While of course I agree that the whole idea is ridiculous, at the same time trying to translate the phrase into English only distorts the sense of the words in Japanese. English begins with a sense of irreverence, with a definite intolerance for such silly ideas, but in Japanese, among Japanese people, there really is appreciation for innocence and naivete (a word which has a very different meaning in Japanese from English).

Just take the example of the word "kiss". To a westerner it is a harmless little word and act, something easily practised in public, but to a Japanese it comes across as powerfully as two people making out, and is something that most Japanese find painfully difficult to express in public. Among family members people rarely kiss at all, let alone hug each other. That's why, in the television dramas, the kiss scenes (usually just tentative "pecks"), which seem so tame to western eyes, even unrealistic as kisses go, but to the Japanese portrays all of their passion and desire.

The comments by the western women at the end of the article are just that: comments by western women. Did anyone even bother to ask what Japanese women feel are appropriate come on lines? I'm sure you would find that what western men and women think are appropriate may not always work with Japanese women.

How about an article, from the Japanese point of view, about what people in the west consider the "right" way to come on to each other, with the resulting mockery by Japanese readers? I don't see why there has to be so much ridicule from the western media about the people who came up with the Japanese phrase... after all they weren't trying to hurt anyone... they were only trying to find a way to promote relationships here in Japan, where the declining population is a real concern. I find the attempt totally innocent.

An interesting comment. It's nice to hear from a Japanese perspective for a change. This experience in Japan is slowly opening my eyes to a whole different way of viewing the world. Frankly I find it refreshing.

I wanted to be on the panel coming up with the line! What a fun job that would have been. My highly scientific survey of Japanese women's responses to the line conducted yesterday evening (sample=1) concluded that the line was indeed corny and the English women's responses were very stupid indeed.

As for the declining population, Butuki, we could argue that the existence of a panel like this is further indication of policy-level xenophobia in the Japanese government. Creating panels to come up with chat-up lines to encourage more Japanese people to have more Japanese babies is surely a kind of denial of the impending demographic realities and time that could be better spent preparing to accept people from other countries to Japan to make up for the population decline.

Yeah, you're right, Setsunai. I guess I was just trying to weigh the whole story from a different perspective for a change. I'm so tired of reading articles about how much people "get" Japan, or how "backward" Japan is. These articles are always written by people who either can't speak Japanese, don't know any Japanese people well, or have never lived here for a long enough time to see things from the inside. All my life I've had to listen to people write about Japan in that way. So much of it is pure bunk and so much of it never actually asks the Japanese themselves what they think. I keep wondering why it is so necessary in the media to keep harping on such topics, with such an obvious bias toward ridicule.

Having lived in Shizuoka for five years teaching English at a car parts manufacturer and living right next door to all the Thais, Portuguese, Japanese-Brazilians (my wife being one of them), Filipinos, and Irish, and watching just how badly those people were treated by the Japanese I truly wonder if the Japanese are at all ready for the huge influx of non-Japanese that the dearth of cheap laborers in Japan is going to require... The government should have started to educate the Japanese populace about living together with all these new people, but I doubt the government has even that much foresight, let alone imagination. Certainly the huge rural populations, especially in north Gunma and Hamamatsu, of Brazilians, speaks for just how much the Japanese seek to deny anything is changing at all. Most Japanese don't even know about these veritable "towns" of immigrants, literally thousands of people. The influx is already happening, and nothing has been prepared. Things are probably going to end up just like Germany with the Turks and Britain with the Indians... lots of xenophoba and problems.

Roland... just so that I don't mislead anyone... I'm not Japanese, but I have lived here all my life. I pretty much feel a lot of Japanese feelings and thoughts, but not completely... my German, Filipino, and American black point of view make sure that it's a lot more complicated than that!

I agree that the perspective of the article is just as much a shambles as the concept behind the panel, definitely. And I hear you about having to read lots of nonsense about Japan in the western media (and vice versa too).

I truly wonder if the Japanese are at all ready for the huge influx of non-Japanese that the dearth of cheap laborers in Japan is going to require

The Japanese government's mainstay official policies to deal with the aging of the population and the declining birthrate are to encourage people to work until they die, finally give important roles to women (as at least they'll be better than gaijin), and try to develop the global patent system and Japan's role within it so that Japan doesn't have to work at all. All of these are ways to avoid accepting foreign workers to Japan. It's not even a matter of not being prepared for when the influx comes. At policy level, they have discounted the possibility of allowing that to happen. The Japanese government has officially rejected large-scale immigration policies as a way to fight societal aging. This is, of course, their right. But the aging of the population is going to be the natural event that confounds the Japanese perception of nationality as race.

Well, maybe it's for the best that they allow no new people in! Just think, Setsunai... blessed empty mountain trails (though, I would miss the occasional "OHAYOUGOZAIMASU!") and lots of cheap, uncrowded land in the countryside and your pick of good apartments in Tokyo. We're here right at the cusp of those vacancies... so invest now!

I would say the single biggest obstacle to people having more children here is the damn cost of living! If the government would just dismantle the absurd middleman system and allow goods to reach a less boosted price level maybe more people would be willing to do nooknooky and risk allowing children to drive them into debt.

The Japanese wonder why they just can't seem to make headway in this protracted recession... well, people who don't take risks or allow new ideas or new blood to flood the system are eventually going to stagnate. Look at the rural towns here... they're going the way of the dinosaurs... almost all of them declining in population to the aged. You can deny nature all you want but the no children simply means that... no children... You can't wish a population into existence. Heaven forbid that the "pure" race be polluted by those long-nosed, hairy barbarians!

Could that be why the Japanese are courting the Koreans so much these days?