In this exchange, Karamo doesn’t ask any questions to better understand Yoko-san or her culture. To believe that Japanese people disagree similarly to the rest of the world is ignorant. In Japan, many foreigners visit and act rowdily, assuming that it is okay as long as there is no hostile force to stop them. This example of aggression is something that Japanese people face far too often. As a coping strategy, most Japanese people will use politeness and agreement to de-escalate situations. These are tears of discomfort and frustration when trying to be polite with a relentless aggressor presenting a challenging proposition.Ĭonfrontation and aggression are extremely rude and disrespectful in Japan. He continues to repeat his point until Yoko-san agrees and is in tears.įor me, these are not tears of joy, unlike what viewers are led to believe. She listens uncomfortably and gently tells him that she doesn’t know, trying to hint the difficulties in following this ethos within Japanese culture.Įxcept after hearing that, Karamo is fueled. “You have to live for yourself,” he says. Next, Yoko-san sits down with Karamo, the “mindfulness expert”, and is beaten over the head with his western self-help logic.
In teaching a Japanese woman, who already struggles to find time for herself, how to make an English recipe, Antoni is making great TV and nothing more. Either the ingredients are impossible to find or very expensive at a far-away specialty grocery store. For Antoni, this becomes a moment to show off his skills, rather than equipping Yoko-san with practical skills she can bring home.Īnd who can forget all of the times when we have tried to make an exotic dish based on a recipe we found online, only to realize that the ingredients were inaccessible to where we lived. Finding an oven is extremely rare, and Antoni borrows an industrial-size oven at a bakery to teach Yoko-san his recipe. Most homes in Japan only have a microwave and, on occasion, a small stovetop. Unfortunately for him, baking is extremely complicated in Japan. We then head into the kitchen with Antoni, the “food expert”, who wants to teach Yoko-san how to make “something simple to make”Īntoni brings Yoko-san to a bakery to teach her how to make an apple pie. In the next scene, Tan, the “fashion expert”, invites Kiko to help Yoko-san with her wardrobe. But as most Japanese people do, in the episode, Yoko-san politely smiles and laughs it off. In addressing this issue without the context it needs, the Fab 5 aims to help Japanese people with cultural ignorance. It is incredibly crass and disrespectful to talk about sex in public. In addition, Japan and most of Asia are reserved around sexual proclivities. For many Japanese people, it’s not that sex is not a priority they are over-worked and extremely exhausted, focusing on everyone else. Sex often falls to the bottom of the priority list for a family-first, work-first, community-first Japanese culture.
There is a growing sexless culture in Japan for married and unmarried people, and it is perilous watching Queer Eye present this without any context behind what is driving this behavior. In their description of Yoko-san, they repeatedly talk about her sexless life throughout the episode, pointing out that she has not gone on a date in years. In the first episode, the Fab 5 help Yoko-san, an older Japanese woman who has become less focused on herself to provide hospice care for her community.