Japanese Language & Culture

Nami Ohara teaches Japanese language and culture to students in St. John's, NL and also around the world via Skype Lessons. This blog is designed to provide Japanese lessons, notes on Japanese culture and lots of other fun Japanese related stuff to enhance the learning experience of Japanese language students everywhere.
Japanese-na Nihongo (Facebook Group)

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Message from Japan - Arashi

You have given Japan a lot of supports. So we really, really want to thank you....


Hoping to lure back foreign tourists, whose numbers plummeted after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japan Tourism Agency has enlisted an elite squad of well-coiffed eye candy: the all-male Arashi (嵐) idol group.
On July 11, the quintet held a news conference at the Foreign Ministry's Iikura House in Tokyo to introduce its "Message from Japan," a PR video clip recorded for the ministry that features the five members of Arashi visiting Hokkaido (北海道), Aomori (青森), Tokyo (東京), Kyoto (京都), Kagoshima (鹿児島) and Okinawa (沖縄).
They pose with one arm bent upward in an imitation of the paw-waving "maneki neko" cat dolls, assuring viewers that "People all over Japan are waiting for you to visit."
The catchy ad will be aired at airports and on TV in more than 130 countries and regions of the world, including on a giant electronic billboard in New York's Times Square.
"Four months have passed since the earthquake. The most important thing is that we should not forget it," Arashi member Sho Sakurai, 29, told the promo event. (asahi.com  2011/07/13)


2 comments: