I took this photo on a train in Kyoto in June of 2003. It is an advertisement for private English tutoring by the ECC corporation, an English language school. The advertisement offers consumers a course that will "transform" the payor: study English with us for three months, and you will metamorphis into a Westerner.

ECC has a better reputation than most English schools, although the pedigree of all such language schools is so poor that the comparison doesn't mean much. Their program may be very effective for all I know. Regardless of the merits or demerits of the school and its course, the advertisement reveals how the Japanese physically percieve Westerners.

So, you're a Japanese person who wants to turn Western: what do you need to do? First, the eyes: they have to get much bluer. Second, the hair: dye it blonde. Third, the mouth: big big BIG! And finally, and most importantly, the nose: stretch that sucker out. Oh yeah, did I mention their slogan? "You can 'grow' this much in three months!" And yes, that irony is carried over from the original Japanese.

I'll avoid getting into a heated discussion as to whether or not this is racism or not. (For the record, I think the conversation is irrelevant.) What this does show is how Westerners are percieved in Japan, and how, as the advertisement suggests, that those characteristics are predominately seen as desirable, at least by young people.

Finally, for what purpose do people learn foreign languages? Advance a career? Travel to distant lands? Satisfty personal intellectual curiosity? ECC is appealing to a customer with pure materialist and modern cultural values. My translation of the captions above the three morphing cartoon characters:

MONTH ONE: If you don't know the way to the station, try asking for directions in English.

MONTH TWO: Look at a menu in English and order your meal and beverage of choice.

MONTH THREE: Enjoy shopping at hole-in-the-wall locations that aren't listed in the guidebooks.

A fascinating case study.