University corruption

REVIEW OF JAPANESE COMEDY SERIES

How to be likable in a crisis

By Stephen Wilson

 

 

 

It represents riveting entertainment! I confess to having watched  some episodes twice! 

The Japanese dark comedy series 'How to be likable in a crisis {which can be seen on the channel N.H.K. World Japan every Sunday} is about the woes of a hapless and blundering Japanese Journalist Kanzaki Makoti who finds himself ensnared in a web of corruption at a university when he assumes the new post of P.R. representative for a university. Kanzaki has already done a stint as a television reporter. Kanzaki strives to live a simple and straightforward life where he can do his job well, please everyone and make everyone around him happy. He seeks social approval and popularity. He swiftly attains this because of his charisma and good looks. He declares "Being likable is everything. Trust me. "Alas, if only life was so simple! It takes a painful encounter with his ex-girlfriend to instruct him that it is better to follow one's conscience than to be likable.

 

After taking up his post as a P.R. representative for a university, Kanzaki is asked by the board of management to smooth out a scandal  which has just arisen. The scandal threatens to ruin the reputation of the University. A young female researcher has found that a prominent professor has faked his research results. Despite complaining about this issue with staff, nothing has been done to punish the culprit. Instead there has been a crude and ineffective cover up.  The young researcher has turned into a whistle blower. Kanzaki is asked to appease the student by offering her a post of researcher on condition she remains silent. The young researcher, Minori, happens to be Kanzaki's ex-girl friend. When she receives the offer she turns it down in disgust and storms out of a restaurant deeply offended. She explains to Kanzaki that by becoming a researcher people took her seriously and respected her. She adores doing research, but is against corruption and injustice. She informs Kanzaki that young researchers are so badly paid and ill-treated that some are driven to suicide. Kanzaki is moved. He tells her "You love research but gave it up to stop corruption". The ploy fails and later the local newspaper exposes the scandal.

 

The management are forced to order an investigation. But nobody wants to investigate this scandal. Only an eccentric Doctor Sawado is prepared to take up the post. They ask for Kanzaki to control him. The doctor happens to be on the side of the whistle blower and Kanzaki finds it difficult to control his antics especially when he becomes drunk. There are many comical scenes. Sawado falls in love with Minori and says, "I would be willing to give up my red scarf for her" then takes it off and hurls it out on to the street. For all his troubles Kanzaki is beaten unconscious and fails to rein in on Sawado. He turns up at the office offering his resignation only to be told he has done a great job and things have turned out well. Sawado has been suspended for his outrageous behavior and so can no longer perform an embarrassing investigation.

 

This is a black comedy which claims to be a microcosm of Japan. I felt it was not just about Japan. It could be about Russia or America. For instance, at the institute of Power and Energy in Moscow there have been corruption scandals and some English teachers feel they are being forced to fulfill a quota of academic articles to hold on to their jobs. The results are often poor quality articles where they are expected to pay for the  cost or find sponsors to cover the costs. Rutger Bregman writes in his book 'Human Kind, A Hopeful History', 2020, about 'Academics who are evaluated on their published output, and then tempted to put forward fake results.' In Psychology, two of the most famous experiments by Philip Zimbardo in 1971, and Stanley Milgram in 1963 were exposed as  being based on fake evidence. Despite students who were later 'whistleblowers' spilling the beans, a lot of psychologists still won't acknowledge the obvious. Instead of admitting the results were rendered fake by explicit experimenter bias they merely understate 'Doubts have been raised about the validity of the results'. By the way, those two experiments are extensively quoted in student Psychology textbooks. So although this series is often highly amusing it is also at times somber and sad. We witness the shattering of illusions held by idealists seeking a decent and just educational environment. Kanzaki himself feels he is being tainted by this corruption by being asked to make compromises. The young Minori can no longer pursue scientific research.

Nevertheless this series is worth watching for the very good acting and the absurd humor. The laughter might be good medicine to beat the Winter blues!