has some basis in fact, at least, that it could be argued such.
@@timmyturner327 oh i see! Yeah i think so too!
Thanks for explaining I have always wondered why the tv-shows or the news are being so cluttered, but I assume it's reasonable since context can be important when one word can have multiple meanings.
Thank you for the video, it answered a lot of questions I had about why Japanese TV is the way it is! 😊
As someone with ADHD, I struggle to pay attention to News or other (usually) boring content due to my native country insistence of rarely adding subtitles to any media. So I find the eye-catching subtitles of Japanese shows a pleasant surprise!
You know, I wouldn't be surprised if it's because a lot of news and shows are written at an 8th grade level, and as such you are correctly assuming you don't need to pay as much attention to understand the information (for american news).
You are quite correct about subtitles helping the elderly; My parents watch all TV with subtitles on now, and even I find it useful when the sound mixing is bad on some dramas, especially science fiction shows like Dr Who with lots of loud special effects making it hard to hear the lines!
Thank you for this interesting and informative video.
As a Japanese learner, the text on TV helped me learn to read Kanji. I've always been more of a reader than a listener when it comes to language learning (yes even when I was 4-5 years old). Subtitles are helpful for me in general.
I've been learning some Greek and I find myself in the exact same camp; I picked up the alphabet almost instantly and reading/sounding stuff out is easy as pie but when I hear it spoken I feel like I got whiplash, my brain doesn't quite want to process the spoken language at that speed even though I read much faster than I speak in either Greek or English.
thank you for this video. I usually watch YT always with subtitles on (while eating ...) and it helps me to stay "focused" on the food and the video at the same time.
This was very interesting, and very well explained.
Fantastic video, seems text on Japanese TV shows has more meaning than i first thought, giving clear context to whatevers happening on screen.
Wouldn't surprise me in the least if Japans model of media with text, picture in picture and colorful graphics eventually becomes a thing in the west also. TV stations here are suffering from not being able to retain viewer concentration in an era of short form tiktok like video content.
I saw some article that US tv networks wanting to have "visual muzak" programming, so people could just occasionally glimpse the screen, and still know what is happening. This is so viewer can simultaneously scroll tiktok while "watching" their programming.
Another illuminating video. Thank you.
Very interesting. I lived in Japan for three years and always wondered about that, but I could never get a good answer. Thanks!
Another question for your uncle: what is the reasoning behind the deep commitment to physical props for infographics? Today there was an incredible segment where there were multiple foam board infographics with peel off "reveal" stickers and even magnetised icons that the presenter moved with a magnet behind the board.
This doesn't fully explain the captioning style though. In most countries they have subtitles, but they're optional to cater for different preferences and needs. The style of them is also very, very different.
For example, in the UK there are minimum subtitling requirements depending on the age of a channel and there are also guidelines to make the subtitles easier to follow, without obstructing anything happening on screen. Tom Scott has a great video on this, if you want to learn more.
The Japanese style subtitles seem to cover the whole screen to the point that they almost shouldn't bother with the visuals. They're also very cartoonish, even on more serious programmes.
Also, ironically, this video isn't actually subtitled (I checked part way through if I'd forgotten to turn them on, because nothing was showing).
Huh, I always wondered about this but never had the opportunity to ask someone who could answer such a question!
ありがとうございます, this was fascinating! Thanks for getting a source straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak (your uncle who worked with NHK)! Very interesting that the answer was rather complicated too! Keep making more videos
おにがいします❤❤❤ I’m a Japanese learner, myself, and I used to find the text on the screen super frustrating because I could only guess what the hell it was, but then, I started studying Japanese more seriously, plus, I came across NHK’s “Old Enough!” (I have no idea how to spell it in Japanese). Something about studying the language and binge-watching the show helped my brain to finally understand that the TEXT was connected to the dialogue of the show, even the events of the show! Now, I loooove the text on the screen because it helps me as a language-learner, and it’s an extra dose of かわいい or comedy!
This was quite fascinating.
This was really insightful!
Great video! Very informative.
The one problem I find with the reading the large on screen Kanji shown on screen for Japanese learner is the very non-standard fonts they some times use which have some Kanji look very different, often missing some distinguishing parts.
On a separate note, sometimes variety shows display text on screen as comments reacting to someone's statements. I think is adding another person's thoughts in addition to whatever the shows' MCs are saying in response.
That's a good thing, it forces the viewer to learn how the same kanji can show up in different typefaces.
Thank you so much for explaining! I wondered about this for 20 years but your explanations make complete sense.
2:22 that’s a good point man. After having been in Japan for about 8 years, I’d gotten so used to seeing celebrities in commercials that I forgot how rare it is in my home country of the US. I see famous people on posters and CZcams commercials in Japan all the time; I’d just gotten so used to it lol
This is incredibly informative and interesting. Thank you for this
I actually like it due to how stylistic it is. The way they use color has always been my favorite, so the words on screen is also simultaneously pretty to look at. Especially on Gaki no Tsukai. It's a lot but it's also weirdly engaging.
Super interesting. I was overwhelmed on my 2 weeks in Japan and for some reason found Japanese TV the most soothing. I miss it almost as much as FamilyMart.
I live in a tiny apartment with paper thin walls and have captions on for everything i can, as not to disturb neighbours with the volume! Also English tends to average around 4 SPS :0 SO INTERESTING, THANKYOU NOBITAA ❤
Great video! I love when people break down the little things that make a country like Japan so unique
As someone learning Japanese, having text at all times its literally a godsend
Nice! You should make more videos covering random things like this. Your insight is really valuable for learners of Japanese and country's idiosyncrasies.
Thanks so much for this, having been to Japan numerous times I was always puzzled by the amount of text and elements on the screen when watching TV, but it makes way more sense now after your explanation. My wife's parents are Japanese and one is hard of hearing, so the big captions really help!
This is a very good video regarding this part of Japan. Learned a lot from this, been a while since i watched a video from you so i thank you for this. 😃👍
Seems to be East Asian thing because I stumbled upon Korean channels and they do these too. All the time I'm thinking of the editors like mere actions and thoughts should be in flashy captions PLUS sound effects.
this is a really well made & informative video!
Thank you for solving this big mystery for me!
Wow super interesting! Greetings from the Netherlands. Our text style is a bit in-between US and Japan. We have subtitles for all foreign movies and series (no dub/voiceover), but if the media is Dutch spoken, we usually do not have subtitles
Very informative video, i always wanted to know this!
I grew up watching both japanese and american TV and never really questioned this until now, LOL. it's nice to put words to things like this that felt totally intuitive but unexplainable before now!
Very informative. Thank you.
thanks this is very interesting and very well written!
This title has grabbed my attention because THIS feature is EXACTLY WHY I CANNOT watch Japanese TV. It is TOO BUSY. I CAN'T focus.
Thank you, its something i never truely wondered about but all the reasons you explained make sense.
This was really interesting, especially as someone that works in the graphic design industry. I have always been intrigued with the different visual design ethos of Japan and their differences from the English-speaking world. I hope you cover more about this topic someday (perhaps a deeper look into Japanese web design?)
Japanese Web design is stuck like 10 years in the past, usually not adopting the mobile-first paradigm of Western Web design.
Nice video!
I've encountered before the difference in style of Japanese websites versus basically the rest of the world. There are stories of international websites having to do a completely different and unique design for their Japanese websites.
The caption-heavy and overlay-heavy style of Japanese TV is also seen to some extent on South Korean TV. Which should not be surprising given the two cultures are more similar to each other than to any given Western culture.
As a foreign person living in Japan I love this .i find It easier than listening or trying to understand them talking for some reason .
FINALLY TY FOR EXPLAINING THIS
i tend to turn on captioning when watching but i wouldn't want it to be multicolored, multi font, and in different locations on the screen. i saw a video on why modern videos are getting harder to hear the dialog so i don't feel too bad about liking captions since low muddled voices seems to be a thing now.
Very interesting explanation 🤓
It extremely interesting to know that due to several meanings words and expressions have, its kinda helpful even for japanese citiziens to count with texts to understand better what is being said/shown on tv programs. Thank you for the incredible video, Nobita!
It all makes sense now, especially the picture and picture.
I'm glad you brought up the homophones in Japanese because in my experience and consumption of Japanese media, this was another thing I noticed that the text on screen helped addressed. It's especially important in Japanese comedy or variety programs because unlike English's use of sarcasm and irony a lot in comedy, Japanese comedy uses a lot of clever plays on words which requires using homophones in speech. The text emphasizes the punchline of certain bits of the routine or what is said.
I'd be interested to know the history of subtitling (字幕) in Japan as Japanese learning English have an advantage when using shadowing that at least since the 80s, most American media has had to be closed captioned (CC) by regulations or law. Thus, like a friend of mine that learned English from watching Full House (😂), other English learners could use English programs with subtitles in English to learn the language. There was very little official subtitled media in Japanese at the time I lived there (2008-2009), and you had to search it out. The ease of offering subtitles in a language for a program helps others learn the language better, and Japanese TV offering limited subtitles in this way helps a lot. I would say its prevalence of use has only increased since I had left Japan.
Thanks to answer my question how I have had ask before over 20 years. But nobody specially my German-learning Japanese students can't answer it me before. 🥰👋
My guess is to hold attention, but whoah it goes much deeper, interesting
I understand the cultural reasons for why Japan follow this style, but if this was done over here in the UK, it would be a nightmare. We have subtitles which can be turned on or off
this was really interesting!
You have really a good vocabulary & command of English !! ❤❤
Thanks for the explanation :)
Well, one more reason is that in East Asia, text/writing has traditionally been held in higher regard than spoken language - text is seen as being more "trustworthy" overall. The use of overwhelming subtitles is also prevalent on South Korean TV, for example - and this was prevalent even before TV streaming on mobile devices was even a consideration.
This is something that my good friend J. Sung-Yul Park noted in his dissertation:
Park, J. Sung-Yul. 2009. The Local Construction of a Global Language: Ideologies of English in South Korea. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
I think the weirdest thing is when the morning shows will cut out an article in the newspaper, put it on the wall and then zoom in on it when they’re talking about it.
very good video thank you for sharing this type of information
this is the same in japanese fashion magazines. As a young girl i loved the maximalist aesthetic over the one image per page format of western counterparts
Fascinating!
I ask this question at the back of my head. Thanks for answering it~.
Talking about overdoing things: Giving warnings. Or what about commercials inside for instance electronic stores, and the accompanying sounds...
Actually a bit of text on a screen is handy but no overkill is needed, like what captains is in the west
well to edit a normal video is like a third of how much time you spend everage to edit the tellopes especially with the tsukkomi fire, sparlig test animations , diffrent text fonds
if you do not have any presaves with the whole key framing etc can take a lot of time...
Good point
I always thought it was to help the deaf watchers and to contextualize most of the words better, since they can have multiple meanings; I do that most of the time with my English subtitles, either to convey a double entendre joke or to clarify my speech since I do talk very fast in an illegible manner
I'm from the USA, and my wife and I always enable the captions on our TV broadcasts - my wife is almost completely deaf, and even with her BAHA hearing aids, she still struggles to make out some words. I'm all for more text. Although the bright colors and bold fonts used in Japanese productions can sometimes take away from the actual action on screen.