Seaman Ship

February 9, 2006 10:48 PM

We want you as a new recruit. The Japan Defense Agency has a short recruitment video on their site. [via]
posted by tellurian (17 comments total)

I was unaware that the Japanese still use the rising sun flag.

I figured it would be at least as shunned as the "Rebel flag" if not a swastika.
posted by Balisong at 11:05 PM on February 9, 2006

It's Japan's naval ensign, and has been since '54 apparently.
posted by Pseudonumb at 11:14 PM on February 9, 2006

The rising sun flag is just the Japanese navy flag. Americans tend to associate it with WWII, because they were fighting the navy for the most part, but it existed before the war, and still exists.
posted by Bugbread at 11:15 PM on February 9, 2006

Pseudonumb: Thanks, I didn't realize it was temporarily suspended.

So, 1889 to 1945, and 1954 to present.
posted by Bugbread at 11:17 PM on February 9, 2006

Anyone else think "Village People"?
posted by qwip at 12:47 AM on February 10, 2006

I was surprised (and it takes a lot these days) to discover that the song "In the Navy" was completely redone over here as "Pink Lady". Of course I knew of the group by that name, but I was unprepared for that tune to be playing over karaoke-machine images of a girl in pink manhandling her boyfriend.
posted by nightchrome at 1:04 AM on February 10, 2006

qwip, I'm pretty sure we all did, since the FPP used a line from one of their better known songs.
posted by piratebowling at 1:59 AM on February 10, 2006

I used to think the "It's not just a job -- it's an adventure!" US Navy recruiting ad campaign was pretty divorced from reality, but at least it didn't come with its own coreography.
posted by alumshubby at 4:06 AM on February 10, 2006

at least they won't have to worry about gay controversy in their navy.
posted by Doorstop at 4:54 AM on February 10, 2006

I wonder how this ad came about. Are the Village People with 'In the Navy' a big hit in Japan - was it an attempt to connect with the youth?
posted by tellurian at 5:05 AM on February 10, 2006

hehe... I almost expected to hear "young man, there's no need to feel down..." (yes, I know, that's from YMCA and not In the navy).
posted by clevershark at 5:19 AM on February 10, 2006

"YMCA" is a big hit (but if you ask anyone whose song it is, 99% will say it's Saijo Hideki's (he did a Japanese cover of the song)). "In The Navy" is pretty much an unknown song, though.
posted by Bugbread at 7:20 AM on February 10, 2006

Reminds me of the "The New Royal Navy" skit from Monty Python. Na-vee! indeed.
posted by infowar at 7:39 AM on February 10, 2006

I cannot freakin' believe no one's mentioned the similarity to YATTA!
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:36 AM on February 10, 2006

I think Admiral Yamamoto not to mention, Yukio Mishma must be rolling in their graves. How did the fierce Japanese become such a cutsie wuss ass peoples, that commercial looks like it was produced by the Hello Kitty Corp.

Damn. Now I can't get "YMCA" out of my head. Bleh.
posted by Skygazer at 9:45 AM on February 10, 2006

How did the fierce Japanese become such a cutsie wuss ass peoples

Losing a war helped.
posted by Bugbread at 7:31 PM on February 10, 2006

This recruitment video first came out (ha ha) in March 2004, and was filmed on the destroyer Hatsuyuki ('Early Snow', all the ships of that class were given snow-type names).

What I always found stranger than this Seaman Ship video was the idea of using the bubblegum jpop group Morning Musume (everyone's favorite meat-helmeted lizard bait) on recruiting posters ("Go! Go! Peace!") to somehow show that joining the SDF can be young and hip.
posted by SenshiNeko at 1:21 AM on February 11, 2006